This series of six lessons are designed to educate, empower, and activate students to look at climate change through economic, social, and ecological lenses.
The lessons culminate in a student-led action project which can be a whole-class or individual activity.
The lessons coordinate with this Learning Lab resource.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Detailed teacher tips are included for each of the lessons.
Google Slide presentations are included, as well as several linked resource articles, videos, a Bitmoji classroom, and case studies.
Additional Prerequisites
If a teacher chooses to click on icons instead of the hypertext to reach related modules, some of the links are broken.
The vocabulary is quite rigorous, so a definition list will be helpful.
Attached videos click through to YouTube, so teachers need to have YouTube access in the classroom.
Differentiation
Teachers can click through to access several related modules of lesson plans and student activities.
Math classes can utilize Lesson 3, which includes graphing data and extra data sets.
The lessons are clearly explained and all materials are provided, so the information will be beneficial for substitute teachers.
English teachers can utilize the case studies in Lesson 2 as an introduction to personal narratives.
Scientist Notes
This resource is very well-cited and the explanation of sea level rise is accurate. In these lessons, students can explore the science of how climate change is causing the seas to rise.
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
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
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.
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-1 Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.6 Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.9 Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.
