Why would hundreds of scientists from around the world freeze a ship in Arctic sea ice for an entire year, braving subzero temperatures and months of polar darkness? This may sound like a fictional adventure movie plot, but from September 2019 through October 2020, the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) Arctic research expedition did just this. Currently, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average (a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification) and due to a lack of observations, there is considerable uncertainty in climate models projecting the Arctic climate of the future. The MOSAiC expedition aims to better understand the changing Arctic climate system by gathering data from ground zero over a full seasonal cycle to augment satellite observation data. Using the expedition as an engagement hook, scientists and curriculum developers developed a high school earth science curriculum anchored by the phenomenon that climate scientists are actively trying to explain: Arctic amplification. The curriculum follows the model-based inquiry instructional framework where each lesson provides students with learning experiences (e.g., virtual reality tours of MOSAiC field sites, analyzing authentic Arctic satellite datasets) that relate back to the phenomena. Focusing on explaining natural phenomena provides an authentic context for students to learn and apply scientific understanding, which research shows can help engage students in NGSS scientific practices. Here we present an overview of the learning sequence using refinement of mental models throughout the unit and present preliminary results from pre-post assessments from two educator workshops (~100 teachers) that show that participants’ understanding of Earth’s climate system improved significantly after engaging with the curriculum. Based on these results, we expect this curriculum to be an important tool in engaging students in Earth’s systems thinking.