Climate Solutions Scenarios with En-ROADS

Positives

• This lesson can be integrated into a science class studying climate change, a social studies class studying civics, an economics class, or a world languages class, as En-ROADS is available in several languages.

• This lesson provides students with step-by-step entry-level access to the internationally recognized En-ROADS (Energy-Rapid Overview and Decision-Support) simulator developed by Climate Interactive, MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Ventana Systems.

• En-ROADS uses the most current climate science from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), Share Socioeconomic Pathways projected scenarios (SSP), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The equations are calibrated against past and current scientific and economic data and updated monthly.

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers should follow the prompts in this lesson to design their own En-ROADS scenario before guiding students. Prior experience with the En-ROADS simulator will allow teachers to more easily demonstrate how to use the control panel, graphs, data, and supporting explanations of slider actions.

• This lesson assumes that students have a basic understanding of the causes and impacts of climate change. If students need a refresher, the following Climate Interactive resources can be reviewed prior to the lesson:

• Climate Change Fact Sheet
• Carbon Dioxide Removal Methods

• Students should be comfortable using appropriate terms for climate data: parts per million (ppm) and temperature in degrees Celsius (°C).

• Students will need access to devices and the Internet to use Climate Interactive’s En-ROADS simulator.

Differentiation

• Students can design a campaign advocating for a particular climate solution using the data from their En-ROADS scenario to support their ideas.

• Students could create scenarios based on the best solutions for different priorities, such as cheapest, fastest, most equitable, or most realistic, and then participate in a debate about the solutions.

• Instead of the jigsaw activity, students can read the multisolving resource and complete the table as homework.

Students can learn about climate equity in this lesson as well as how to utilize the En-ROADS simulator to predict various climate scenarios. Through the simulation exercise, they will gain knowledge on strategies that could cut or eliminate GHG emissions to stop climate change. The lesson passed our science assessment after the simulator and other lesson resources were rigorously fact-checked.

Primary Standards

• Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
  • ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
    • HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
  • ETS1: Engineering Design
    • HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
    • HS-ETS1-4 Use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed solutions to a complex real-world problem with numerous criteria and constraints on interactions within and between systems relevant to the problem.
• College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
  • Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
    • D4.7.9-12 Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.