This lesson introduces students to the financial costs already experienced because of climate change and highlights some ingenious solutions to help reduce the costs of investing in climate solutions.
The lesson includes a teacher's guide, a podcast, three activities, data on the costs of extreme weather events, and case studies of adaptation projects.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This lesson is a great way to integrate solutions thinking and introduce students to multisolving.
The teacher's guide includes discussion questions, an answer key, and background information.
Additional Prerequisites
Each activity can be used as a standalone, in sequence, or integrated with other curriculum needs.
Although the information in the lesson is relevant everywhere, the data presented in the second activity focuses on the United States.
Students should be comfortable reading graphs and charts and should know that climate change can increase the severity or frequency of extreme weather events before starting the lesson.
Differentiation
Extra care should be given to students whose families have been affected by storms, floods, fires, or other extreme weather events.
To make the final activity more relevant to students outside of the United States, students can be tasked with researching a case study in their country or region and answering the questions accordingly.
This resource can also be used in math or statistics classes during lessons about analyzing and interpreting data and in English classes during lessons about communicating complex information.
Use this online course as an extension to learn more about climate adaptation.
Scientist Notes
This resource is a guide for teachers that includes skills learned, standards, core ideas, a teacher guide, student handouts, and a ~14 minute podcast, all of which discuss the need for financial investments to slow down climate change and prepare for the impacts of climate change. The information is well-sourced and researched and would be a great addition to a class discussing different needs to address climate change. This resource is recommended for teaching.
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.
HS-ESS3-6 Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.
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.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms.
