National Parks: Climate Change Lesson
Lesson Plan
1 hourGrades6, 7, 8Earth and Space Sciences
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Written by Vanessa Wilson
About this lesson
This lesson educates students on the impact that climate change has on national parks.
Inquire: Students explore national parks in Google Earth and discuss a series of images related to climate change and national parks.
Investigate: Students watch Warming Up to Adaptation: Everglades National Park, read an article on how climate change is impacting national parks, and complete a graphic organizer.
Inspire: Students create an infographic in Canva or Google Slides to educate the public about the impact that climate change has on national parks.
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Everything you need to teach it
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Suggestions
- Students are introduced to the causes and effects of climate change and can use this resource for support in understanding the effects of climate change.
- Students make real-world connections on how climate change affects national parks across the United States.
- Students can use any school-appropriate digital platform to create infographics, or can use paper and posters.
- Students can compare climate impacts across two or more parks and identify patterns or graph specific data points over time.
- Students can research climate adaptation strategies used in other protected areas around the world and compare them to U.S. national parks.
- For a deeper math connection, students can use real climate data, such as temperature, precipitation, or wildfire frequency for a national park, and create graphs or charts to include in their infographic.
- For a creative writing connection, students can write a “day in the life” story from the perspective of a park animal affected by climate change.
- Students can use their infographics to create a short video or social media campaign highlighting climate impacts on a national park.
- Teacher can invite a local scientist or park ranger to share about climate impacts and adaptation strategies.
Prerequisites
- Students should have a basic understanding of climate change vocabulary in order to comprehend the reading material.
- Teacher should decide how to structure the climate impact reading in the Investigate section. Teacher can curate the number of options, determine student choice, or assign readings based on content or skill level.
Differentiation
- The Warming Up to Adaptation: Everglades National Park video can be paused midway to discuss with students and assess their understanding of the impacts and mitigation solutions.
- Students with lower-level reading skills can be paired with a peer with higher comprehension skills.
- Students can research how climate change is affecting park services or surrounding communities, including visitor safety and the tourism economy.
- Students can research the closest national park, its history, current climate impacts, and mitigation strategies.
- Students can engage in further research of a specific national park not covered in the lesson and identify three climate change impacts.
- Students can create an infographic designed to teach younger students about climate change in national parks. Students can visit another classroom and share their infographic with younger students.
- Students can research park visitation numbers and climate data on temperature to see how climate change potentially influences tourism.
- As an extension, student groups can design a new adaptation strategy for a national park and explain the benefits and challenges.
From the scientist review
This lesson demonstrates the impact of climate change on national parks and lets students investigate and communicate through infographics the best solutions for building climate resilience in the parks and other ecologically sensitive habitats. All materials embedded in the lesson are factual, and this lesson has passed our scientist review.
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About the teacher writer
Vanessa Wilson
6-8 Science, English, and Spanish Teacher
I am a current 7th grade science teacher in Broward, FL who is passionate about wildlife and teaching my students to love the planet. I have taught Earth Science, Life Science and Physical Science in English and Spanish for a dual language program at my previous school.
