The Climate Clues Found in LA's Natural History Museum Specimens

Articles/Websites

Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Social Studies, Biology

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by The Kid Should See This

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What it is

This video features scientists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County discussing how fossils, specimens, and artifacts at the museum show climate history. The museum uses this information to answer questions about climate change today.
Students will learn about scientists who specialize in plants, marine life, birds, and humans.

Teaching tips

Positives

A short article links to several interesting sources.
Students will enjoy seeing the museum's fossils and specimens as the scientists discuss them.

Additional Prerequisites

Students should be familiar with concepts such as endangered species, habitat loss, sea level rise, and ocean acidification.

Differentiation

Biology classes could use this video to show the effects of climate change on ecosystems and species.
Psychology, sociology, anthropology, or history classes could discuss why humans from the past behaved differently, and sometimes more violently, in reaction to changes in the climate. Students could debate whether or not the phenomenon persists in today's world.
Other resources on this topic include this Khan Academy video on extinction, this interactive map on the habitats of endangered species, and this video on saving the world's coral reefs.

From the scientist review

This resource is a 12-minute video produced by the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County. It is an excellent example of how current scientists are using information from fossils and tar pits to piece together the climates of the past. The science in the video is explained articulately and tangibly. This resource is recommended for teaching.

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At a glance

Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Subjects: Social Studies, Biology
Other types: Videos
Language: English
Location: North America, North America > United States, North America > United States > California
Provider: The Kid Should See This
Authors: The Kid Should See This, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Published: April 27, 2021
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · D2.Geo.9.6-8 + 7 more

Core

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards

D2.Geo.9.6-8Evaluate the influences of long-term human-induced environmental change on spatial patterns of conflict and cooperation.
D2.Geo.10.9-12Evaluate how changes in the environmental and cultural characteristics of a place or region influence spatial patterns of trade and land use.
D2.Geo.9.9-12Evaluate the influence of long-term climate variability on human migration and settlement patterns, resource use, and land uses at local-to-global scales.
D2.His.16.9-12Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

MS-ESS3-5.Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Wisconsin Climate Education Hub

Science

HS-ESS3-1.Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
MS-LS2-4.Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
MS-LS4-1.Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

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