INVESTIGATION 1 

How Did Temperature Change Before the Industrial Revolution?

You have most likely heard that the planet is experiencing a warming trend. But how do scientists know if Earth is warming, and if so, if the trend is unusual? In the following investigations, you will analyze temperature patterns over different intervals of time and geographic areas to decide whether Earth is warming, and if so, at what rate.

For the several investigations in the Climate Science Investigations (CSI): South Florida program, you will use an interactive, time-series graphing tool. A time-series graph is a line graph with time measured on the horizontal axis and some observed variable, such as temperature or temperature anomaly, on the vertical axis.

Watch the following video for an explanation of how to use the graphing tool.