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Questions for a Climate Scientist

Grade 6 earth science: read a century of temperature, CO₂ and sunlight data, then ask and judge questions about the factors behind global warming.

Grade 6ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS3-5

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
10 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students analyze temperature, carbon dioxide and sunlight data from 1920 to 2020.
Students ask and evaluate questions that can be answered with evidence about the causes of rising global temperatures.

How to use

Read the passage aloud and have students describe each column of the table in their own words first. Collect the questions students write in the last item for a class discussion.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS3-5

Ask questions about the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Preview

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Name Date

Questions for a Climate Scientist

Use a century of data to ask good questions about why Earth has warmed.

Reading the data

Read the passage and study the data table. Then answer the questions.

Getting Ready for the Interview

1Every Friday, students at Lakemont Middle School run a ten-minute radio show over the school's speakers. Next week, a climate scientist from a nearby university will be their guest. The hosts, Jada Brooks and Tomás Ortega, need to prepare good questions about one topic: why the average temperature at Earth's surface has risen over the past century.

2To get ready, they read about factors that can change Earth's temperature. Some are natural. The energy given off by the Sun rises and falls slightly in a cycle that lasts about 11 years. A large volcanic eruption can throw tiny particles high into the air, where they reflect some sunlight and can cool Earth for a year or two. Other factors come from human activities. Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas releases carbon dioxide (CO₂). Clearing forests removes trees that take in CO₂ as they grow. Herds of cattle and landfills give off methane. Smoke and pollution from factories add small particles to the air.

3Carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases. Sunlight warms Earth's surface, and the warm surface gives off energy as infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases absorb some of this energy and send part of it back toward the ground, which keeps the lower atmosphere warmer than it would be without them. With no greenhouse gases at all, Earth would be far too cold for most of the life we know.

4The hosts found data from government science agencies and made a table. Each temperature value is shown as a change from the average for 1951 to 1980, so a negative number means cooler than that average. Each temperature is an average of five years centered on the year shown. The sunlight column shows the average energy from the Sun reaching the top of the atmosphere, averaged over its 11-year cycle.

5Jada wanted to ask the scientist which factor matters most. Tomás reminded her that a scientific question is one that can be answered with evidence, such as measurements, and not only with opinions.

Earth Data, 1920–2020
Year	Temp change (°C)	CO₂ in air (ppm)	Fuel CO₂ (billion t/yr)	Sunlight (W/m²)
1920	−0.3	303	3	1361
1940	0.1	311	5	1361
1960	0.0	317	9	1361
1980	0.2	339	19	1361
2000	0.4	370	25	1361
2020	1.0	414	35	1361

ppm = parts per million (how many CO₂ molecules there are in every million molecules of air). Fuel CO₂ = CO₂ released each year by burning fossil fuels, in billions of metric tons.

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