Nature Observing for Climate Change Module
Lesson Plans
Grades3, 4, 5Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Mathematics
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 →
Provided by Maine Deptartment of Energy
What it is
- In this multi-unit module, students will learn how to keep a nature observation journal that will be beneficial for climate science investigations.
- This module incorporates skills such as measurement and estimation, making inferences, drawing diagrams, collecting data, and understanding the difference between facts and opinions to help students create a journal that could be useful for future climate scientists.
Teaching tips
Positives
- This lesson does a great job of identifying unknown words and defining them for students prior to seeing them in context.
- This is a great lesson for students who may be anxious with the weight of being responsible for making a difference in climate change and gives students something they can do to contribute every day when they are feeling overwhelmed.
Additional Prerequisites
- Some students, including English language learners, may need the terms observation, data, scientist, climate, botany, compact, metadata, context, and possibly other terms defined prior to starting the lesson.
- Students should have a basic understanding of the causes of climate change and what climate change is.
- Clicking on the video on slide 6 of the Skills You Need: Measuring slide deck will not play the video, however, the link for slide 5 on the References slide will take you to the video (the slide 6 link is a different video).
- It may be beneficial for students to have explicitly practiced making inferences prior to doing this lesson.
- Students should understand how to measure objects to the nearest centimeter or inch.
Differentiation
- Most of the information presented in this lesson is done so through slides. Students have the option to read the slides or have them read to them.
- After watching the Audubon videos, students can discuss the effect that climate change has on bird habitats and populations, then research the effects and create a public service announcement.
- Students can discuss how one person can make a difference for the environment and brainstorm ways they can make a difference for the environment.
- Students can discuss how to record their location, the difference between relative and absolute location, latitude and longitude, and the best method of recording the locations in their journals.
- Language arts classes could practice letter formatting with the letter to a climate scientist activity, giving students an authentic purpose for their writing.
- History classes can discuss the lasting impacts that figures in history mentioned in the lesson have had and can discuss why their contributions are still relevant today.
From the scientist review
This module discusses how to take scientific observations, why observations are helpful, and how to create an observation journal. The module steps students through some notable nature observers, the different things they recorded, and why having observations over a long period of time is important. Students are also walked through different skills they need to make their own journals. This lesson is a great introduction to what types of data are useful for scientists, how scientists record their observations, and how much data is collected for climate observations. The lesson also helps students to start thinking, observing, and describing their surroundings in a scientific way. The information presented is accurate and this resource is recommended for teaching.
How we review resourcesReady to use it?
Hosted on learnwithmoose.maine.gov
Want this to fit your class?
Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.
