"Proxies for the Past"

• In this watercolor and colored pencil piece, scientist and artist Jill Pelto, depicts tree rings, ice cores, and lichens, all of which help scientists reconstruct past climates. 
• The artwork introduces students to paleoclimatology, the study of the Earth's past climate and average global temperature using natural materials, fossils, or elements. 
  

Positives

• This watercolor and colored pencil piece will show students the importance of reconstructing past climates so that scientists understand how the environment responds to climate variability.
• The red line depicting the average global temperature is a simple and effective visual for the recent rapid increase in global temperature.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should be familiar with proxy data and their function in determining past climates.

Differentiation

• Earth science classes could read the reference article about how proxies are used to infer past climate and then have a class discussion on climate proxies.
• Students could conduct a research project on the different kinds of proxies that can be used to estimate past temperatures on Earth.
• Other resources on this topic include this activity on using ice cores to learn about past climates and this lesson on analyzing tree rings to learn about past climate conditions.

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