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8th grade · Science · Unit 12 of 13

What Changes Climate

Natural events and human activities that influence global climate.

What your child practices

Practices how natural events (volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, changes in ocean currents) and human activities (greenhouse gases, deforestation, urbanization) can influence climate, using evidence such as temperature records and Texas examples like urban heat islands.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 8.11(A); 8.11(B) · how natural events and human activities can influence global climate

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Greenhouse gases trap heat near Earth’s surface.
  2. Natural events (volcanoes, meteor impacts, ocean currents) can change climate.
  3. Human actions (burning fossil fuels, cutting forests, building cities) also change it.

Example: Why is there more carbon dioxide in the air now than 200 years ago? Burning coal, oil and gas releases carbon dioxide. People burn far more now. Answer: people burn much more fossil fuel

What Changes Climate in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 12 of 13 in 8th grade Science, after Weather, Winds & Hurricanes and before Food Web Disruptions & Biodiversity.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    The main cause of the recent rise in global temperature is…

    • burning fossil fuels
    • fewer stars
    • more volcanoes every year
    • the moon getting closer

  2. Question 2

    Which is evidence of climate change?

    • A windy afternoon
    • A rainy weekend
    • Global average temperature rising over decades
    • One cold day

  3. Question 3

    Big cities such as Houston and Dallas are often warmer than nearby countryside. This is…

    • an ice age
    • ocean upwelling
    • the urban heat island effect
    • a cold front

  4. Question 4

    Which helps a community adapt to more heat waves?

    • Remove trees
    • Close all parks
    • Pave more parking lots
    • Plant shade trees and open cooling centers

  5. Question 5

    Higher elevations are usually…

    • colder
    • wetter always
    • the same
    • warmer

  6. Question 6

    Forests help slow climate change because trees…

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

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