Sea Levels Lesson Overview

Grade Level & Class type

  • Appropriate for: High school (adaptable for middle school)
  • Subject: Chemistry
  • Unit: KMT & Climate Change
  • Number of students: 30 per class
  • Time: Two or three 95 minute lessons

Lesson Plan and Tutorial

planets and sun

Lesson Title: Sea Level Change

Lesson Description:

Students will apply what they have learned about kinetic molecular theory and apply their knowledge to the phenomenon of sea level rise as a result of thermal expansion of ocean water. This lesson takes place over ~2.5 class periods (block schedule of 95 minutes each) as a capstone in a basic unit in a Kinetic Molecular Theory Chemistry Unit. This lesson introduces data science to students, coding using R to produce data visualizations from large data sets, and asks students to interpret visualizations and ask questions. Following instruction on thermal expansion of ocean water, students will select a site of interest and work individually or with a partner to develop an informative project that demonstrates an understanding of KMT, thermal expansion, sea level change, climate change, and impacts to their chosen community.

Data Science in the lesson:

Although students do not directly work with raw data, they see a large data set and are exposed to the code to specifically choose one section from the larger data set. They are then guided through what code might look like to create specific types of graphs, such as scatter plots and bar charts. This exposure was planned with the intention for students to understand the ‘behind the scenes’ actions that go into creating visualizations, and to acknowledge which types of graphs are better to represent different types of data.

Lesson Materials

Lesson plan

Download individual files below or use this folder with all materials for this lesson - .zip file

Student-Facing Materials

  • Sea Level Change Student Project Handout
    • Description: Document has student project choices, task requirements, word bank, and a link to separate reference resource document
  • Sea Level Change Student Resource Document
    • Description: Document is linked within the Project Handout; contains hyperlinks to useful resources students might use, listed by category
  • Sea Level Change Slides
    • Description: The slides provide information for direct instruction and guide students through the lesson. Contains a warm-up, review, discussion questions, videos, and data visualizations to help understand how sea level rise and thermal expansion are related.
  • Coding Lesson Video
    • Description: Video created by a Lewis & Clark student which walks students through an introduction to data science and how to use code to create data visualizations.
  • Coding lesson: Interactive Code Tutorial OR R code .zip file
    • Description: Coding lesson to introduce students to working with large datasets and creating visualizations. Either material can be used in conjunction with the video above (based on your comfortability with coding).
      • The interactive tutorial is designed for anyone who has never coded or used R before, and walks you through basic coding.
      • The R code .zip file is OPTIONAL. It requires some basic knowledge of R and can be opened in Rstudio desktop or posit.cloud.
  • Student Graphic Organizer
    • Description: A graphic organizer for any student, but specifically for ELL students and students needing additional support.
  • Student Extension Opportunity
    • Description: For students who finish early or who desire additional research opportunities, adding a component for students to construct a comparison of two locations of similar latitudes in an original visualization.

Teacher-Facing Materials

  • Sea Level Change Lesson Plan
    • Description: Formal lesson plan for the sea level change lesson and summative assessment. Provides descriptions of student learning targets, lesson structure, summative/formative assessments, and adaptations/modifications for the final summative assessment.

Examples of Student Work

Based on the convergence of the curriculum and the data science lesson, students were assigned a choice of projects:

Reflection from teachers who have taught this lesson

What worked well? Why?

  • Students learned about data science and career opportunities using coding & data
  • Students learned how to locate data and appropriate visualizations support claim

What do you feel was missing?

  • Interactive components for coding
  • More opportunities for students to engage with data sets to create new visualizations. Find resources to support this process
  • Have specific locations pre-selected with data sets and have students generate data visualizations

What changes would you make to future iterations? Why?

  • If we were to continue this project and teach it again in the future, we would rethink the structure of the lesson to allow space for more interactive components. Should there be more time and excess support, we could include a section where students can actually code something themselves and directly interact with the coding platform. We might also include a segment explaining how to find data sets, and how they are actually collected, going more into the behind-the-scenes of how data is collected.

What do you believe are some of your students’ major takeaways from this lesson?

  • Major student takeaways were understanding that data banks contain massive quantities of information, coding is a tool that can be used to create data visualizations, and data visualizations can be used to support claims. Students also learned information about how to read and interpret data visualizations.
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