Positives

• Having the purpose of improving their school promotes student buy-in and gives their work concrete meaning.
• This project-based lesson will keep students engaged, and small-group and whole-group collaboration will foster a sense of community among students.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students may need more vocabulary words defined than are provided in the vocabulary list.
• Students should already have a basic knowledge of climate change.
• If using Survey Monkey or Google Forms, ensure students are familiar with these tools.
• Students should understand how to use spreadsheets to organize data.

Differentiation

• English teachers can have students read the report for OneNYC, annotate with highlighters, and summarize the document. 
• English teachers can also utilize the lesson to teach digital literacy since part of the activity involves designing a digital survey and spreadsheet.
• Social Studies teachers can include this resource as part of a larger unit on international climate policy since there are links to the Paris Agreement and the United States Climate Alliance.
• SEL teachers can use goal-setting as it relates to city planning as a starting point for a personal goal-setting activity, and it can connect to climate change solutions at the household level.
• Civics teachers can relate the lesson to civic responsibility at the local level and also have students research local sustainability laws.
• Teachers utilizing the mock press conference strategy for the presentation can collaborate with journalism classes or the school's newspaper.
• Students who speak more than one language can be responsible for creating or translating the survey for ELL students.