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6th grade · Science · Unit 8 of 10

Climate & Climate Change

How the sun, air, land and water shape climate, and how people affect Earth's systems.

What your child practices

Your child explains how the sun, air, land and water affect climate and how human activities affect Earth's systems, with examples from Alabama.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 6.10; 6.11 · how the sun, air, land and water affect climate, and how human activities affect Earth's systems

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Climate depends on the sun, air, land and water. Higher elevations are usually colder.
  2. Burning fossil fuels is the main cause of recent warming.
  3. Ice cores from glaciers hold clues about past climates.
  4. Trees take in carbon dioxide, and renewable energy cuts emissions.

Example: Is a mountaintop usually warmer or colder than the valley below? Higher elevations are usually colder. Answer: colder

Climate & Climate Change in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 8 of 10 in 6th grade Science, after Weather Systems and before Earth's Changing Surface.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Ocean currents affect climate by…

    • making mountains
    • making the moon move
    • carrying heat around the world
    • stopping wind

  2. Question 2

    Forests help slow climate change because trees…

    • block rain
    • take in carbon dioxide
    • make heat
    • give off carbon dioxide only

  3. Question 3

    Higher elevations are usually…

    • wetter always
    • warmer
    • colder
    • the same

  4. Question 4

    As Earth's population grows, one way people lessen their impact on Earth's systems is…

    • clearing more forests
    • draining more wetlands
    • burning more fuel
    • using energy and water more efficiently

  5. Question 5

    Why is CO₂ in the atmosphere higher now than 200 years ago?

    • People burn much more fossil fuel
    • Plants make more CO₂
    • There are fewer people
    • Volcanoes stopped

  6. Question 6

    Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere…

    • trap heat near Earth's surface
    • block all sunlight
    • make oxygen
    • cool Earth

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