This article examines what a sea level trends indicator is, rising sea levels in the Long Island Sound area, and what factors can influence sea levels within a particular region.
Students will see data for the sea level trends of Kings Point and The Battery in New York and Bridgeport and New London in Connecticut and read about the implications of sea level trends data.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students will benefit from the extensive data for each location in the article.
The article makes unknown words easy to understand with in-text definitions.
Additional Prerequisites
If students want to download one of the charts as a PDF or PNG file, they must click the three bars above each chart.
This article has a "Data Notes" section at the bottom, providing data collection information regarding these line charts.
The article does an excellent job of defining unknown terms within the text. Some students may still benefit from having terms such as southerly, westerly, isostatic rebound, and others defined before reading the article.
Differentiation
Students can use this article for a research project on sea level rise around North America since the early 20th century.
Teachers can use this article to create free-response questions about the impact of sea level rise on ecosystems and biodiversity.
Students can discuss the human activities causing sea level rise and what systemic changes are necessary to reverse the trend.
Students can research the impacts of sea level rise on coastal communities and the adaptation strategies that communities are implementing.
Math teachers can give students the table data and have them plot the points on a graph, checking their work with the graph in the article.
Scientist Notes
This article discusses sea level rise in the Long Island Sound. It describes how sea level rise is measured and what it tells us about the surrounding climate and environment. The article also discusses relative versus absolute change and measurements. The article includes four interactive graphs for readers to explore the sea level data in four locations. The article and graphs also explain what a trend and trendline are. The information is accurate, and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms.
Common Core Math Standards (CCSS.MATH)
Functions: Interpreting Functions (9-12)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.IF.B.6 Calculate and interpret the average rate of change of a function (presented symbolically or as a table) over a specified interval. Estimate the rate of change from a graph.
