Pintail duck photo by Peter LaTourette
Getting Started
Tips for using each of the major components
of the toolkit and the CD-ROM are provided.
To begin, you may want to print out this
"Getting Started" section for ready reference,
as well as the menus for the basic and
advanced fact sheets.
EPA Publications
You Can Order
There are six climate change brochures that
you can view on your screen but cannot print
out for reproduction and distribution.To
order limited quantities of these brochures,
contact the National Service Center for
Environmental Publications at 800-490-9198:
Climate Change and Cold Water Fish
(EPA 236-F-99-002)
Climate Change and Birds
(EPA 236-F-99-003)
Climate Change and Public Lands
(EPA 236-F-99-004)
Cool Facts About Global Warming
(EPA230-F-97-001)
Global Warming to a Cleaner Future
(EPA 236-F-98-006)
Saving New Jersey's Vanishing Shores
(EPA 236-F-99-005)
i «« a
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Getting Started
Climate Change Basics
and Case Studies
Black-and-white copies of all of the fact
sheets, case studies, flash cards, and
interactive activities contained on this
CD-ROM can be reproduced in your office
by simply hitting the "print" button.
To reproduce the publications and other
materials in black and white, print them
and produce the copies you need on a copy
machine. If you prefer color copies and
need only a few copies at a time, print
them on a color printer, as needed, or
reproduce them on a color copier.
You may wish to send the CD-ROM disk to
a printer and have a one-time bulk order
printed. The larger the quantity, the lower
the per-item cost.
Trail Talk Outlines and
Flash Cards
For all age groups
The CD-ROM includes sample outlines for
talks to complement each of the four case
studies, along with a flash card visual aid for
each talk. The 8.5 x 11 visual aids are
designed to graphically illustrate the single
most important point that visitors/students
might take away from a talk or lesson. If you
are talking about a case study to a group,
you might choose to hold up the flash card
during the talk or at the end. If you opt
instead to pass it around, we suggest that
you visit a print shop, copy center, or service
bureau to have it laminated.
Ready-to-Go
Interactive Activities
Two kinds of interactive/teaching activities
are included in the toolkit. One includes
interpretive/teaching activities that are
provided in the kit in a ready-to-go form: a
video, a set of trail cards, and a global
warming wheel card for calculating
greenhouse gas emissions and how to reduce
them. The other set of activities are described
on the CD-ROM and are easily adapted to
either a classroom or a non-traditional
educational setting.
Video
For all age groups
The video is designed to be shown in visitor
centers and classrooms to provide an
overview of the topic prior to or instead of a
longer presentation by a ranger or teacher.
Trail Cards
For young people
The interpretive kit includes 12 trail cards,
each picturing a wildlife species or
ecosystem that may be particularly
vulnerable to climate change. They are
designed to complement the four case
studies. The cards may be available in bulk
quantities for resale at selected visitor
centers. In addition to serving as a useful
educational tool, they can be fun for
children to collect and trade.
If you plan to use the trail cards during
your interpretive talks —either as a
complete set or in sets of three—you
might want to laminate them before
passing them around.
Here are some ideas on how to use the
cards during campfire talks:
• Give each of three individuals in the group
a different card and tell them to just look
at the picture for now. Then ask them:
Have you seen that animal or
landscape on your visit here at this
park or other parks?
What kind of habitat do you think it
needs to survive?
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Getting Started
Special Tips for Classroom Use
Here are some activities to do with trail cards in a classroom or other formal educational setting:
A After a general discussion on climate change, have three or more (depending on how many cards
you use) children in the group or class read aloud from the backs of each card and then pass them
around. Following this, have all the children in the group or class design their own cards (using
3x5 index cards), including researching the information to write on the back.
D Using a map of the United States, have the children locate the range that their card subject would
call home. (This activity works best with students in the 4th grade or above.) If there are more
children than cards, have them pair up or work in small groups.
C After a general discussion on climate change, have the children write a paragraph about how climate
change is affecting or will affect their card subject. Alternatively, the children could write a story
about where that subject may be living 1 00 years from now if humans do nothing to stop global
warming. In another variation, students could write about what that subject's life was like 1 00 years
ago — possibly relating it to a historical event tied to the area it is from — versus what it is like now.
This exercise incorporates themes not only of climate change and its impacts, but also other societal
and environmental changes. This activity would work best with children in the 6th grade and above.
D Following activities D and C, have the children write three things they think the card subject
would "ask" people to start, stop, or continue doing to help lessen the problem of climate change.
(This activity, called the "Stop/Go/Continue Game," can be played by writing the answers on red,
green, or yellow traffic lights made of paper and tacking them up around the room). It is most
appropriate for children in the 4th grade and above.
How do you think its home will change
in another 50-100 years if climate
changes in the ways that I've described
today?
After getting one or two responses, ask the
individual with the card to read the back.
What can people do to help this species
or ecosystem?
Give individuals in the group different
cards and tell them not to let anyone else
see the back of the card. Let them have a
few moments to read the back of their
card. Then let each one show the group
the picture of their animal. The rest of
the group then takes turns guessing how
climate change could affect the animal.
Global Warming Wheel Card
For all age groups
"Global Warming: What's Your Score?"
is a hand-held tool that interpreters and
educators can use to illustrate the importance
of energy savings for slowing climate change.
To see an electronic version and to view the
assumptions used to generate the figures in
the wheel card, visit EPA's web site at
http://www.epa.gov/
globalwarming/climatelink
and look for the greenhouse gas calculator.
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Getting Started
One side of the card illustrates how much
carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) an
individual contributes to the atmosphere by
various activities such as driving a car, while
the other side ("Global Warming: What Can
You Do?") shows how a change in behavior
(e.g., buying a more fuel-efficient car) can
make a significant contribution to solving
the problem of global warming.
If you are talking to a group, you can
request a volunteer who would like to
know their household's approximate
greenhouse gas emissions and how he or
she can reduce them. In front of the group,
ask the volunteer the questions printed on
the wheel card and tally up the answers.
Explain to the group that the card provides
only a set of sample activities, and so the
total does not represent all of the
household's greenhouse gas emissions.
Then flip the card over to reveal ways that
the household could reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions ("What Can You Do?").
Ask the group for other suggestions that
they may have.
CD-ROM Interactive
Activities
Additional interactive activities are
contained on the CD-ROM, where they
complement the informational case
studies. Like the case studies, they can be
printed out in black and white or color.
They are intended to help you present
climate change in creative ways that
engage people of all ages. Below are some
suggestions on how to use these tools.
Global Warming
Word Find and Word Scramble
For 4th grade reading level and above
The word find and word scramble use
vocabulary that would be introduced
during an interpretive talk on the potential
impacts of global warming on wildlife and
wildlands. The word games can serve as an
extra, follow-up activity that reinforces the
information that children and adults have
gained during interpretive talks.
Animal Coloring Sheets
For pre-reading age groups
There are four animal coloring sheets, one
to correspond with each of the four areas of
the country highlighted in the kit. The
sheets can be used in classroom settings or
other places where it is convenient to use
paper and crayons. If tables aren't available,
you could mount the sheets on cardboard so
the children can hold them on their laps.
You can present the coloring sheets after
talking about weather and climate in basic
terms to a very young group or as a follow-
up or distraction for the youngsters while
their parents listen to a climate change talk.
If your setting prohibits you from using
these suggestions, you can distribute the
sheets for children to use at a later time.
Landscape Line Drawings
For pre-reading children
through about 4th grade level
Children can create a habitat on the
landscape line drawings using crayons,
markers, stamps, or stickers. Additional
materials such as crayons, stamps, and
stickers are not included in this toolkit.
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Getting Started
This activity is best conducted in classroom
settings or other sites where children can
sit down and use art supplies comfortably.
In the past, climate change educators have
found that children really enjoy imprinting
landscape sheets using rubber stamps and
coloring the stamp imprints. Appropriate
stamps and colored stamp pads can usually
be purchased at local stores for educators
or stores oriented toward crafts or nature.
It is beneficial to teach the children about
the typical inhabitants of a particular
ecosystem, but they should be given
freedom to be creative.
Slideshow Presentation
and Script
Is Global Warming Happening? is a
PowerPoint presentation you can use for
talks before large audiences or school
groups in classrooms. Your computer will
open the slideshow automatically when you
click on Is Global Warming Happening?
under the Interactive Activities menu.
You can also have overhead transparencies
made in order to do a presentation with an
overhead projector.
Now That You're
Started...
We hope that you find it rewarding to
give interpretive talks on this serious
threat to national parks and wildlife
refuges. And we ask that you complete
the evaluation form under the Conclusion
section of this CD-ROM. You are the only
ones who can tell us about your
visitors'/students' reactions to the methods
that we use in this kit to reach the public
about the issue of global warming and the
steps that they can take to help protect
our wildlife and wildlands for future
generations.
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