This video presents a succinct history of climate science over the last 200 years.
The video explains multiple reasons why humans find it difficult to act on climate change.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The video incorporates music, imagery, and text to ensure student engagement.
The video poses ideas that could be used as interesting discussion points.
Additional Prerequisites
There is an advertisement at the end of the video. The content finishes at 4 minutes, 38 seconds.
Students will benefit from understanding the term climate change before watching the video.
Differentiation
Elementary science teachers could use this video as a hook, then use the resource Meet the Greenhouse Gases to continue learning about greenhouse gases.
It is well known in academic circles that scientists have understood the physics behind climate change for more than a century. This resource video from PBS explores how long we've known, and why it is difficult for people to take action. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.6.6-8 Draw on multiple disciplinary lenses to analyze how a specific problem can manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels over time, identifying its characteristics and causes, and the challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address the problem.
D4.7.3-5 Explain different strategies and approaches students and others could take in working alone and together to address local, regional, and global problems, and predict possible results of their actions.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
