This interactive resource provides a variety of ways that citizens can help fight climate change in their everyday lives, including creating energy-efficient homes, adopting sustainable eating habits, practicing sustainable shopping, and prioritizing eco-friendly transportation.
Each lifestyle change is fully described, with an interactive sliding scale of money, time, and effort required to make the change.
Teaching Tips
Positives
There is a text-only version of the site so teachers can print for hard-copy classroom use.
Each habit change or investment has a paragraph of explanation, along with graphics designed to reflect its cost-effectiveness, time committment, and effort required.
Teachers and students can easily share the website via social media.
There are several clickable source articles at the bottom of the page.
Additional Prerequisites
Teachers and students will need internet access.
Because some vocabulary is rigorous, a definition list will be helpful.
Menstrual products are mentioned.
The link to Sabrina McCormick and sources 4, 25, and 34 are broken. However, these are not necessary for exploring the information.
Students should understand climate change and what causes it.
Differentiation
English teachers could assign one habit or investment per student in a class and then have the students create a mini-research paper based on the information.
English teachers can also have students write personal narratives about their journeys to fight climate change.
This resource lends itself to small-group or partner activities in which students learn about real-life solutions to the global crisis.
Have students choose one of the simple solutions to implement for a week and present their experience to the class.
Scientist Notes
The climate crisis can often feel too big for one person to tackle, and that is because it is. Data shows that it will take collective action from all inhabitants to combat climate change. This resource will show you tangible, practical measures you can take to help the planet.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced 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.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.3.9-12 Analyze the ways in which incentives influence what is produced and distributed in a market system.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Writing (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
