Climate Change Teaching Resources

Are you ready to tackle some new climate change topics with your students? These climate change teaching resources will help you confidently explore nine different concepts related to climate change with connections to a variety of subjects. There are two different resources provided for each topic, such as videos, activities, and interactive media—all of which have been specifically curated to engage your learners in some of the most crucial areas of climate change education. Whether you start with one topic or challenge yourself to dig into a few, your students will be expanding their climate change understanding.

Climate and Weather

Watch This:

Climate and Weather

Grade: K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th

Subjects: Science, Earth and Space Sciences

Resource Type: Video

Do This:

Climate vs. Weather

Grade: K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th

Subjects: Science, Earth and Space Sciences

Resource Type: Lesson Plan, Worksheet

In these resources, students will learn about the difference between weather and climate. This is an important distinction to make in the early learning phase of climate change education, as the two terms are often confused with each other. The Climate and Weather resource is a short and simple video that is great for young learners. The Climate vs. Weather resource includes a reading and card sort activity that would best engage upper elementary students.

The ability to differentiate weather and climate is an important precursor to understanding more complex climate change concepts, so these elementary-level resources are a great way to start introducing this topic. If you’re looking for something short and sweet, watch the video with your students and discuss the definitions for each term and what makes them different. If you’re ready for a full lesson on the topic, the second resource is designed to take about 30 minutes and connects to both English language arts, reading, and science.

Climate Solutions

Watch This:

Climate Solutions 101

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, Economics

Resource Type: Video

Do This:

Create Your Own Climate Comic Strip

Grade: 3rd, 4th, 5th

Subjects: Science, Earth and Space Sciences, Art, Climate Action

Resource Type: Activity, Lesson Plan

When your students start to learn about climate change, they’re going to wonder: what can we do to help? These climate change teaching resources are a great starting point to explore some of the many possible solutions to climate change. To fully resolve the climate crisis, we will need to employ various solutions across many different sectors, and these resources give students a glimpse into what that may look like. The first resource is a collection of six videos by Project Drawdown that provide context about climate change, outline a range of solutions, and discuss the possibility of large-scale implementation. The second resource is a classroom activity where students create comic strips about one of the provided solutions to climate change.

The Climate Solutions 101 videos range from 9-25 minutes and are geared toward secondary students. By watching all six videos, students will get a complete overview of what solving climate change may look like. Teachers can play one video a class period and then spend time discussing that day's topic by analyzing data and charts from the video and investigating areas of interest further. If you’re looking for a longer activity, Create Your Own Comic Strip is designed for upper elementary students and will take about an hour to complete. Students are provided with a few solutions and select one to focus on, making this a simple activity to give students a taste of climate change solutions.

Ecosystems

Watch This:

Ecosystem Ecology: Links in the Chain

Grade: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, AP® / College

Subjects: Science, Chemistry, Biology, Health

Resource Type: Video

Do This:

Ecosystem Services Assessment

Grade: 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th

Subjects: Science, Biology

Resource Type: Activity, Worksheet, Lesson Plan

Climate change is impacting ecosystems around the world by altering habitats, disrupting food webs, contributing to extreme weather events, and more. The first resource is a more advanced ecology video that describes ecosystems, food webs, the transfer of energy between trophic levels, and the accumulation of pollutants in ecosystems. The second resource is an activity for middle school students to investigate ecosystem services on their school grounds.

There’s no better way to engage students in a new topic than to get them outside exploring nature and making observations about their environment with the Ecosystem Services Assessment. In this activity, students also are prompted to think about how healthy ecosystems benefit human health, which keeps the concept personally relevant and significant. For high school science and biology teachers looking for a more in-depth look at ecosystems, the Ecosystems Ecology: Links in the Chain video is a great resource that can provide foundational knowledge. Make sure to pause the video periodically for discussion and questions because this video is jam-packed with information!

Human Impacts

Watch This:

5 Human Impacts on the Environment

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences

Resource Type: Video

Do This:

Anthropocene: Human Impact on the Environment

Grade: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences

Resource Type: Interactive Media, Lesson Plan, Worksheet

For students to understand climate change, they need to know how we, as humans, have gotten ourselves into this mess! Many human activities—industrialization, population growth, burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests, and farming—are driving forces behind rising global temperatures and environmental degradation. These climate change teaching resources about human impacts will allow students to investigate the connections between human activities and their impacts on the environment.

The first resource is a video that provides secondary students a great overview of the major human impacts on the environment. After watching the video, teachers can challenge students to create a concept map to organize their learning and clarify connections between ideas. The second resource is a more advanced activity where students learn about the proposed geological epoch, the Anthropocene, by exploring an interactive diagram that depicts human impacts on the environment. Make sure to check out the educator guide for this resource because there are great discussion points for each topic that teachers can use to facilitate conversation and check for understanding.

Oceans

Watch This:

Ocean Acidification

Grade: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, AP® / College

Subjects: Science, Chemistry, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences

Resource Type: Video, Interactive Media, Assessment 

Do This:

The Ocean and Climate Change

Grade: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Chemistry, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences

Resource Type: Podcast, Activity, Lesson Plan, Worksheet

Our oceans are vitally important in regulating climate because they absorb a large portion of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere. However, this also increases the acidity of the water, which can harm ocean ecosystems, alter food chains, and cause extinction. The first resource is a video that dives into the chemistry behind ocean acidification, and the second is a full lesson plan about how the oceans are changing due to climate change.

The Ocean Acidification video is awesome for chemistry classes learning about acids, bases, and the pH scale, or for biology classes learning about marine ecosystems. Teachers can also draw connections to math classes by digging into the math behind pH, a logarithmic scale. The lesson plan The Ocean and Climate Change is another great high school-level resource on the topic, perfect for biology or Earth science teachers looking for a more comprehensive investigation of ocean acidification and other impacts of climate change on the ocean. And to make it as easy as possible for teachers, the resource provides everything you’ll need, including student pages.

Land Use

Watch This:

Changing Forests

Grade: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, Earth and Space Sciences, History, Geography

Resource Type: Interactive Media, Article

Do This:

Debate Land Use in Brazil

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Social Studies, English Language Arts

Resource Type: Activity, Lesson Plan

Land use change is a substantial driver of global climate change, and humans make critical decisions every day about how to use the land in their communities. Whether it's cutting down forests for farmland or destroying habitats for urban expansion, these land use changes have serious consequences. In these engaging activities, students will construct an understanding of land use change and discover how human action is harming our environment. 

In the activity Changing Forests, students take a virtual journey to different forests around the world and visualize the impacts of land use change on these areas over time. Upper elementary students can go through the interactive as a class and work together to make sense of the satellite visuals. Middle school students can explore the resource on their own or with a partner and complete a graphic organizer with notes for each area. High school teachers can use the Debate Land Use in Brazil activity to explore one region’s struggle with land use decisions while fostering analytical and communication skills. There are three different debate topics, so teachers can select one, assign groups to different topics, or complete multiple debates over multiple class periods. The teacher’s guide provides a structure to use for the debates and the student handout describes each debate topic in detail with additional links included for further research. 

Biodiversity

Watch This:

Why Is Biodiversity So Important?

Grade: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Biology

Resource Type: Video, Article

Do This:

Biodiversity Hotspots

Grade: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, Biology, Geography

Resource Type: Interactive Media

Climate change and biodiversity are two closely linked topics because the risk of species extinction continues to increase as our planet warms. This is also a perfect topic to couple with land use, as land use change is the primary driver of biodiversity loss today. The video and interactive map can be used together or separately to emphasize the importance of biodiversity and bridge this topic to climate change.

This animated video by TED-Ed includes everything you need for a high-quality virtual or blended learning lesson. After watching the video, students can complete questions to assess comprehension, explore additional related resources, and participate in numerous discussion boards. To modify this for an in-person classroom, assign partners or small groups to work together to investigate the additional resources and use the discussion questions for class or group conversation. And for extra convenience, the lesson is fully customizable and can be posted directly to a learning management platform like Google Classroom. The interactive map is an awesome follow-up activity after the video because it challenges students to think critically about why certain places on Earth have more biodiversity than others. Younger students may need more teacher support and will benefit from exploring the resource as a class, while older students can dig into it on their own or with a partner.

Human Health

Watch This:

Climate Health Connection: Environmental Pollution

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Chemistry, Biology, Health

Resource Type: Video

Do This:

Particle Pollution Activity - Paper Wad Game

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th

Subjects: Science, Biology, Health

Resource Type: Lesson Plan, Activity, Game

One of the best ways to get students invested in climate change is by making it personally relevant. These climate change teaching resources about human health impacts will engage students by connecting to their everyday life and health. The first resource is a video about how the fossil fuel industry impacts human health—notably its effects on children. The second resource is an activity where students play the role of cilia in the lungs, which filter out particles from the air we breathe, an increasingly important job as our air becomes more polluted.

This video would be a captivating hook for a health or science lesson about the negative health effects of fossil fuels. Students can discuss the benefits and drawbacks of transitioning to clean energy to both reduce climate change and improve human health. Teachers can also facilitate conversations around justice by highlighting the disproportionate impact of fossil fuel pollution on vulnerable groups like low-income communities. The Paper Wad game would pair well with this video for a middle school classroom, and students will love getting to move around. Teachers should have a discussion with students afterward to ensure they are connecting the role of cilia to pollution and climate change. Teachers can also challenge students to brainstorm and research ways to reduce pollution in their own communities and help the most vulnerable groups.

Technology

Watch This:

Science, Technology, and the Environment

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Biology, Physics, Engineering

Resource Type: Video, Interactive Media, Assessment 

Do This:

Technology and the Environment

Grade: 11th, 12th, AP® / College

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, Biology, Economics, History, English Language Arts

Resource Type: Lesson Plan, Video, Worksheet, Article, Project

Scientists and engineers around the globe are working tirelessly to develop new technologies that will mitigate the effect of climate change and prevent future warming of our planet. With these technology-focused climate change teaching resources, students will learn about the latest and greatest advancements and be inspired by the endless possibilities of environmental technology. Our students today are the problem solvers of our future! The first resource is a video that describes new technology being created to protect the environment and considers some of the positives and negatives of these advancements. The second resource is an extensive lesson plan that looks at technological advancements throughout history and their impact on the environment and human populations.

The video can be incorporated into secondary-level engineering or science lessons about environmental technology, solutions to climate change, and challenges faced in implementing solutions. After watching the video, students can identify other climate change-related problems and brainstorm their own technology-based solutions. For advanced students, check out the lesson plan Technology and the Environment, which can be incorporated into social studies, history, and environmental science classes, and is particularly suited for AP, IB, and honors courses. The lesson is very detailed and includes discussion and evaluation questions, sample answers,  and all necessary materials and resources to make implementation a breeze!

Teaching a new climate change concept can feel daunting, and it can be tough to know where to start. These resources have all been selected to make the dive into one of these critical climate change topics as easy and engaging as possible! Start small by watching a video and facilitating a class discussion, or go big and tackle a full activity or lesson. These resources are here to meet you wherever you’re at in your climate change teaching and help propel you towards confidence with climate change in your classroom!

About the Author

Effie has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in teaching instruction. She formerly taught 8th grade Earth science in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She now lives in Athens, Greece where she teaches English and creates content for SubjectToClimate.