This article outlines how climate change is impacting New Jersey, the main causes of climate change, and what the state is doing to both slow climate change and prepare for unavoidable effects.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article provides a concise explanation of climate change specific to New Jersey.
It includes data and graphs specific to New Jersey, which could be more impactful to students from this area as opposed to focusing on global trends.
Additional Prerequisites
The article is available to download as a PDF.
Differentiation
The article mentions that some groups are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, which could spark a greater conversation on climate injustice in New Jersey.
Cross-curricular connections could be made to an economics class by exploring the economic impacts of New Jersey's commitment to establish 100% clean energy by 2050.
Climate change has impacted on critical infrastructure and exposed most vulnerable population in New Jersey. This resource introduces the main drivers of global warming and highlights the importance of limiting CO2 emissions from anthropogenic activities, and also improving carbon sinks to respond to climate risk. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.10 By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.10 By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
