News & Updates September 17th, 2024 | Issue #1

Inaugural Newsletter

Initially developed as resource to connect middle and high school to Arctic climate science, Data Puzzle lessons now cover topics ranging from ecological tipping points to megadrought. In addition to our scaffolded Data Puzzle lessons, we're working with K-12 data sensemaking experts to create open-ended data investigations that could be used as extension activities. Given our ever-growing resource collection and frequent professional learning offerings, we've decided to create what will likely be a monthly newsletter to keep you up-to-date on the latest Data Puzzle happenings!

So what's happening?! Well, based on feedback from all many of YOU, we've organized a series of events to facilitate the connection between students and the scientists featured in our Data Puzzle lessons. Each month we will host a webinar for teachers focused on a particular Data Puzzle lesson and a subsequent classroom call event with the featured scientist in said lesson so that students will be able to hear from and ask questions of the scientist directly! Sign up for these events below!

We look forward to learning with and from you during the 2024-2025 school year and beyond!

Sincerely, Jon Griffith

Upcoming Events

Classroom Call for Students- Tuesday, Sept. 24th, 10:30-11:15 am MT

Climate change is not only contributing to the increase in frequency and size of wildfires, but it's also impacting the ability of forests to recover from these wildfires. Join fire ecologist and featured scientist in the Wildfire, Drought, and the Future of Forests Data Puzzle, Dr. Camille Stevens-Rumann, for this 20-minute talk and 25 minute LIVE Q&A classroom call via Youtube, to learn more about shifting patterns of post-fire landscape recovery.

Data Puzzles Webinar for Teachers - Wednesday, Oct. 2nd, 4-5 pm MT

Join developer Jon Griffith and he guides attendees through the Not All Warming is Equal lesson in which students explore the inequities of climate change by analyzing temperature and carbon dioxide datasets and construct explanatory models for the question, "Do the places on Earth where temperatures are increasing the most also have the greatest increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide?" Please note that we are working with the featured scientist, Dr. Jen Kay, to schedule a classroom call related to this Data Puzzle.

Data Puzzle Connections to Science in the News

International report confirms record-high greenhouse gases, global temperature, and ocean heat in 2023

CIRES scientists contributed to an annual review of Earth's climate showing the past decade has been incredibly warm. The article includes many data visualizations that could be useful extensions when implementing the Not All Warming is Equal lesson.

As Lake Powell shrinks, a thriving desert oasis is coming back

Seth Arens, the featured scientist in our Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin lesson, has spent the past few years creating a record of which plant species are returning to the once-submerged canyons alongside Lake Powell in southern Utah/AZ.

Virtual Field Trip

Embedded in The Tipping Point Data Puzzle lesson, students can now visit the Niwot Ridge ecological field site to see for themselves how ecologists measure the vital signs of the alpine tundra plant, moss campion.

Visit Niwot Ridge

Student Spotlight

Naelynn Mann (left) and Dylan Rodriquez (right), from the STEM Launch School engaged with the Wildfires, Drought, and the Future of Forests Data Puzzle lesson and then visited a burn area in Rocky Mountain National Park to observe post-fire forest recovery for themselves.

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