Weather and climate form a complex system affected by ever-changing conditions of the atmosphere, oceans, glaciers and land. The climate of a specific place is determined by the average weather conditions over a long period of time. In other words, climate is about weather statistics and therefore climate change is a statistical phenomenon, the effects of which are seen in the world around us. Thus climate science requires large-scale application of mathematics.
Mathematics is needed for describing and projecting changing climate and communicating those findings. In order to describe the changing climate, we need to know first of all what is “normal”. For this, we have to calculate environmental measurements concerning temperature, rainfall, snow cover, sea level, amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere etc. By calculating averages, analyzing variance and making diagrams, we can find out whether the climate has changed and how. (15)
This unit is designed to give students an introduction to this pressing societal problems and to teach students how to analyze some of the compiled data on global warming through rates, ratios and proportions; students will also learn to make projections and predictions using slope, and linear and exponential functions.
To teach this unit, the teacher has to have at least a general knowledge of global warming, the greenhouse effect, and the carbon cycle. I thought that it was important to explain the basics of these topics. This unit is designed as a math unit, to help students gain a deeper understanding of linear functions, slope, exponential functions, as well as rates, ratios and proportions. Global warming, the carbon cycle, and the greenhouse effect, will be the real life application to which we will apply our mathematics.
