At CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences, more than 800 scientists work to understand the dynamic Earth system, including people’s relationship with the planet. CIRES is a partnership of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado Boulder, and our areas of expertise include weather and climate including impacts to wildfire and water, changes at Earth’s poles, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, water resources, solid Earth sciences and more.
CIRES has been facilitating collaboration between CU Boulder and NOAA since 1967. We support NOAA’s mission by furthering Earth system and other environmental research that crosscuts traditional scientific fields. CIRES helps strengthen the scientific foundation upon which NOAA’s environmental intelligence services depend, and our partnership with the agency allows coordinated studies on a scale that could not be undertaken by the university or NOAA alone.
Visit our website for more information and additional resources welcome | CIRES (colorado.edu)
This comic book was developed with the Stanford Solar Center as part of their comic series Tales from Stanford Solar and explores questions like: What color is the Sun? and How do we study the stars?
In this lesson, students utilize case studies to learn about the ways climate change is currently impacting people and other living things around the world.
In this lesson, students explore reasons why temperatures in particular Colorado cities are rising.
In this lesson, students will first participate in a chalk talk to elicit initial ideas about climate and Antarctica and the types of data scientists collect. Next, they will explore images of Antarctica and make initial noticings and wonderings about what they’re seeing. Students will be introduced to important vocabulary through matching terms to components or features of a satellite image. Finally, students will synthesize their initial ideas about how satellite imagery can help us understand climate change in Antarctica. This is the first lesson of a five-part curriculum about Antarctic physical environments and ecosystems.
This lesson explores climate data at local, national, and global levels to determine that temperatures are changing all over the world, and that there are certain locations where temperatures are warming faster than the global average.
This lesson introduces why certain cities in Colorado are getting hotter using a video by the Denver Post that describes the pattern.
During this lesson, students explore the increase in summer temperatures and describe the pattern as it relates to Colorado using a video by the Denver Post.
This lesson has students investigate how albedo is contributing to temperature increasing in some places, like cities, are increasing at faster rates than elsewhere.
This lesson has students explore what land use changes are happening and how changes in surface color affects temperatures in cities.
Students develop a basic understanding of how and why scientists study the electromagnetic spectrum and magnetic fields of the Sun to gain a greater understanding of solar activity and space weather.
In this lesson, students investigate various factors that can lead to surface ice melt in Antarctica by pairing a scientific mindset with hands-on exploration of datasets.
Students interact with a wildfire StoryMap to explore the Colorado Resiliency Framework.
This is a streamlined lesson for students to prepare for a Community Resilience Expo, focusing on wildfire.