Land: Maps of Dryness

• This series of interactive maps allows students to visualize the changes in water balance, temperature, precipitation, dryness, and climate zones, based on different warming scenarios.
• Students can use these colorful maps to understand how climate change will affect different regions of the world, including their own.
  

Positives

• Whether it be precipitation, dryness, or temperature maps, each map also contains anecdotes of different communities' experiences with climate change.
• Specific changes in different climate variables in a city, region, or country can be viewed by clicking on the location on the map.

Additional Prerequisites

• This resource is the fourth and final part of a series on land but it can be used on its own.
• This resource requires access to the internet.
• A quick tour of how to use the maps can be found in the top right corner.
  
• Click on the circled "i" to learn more about each warming scenario and map.
  
• Before using the resource, students should understand terms like precipitation, drought, climate, and global average surface temperature.

Differentiation

• Have students reflect on why different regions are affected differently by the global average increase in temperature.
• This resource can also be used in health classes during lessons about the effects of increased precipitation, drought, temperature, and extreme weather on human health.
• Math classes can reference this resource during lessons about probability and data visualization and science classes can us it during lessons about how global warming influences extreme weather events.
• To integrate this into a science lesson, use this other interactive resource about heat in the United States or use this interactive textbook about climate zones and biomes.
• The first, second, and third parts of the series can be found at these links.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.