Apply the systems-thinking feedback vocabulary from Week 2 to climate-specific amplifying feedback loops, and describe documented climate impacts with their genuine regional variation.
Several feedback loops make the climate system respond faster than the initial cause alone would predict, and all are examples of the positive (amplifying) feedback you learned in Week 2. Ice-albedo feedback: bright ice and snow reflect sunlight well (high albedo); as ice melts, it exposes darker ocean or land that absorbs more heat, causing more melting -- this is a major reason the Arctic is documented to be warming several times faster than the global average, a pattern called Arctic amplification. Permafrost-methane feedback: permanently frozen Arctic soil holds large stores of ancient organic carbon; as permafrost thaws, microbes decompose that material and release more CO2 and methane, adding more warming that thaws more permafrost. Water vapor feedback, the largest feedback in the whole climate system, works the same way: warmer air holds more water vapor, itself a greenhouse gas, which amplifies the initial warming further.
Documented and projected impacts are real but genuinely variable by region rather than uniform everywhere: more frequent and intense heat waves; shifting precipitation patterns, with some regions becoming wetter and others drier; hurricanes and typhoons that are not necessarily more frequent but are, on average, more intense; sea level rise threatening low-lying coastal areas; species shifting their ranges poleward or upslope to track suitable temperatures; coral bleaching from ocean heat stress; and agricultural effects that vary by region and crop, with some areas potentially seeing longer growing seasons and others facing more drought stress. Presenting this variation honestly, rather than flattening it into uniform doom, is itself part of teaching the science matter-of-factly.
Mastery looks like: They can describe at least one climate feedback loop step by step using Week 2's feedback vocabulary correctly, and can explain at least one climate impact with accurate regional nuance rather than a flattened, uniform claim.
Common stumbles: Treating all climate impacts as identical everywhere on the globe; missing that a feedback loop can accelerate a trend beyond what the initial cause alone would produce.