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Author

MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative

Grades

9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects

Science, Social Studies, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences, History

Resource Types

  • Ebooks
  • Charts, Graphs, and Tables
  • Interactive Media
  • Podcasts, 10 minutes, 36 seconds
  • Videos, 2 minutes, 53 seconds, CC
  • Videos, 3 minutes, 41 seconds, CC

Regional Focus

Global, North America, United States

Format

PDF

MIT Climate Primer: Risks

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Synopsis
  • This interactive resource begins with uncertainty and risk assessment and then explores several ways human civilization could be disrupted by climate change. 
  • Students will interact with media about the risks of sea-level rise, increased heat and humidity, destructive storms, ocean acidification, food and water insecurity, and political and social instability.
Teaching Tips

Positives

  • It is engaging, interactive, and applicable to a diversity of learning styles due to the variety of media presented. 
  • It is user-friendly and frames the risks of climate change in an informative and digestible way. 

Additional Prerequisites

  • Students should be at a high school reading level and have a baseline ability to interpret and analyze data. 
  • Students should have some understanding of how rising sea levels could impact modern civilization. 

Differentiation

Scientist Notes
This resource is an interactive webpage that includes text, audio, video, and interactive components that gives an excellent overview of climate risks and the ways in which humanity can make decisions and act to address or mitigate these risks. This resource focuses primarily on risk assessment and uncertainty, and can stimulate good debate among students, based on their comfort level, when considering action and their associated risks. This is a very well-produced and well-executed webpage that effectively conveys both the basics and the nuance of climate risks without overwhelming nor insulting the intelligence of students. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
  • Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
    • ESS2: Earth's Systems
      • HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
    • 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: History
      • D2.His.14.9-12 Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.
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