Article

Teaching California Climate and Vegetation Change Over Long Timescales: An NGSS-Aligned Unit Using CalFlora and the Neotoma Paleoecological Database

This paper introduces an inquiry-based classroom unit titled 'California Climate and Vegetation Change,' a set of place-based exercises that utilize real data from California. NOAA climate data at four locations throughout the state are provided to create climatographs. Students then use Neotoma Explorer to find and evaluate past vegetation change from fossil pollen sites, and use CalFlora to research the environmental tolerances and distribution of plant taxa that seem most sensitive to climate change. Synthesis at the end of the classroom task includes writing a summary of what we can discern about California climate change over the past 10,000 years from vegetation records, and proposing and defending a new collection site for a palynological study. The unit is appropriate for high school and college coursework that cover topics such as climate, vegetation, range shifts, and the fossil record in physical geography and biogeography. Both databases employ graphical user interfaces that reinforce the spatial thinking central to geography. The unit is aligned with the Earth Sciences and Life Sciences content criteria of the Next Generation Science Standards, the latest set of scientific standards that stress active learning, use of technology, interpretation of real datasets, and connections across disciplines. While this approach to learning may put students into the uncomfortable territory of complex data sets and no simple "right answer," there is potential for student practice and skill-building. These skills include data visualization, interpretation, synthesis, evaluation, and evidence-based proposal writing, all essential for real-life problem solving and finding solutions to environmental challenges in California.

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