Mined Materials and Climate Change
Provided by: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative|Published on: April 27, 2021|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Lesson Plans
Subjects: Chemistry, Physics, Earth and Space Sciences, Engineering
Authors: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This lesson about the climate impacts of mined materials, the recycling potential for commonly used elements, and innovations in steel and cement includes a lesson plan, a podcast, several articles, and discussion questions.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Students will be interested to learn about the materials that go into making a smartphone and how few of the elements can be recycled.
- The student handout is wonderful and the data communication exercise will really get students thinking!
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should have a good understanding of how greenhouse gases contribute to climate change.
Differentiation
- Students could make charts with three columns to list what they know, what they want to know, and what they learned about the relationship between materials and climate change. At the end of the lesson, if there are any unanswered questions in the middle column, students could work in pairs to research the answers.
- After reading an article from page 5 of the student pages, students could work in pairs to record short interview-style podcasts using the questions from page 4.
- For an SEL connection, have students think about other large statistics that may be hard to internalize and process, such as the number of people who are already affected by climate change or affected by deadly diseases.
- Other resources on this topic include this ClimateScience course on industrial innovation, this video on producing sustainable concrete, and this TED-Ed video and lesson on concrete manufacturing.
This resource explains the effects of manufacturing products like steel, cement, cars, and other materials on the environment as well as ways to reduce the carbon footprint from the manufacturing sector by using technology, recycling, clean energy, and new materials for production. This resource is perfect for the classroom.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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