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Maths for Planet Earth: Climate Based Questions for students and teachers

A team of students, Madeleine Ratcliffe, Lucy Fellingham and John Allen, and academics at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Department of Physics, University of Oxford, developed the Maths for Planet Earth questions. They work on climate and energy issues and are passionate about inspiring young people to join the fight against climate change.

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The world needs brainy mathematicians to help tackle climate change.

The aim of these questions is to integrate climate change into the school curriculum beyond the usual suspects of geography and environmental science.

These questions closely follow example problems from GCSE and A level past exams and were developed using existing exam questions. The maths skills tested in the question remained unchanged, but the context of the question was adapted to a climate change theme.

Graphing global sea level rise
GCSE
Graphing Global Sea Level Rise
The graph shows satellite measurements of global sea level rise since 2000 plotted relative to 1993. (sea level rise measured in mm = millimetres)
Increasing rainfall
GCSE
Increasing Rainfall
As the atmosphere warms, the air holds more water vapour, and this could lead to more intense rainfall events, resulting in an increased flood
Graphing Rising Temperatures
GCSE
Graphing Rising Temperatures
The temperature-time graph from https://globalwarmingindex.org/ shows how the Earth’s global average monthly temperatures have varied from the year 1880. Throughout this question, monthly global
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GCSE
Rates of Human Induced Warming
The graph below shows how temperature has varied with time. The grey line shows monthly temperatures and the orange line shows an estimate of
IPCC carbon dioxide predictions
GCSE
IPCC Carbon Dioxide Predictions
The graph, from the IPCC 1.5 Report, shows how the rate of carbon dioxide emissions couldfall between 2020 and 2040, or between 2020 and
More Maths Resources for KS3, Core Maths and the Scottish Curriculum
Other Secondary Maths Lessons

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