Final answer:
The High School science assignment involves researching global temperature rise factors, analyzing data, and understanding the evidence for global warming, with a focus on the Industrial Revolution's impact and the role of greenhouse gases.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's project focuses on researching and analyzing the factors contributing to the rise in global temperatures over the past century. The assignments will involve creating graphs, interpreting data, and writing a paper on their conclusions. A key aspect of the research is to understand the evidence for global warming, both direct and indirect, and the influence of human activity, notably the Industrial Revolution, on increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
Direct evidence includes rising land and ocean temperatures, while indirect evidence is seen in the shrinking of glaciers. Human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels result in greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Natural factors also affect the global climate, but a significant percentage of climate researchers agree that recent warming trends are largely due to human actions.
Students are asked to reflect on the carbon cycle and the reasons why rising CO2 levels, especially due to fossil fuel combustion, are a cause for global concern. Making informed predictions about future climate changes and understanding the role of different greenhouse gases in the greenhouse effect are also integral to this assignment.