ARTICLES
An Online Climate Model to facilitate Depth-studies and Science Extension (continued)
Figure 1. Example ‘carbonator’ simulation (Image attribution: CCRC, UNSW Sydney (NonCommercial-
ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 AU)))
Figure 1 shows some of the inputs and outputs of an example
‘carbonator’ simulation, as shown by the ‘carbonator’ web
interface. It simulates the effects of an internationally-recognised
scenario (“RCP8.5”) under which annual global emissions
of carbon dioxide from human activity continue to increase
throughout the 21st century (on what is often called a “Business
as Usual” trajectory). The simulation runs from 1850 to 2100. The
output of the model shows that the forcing produces a steady
increase in the global average surface temperature right to the
end of the 21st century (blue line). The output also shows the
effect of variations in the energy imbalance of the climate system
due to “internal variability” caused by natural phenomena such as
El Niño. This results in year-to-year variations in the temperature
on top of the overall warming trend. Hence one year can be
cooler than the preceding year even if the climate is warming
due to human greenhouse gas emissions. Below the surface, the
temperature of the deep ocean warms much more slowly and is
not significantly affected by the internal variability simulated by
the model (black line).
utilise a differentiated approach for students with varied interest
or abilities. The interface allows students to explore beyond the
pre-set scenarios provided, by manipulating inputs, redesigning
existing climate-forcing scenarios (simply by manipulating
input data) or creating completely new scenarios (using .csv
spreadsheets). The outputs can also be downloaded into
spreadsheets so that students can perform a range of statistical
analyses comparing various scenarios.
Two depth study examples using ‘carbonator’ are provided on
UNSW’s Open Learning Platform (https://openlearning.com/
unswscience) covering the Greenhouse Effect for EES and climate
models for IS. The depth studies are free to teachers and include
foundational knowledge on each topic as well as an editable
worksheet that can be assigned to students as a familiarisation
exercise. Teachers may wish to use the foundational knowledge
to brush up on their own knowledge on the topic, or use for class
to fill gaps in their textbook resources.
The ‘carbonator’ worksheet or the ready-made experiments can
be used in class, and students can then be assigned tasks such
as testing specific hypotheses.
Carbonator’s online interface allows students to immediately run
a range of such pre-set internationally-recognised scenarios
for future emissions of greenhouse gases, additional scenarios
thatallow students to explore some of the ideas that have been
proposed to reduce climate change, and more theoretical
scenarios designed to examine the effects of sudden increases
in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.
UNSW is a partner in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate
Extremes, a 7-year research collaboration between UNSW,
Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the Australian
National University and the University of Tasmania.
Both UNSW and the Centre of Excellence are working to better
equip science teachers to teach climate science. The authors
welcome feedback on ‘carbonator’ and discussions on other
climate science teaching resources – they can be contacted via
a.maharaj@unsw.edu.au.
Using ‘carbonator’ in high schools
The ‘carbonator’ web interface (www.’carbonator’.org) is designed
to allow for hypothesis testing and exploratory investigations with
sufficient flexibility to allow teachers to scaffold the analysis or
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 3