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Description
Students explore the human impact of climate change, how communities around the world are being affected and how some people are responding to these challenges. Throughout this inquiry there are opportunities for students to share what they have learned and raise awareness of the human cost of climate change. Lessons promote the use a wide range of media, such as leaflets, posters, speeches, articles for local newspapers, or news features for radio or television to encourage and support student action as global citizens.
Session 1: What is climate change? Students discuss their own ideas about climate change and use information provided by the resource to develop their knowledge and understanding of the issues involved. Special attention is given to exploring the greenhouse effect.
Session 2: Who is responsible? After brainstorming some human causes of climate change students examine specific climate change contributors along a supply chain from field to supermarket. The session concludes with an investigation of the carbon footprints of people living in different countries around the world.
Session 3: Who is affected? Students use a consequence web and a ‘mystery’ activity to explore the global interconnectedness of climate change and investigate some of its potential impacts on people and the planet.
Session 4: Climate change stories. To help understand how climate change is impacting the lives of some of the most vulnerable people around the world, students examine case studies and play a ‘climate change game’. A role-play activity is included to further empathize with those whose livelihoods are being threatened by climate change.
Session 5: Adapting to Climate Change. Students investigate how some communities around the world are adapting to the effects of climate change.
Session 6: Taking action against climate change. Students identify possible actions which they could take as a school and work in a group to develop an implementation plan.
Each session beings with an overview and includes learning objectives, learning outcomes and key questions. Supporting activities and slideshows are included.
General Assessment
What skills does this resource explicitly teach?
- Critical/creative thinking skills
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Inferring and explaining relationships
- Using tools and apparatus to conduct an investigation
- Identifying and suggesting solutions
- Evaluating group and individual processes in planning, problem solving and decision making
- Calculating carbon footprints
- Listening critically to others ideas and points of view
Strengths
- Excellent use of case studies and slides to provide information and build empathy
- Demonstrates the complexity of environmental issues
- Helps students form concepts, beliefs and attitudes
- Has a multi-disciplinary approach with a wide range of learning activities and some differentiation of activities
- Has an opportunity for experiential learning
- Group work allows for shared dialogue and incidental peer teaching
- Contains activities which promote global citizenship and easy to use handouts and graphic organizers.
- Has open-ended solutions and a good action opportunity
- Links are relevant to the topic and appropriate to both the teacher and student and give good background information
- Lessons are well organized , with clear objectives and timelines
- Each activity is linked to specific slides
- A link to an interactive version of carbon dioxide emissions is provided
- The planning of the action plan includes a sorting actions graphic organizer, suggested actions, and an action plan responsibility grid
Weaknesses
- Lacks assessment tools
- Reading level could be a problem for some students
- The resource is written for an UK audience, so some additional prep may be needed to rework a few of the lessons
Recommendation of how and where to use it
This resource could be used in social studies and geography classes to emphasize the link between human activity and environmental and economic sustainability, as well as the effect on the quality of life in the developing world. It could also address outcomes in science related to climate change and its impacts globally, or used as a self-contained cross-curricular project related to the complex issue of climate change.
Relevant Curriculum Units
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
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- Alberta
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- Grade 6
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- Science
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- Earth Systems: Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened through investigating natural systems and their interactions.
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- Interactions and Ecosystems
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- Grade 9
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- Environmental Science
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- Environment and Outdoor Education: Commitment to Action
- Environment and Outdoor Education: Environmental Investigations
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- Knowledge and Employability Science: Biological Diversity (Social and Environmental Contexts Emphasis)
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- Canada in the Contemporary World: Opportunities and Challenges
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- Cultures
- Empowerment: Economics
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- Environment and Culture
- World Issues
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- Social Studies 6: Environment and Culture
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- Science 7: Environmental Action
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- Biological Diversity
- Knowledge and Employability Science: Biological Diversity (Social and Environmental Contexts Emphasis)
- Ontario
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- Grade 6
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- Life Systems: Biodiversity
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- People and Environments: Canada's Interactions With The Global Communty
- Grade 7
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- Geography
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- Physical Patterns in a Changing World
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- Interdependence: Atlantic Canada in the Global Community: Citizenship in the Global Community
- Interdependence: Atlantic Canada in the Global Community: Environment in the Global Community
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- Living Things
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- The Contemporary World: Environment
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- Science 7: Life Science: Interactions within Ecosystems
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- The Individual in Canadian Society: Resources & Wealth
- Yukon Territory
Themes Addressed
Air, Atmosphere & Climate (1)
- Climate Change
Citizenship (2)
- Community-Building and Participation
- Ecological Footprint
Human Health & Environment (1)
- Quality of Life
Human Rights (2)
- Environmental Racism/Justice
- Poverty
Water (1)
- Water Quality
Sustainability Education Principles
| Principle | Rating | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Consideration of Alternative Perspectives | Good | The resource aims to bring attention to the consequences of climate change on a global scale. For the most part, case studies are used to describe how quality of life has been affected by human activity related to the production of draw their own conclusions. |
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives:
| ||
| Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions | Very Good | The connection between the diminishing quality of life in the developing world and the environmental consequences created by human activity are prominent themes. |
| Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions: Effectively addresses the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the issue(s) being explored.
| ||
| Respects Complexity | Good | The approach promotes dialogue and discussion within groups of students. It encourages action and activities related to environmental and social issues. Activities promoting systems thinking include a consequence map, which illustrates the many kinds of future effects related to an issue. |
| Respects Complexity: The complexity of the problems/issues being discussed is respected. | ||
| Acting on Learning | Very Good | Session six is dedicated to promoting and organizing climate change action. It includes a graphic organizer for sorting different types of action, suggested actions and an action plan responsibility grid. |
| Acting on Learning: Learning moves from understanding issues to working towards positive change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community, or for the planet
| ||
| Values Education | Good | The resource gives students many opportunities to do some self -reflection and identify their own values and role in climate change action. Some activities are specifically designed for this opportunity. |
| Values Education: Students are explicitly provided with opportunities to identify, clarify and express their own beliefs/values. | ||
| Empathy & Respect for Humans | Very Good | Powerful case studies build empathy for the poor quality of life of people in the developing world whose lives are affected in a negative way by climate change. The message is that the ones who contribute the least to climate change are the ones who suffer the most. |
| Empathy & Respect for Humans: Empathy and respect are fostered for diverse groups of humans (including different genders, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, etc.). | ||
| Personal Affinity with Earth | Good | Although these is no out of doors activity, the underlying theme is the promotion of planet stewardship by planning climate change action. |
| Personal Affinity with Earth: Encourages a personal affinity with -the natural world.
| ||
| Locally-Focused Learning | Good | Relating the consumption of fossil fuels to the production and delivery of a loaf of bread brings local focus and allows students to see how their own activities and life choices contribute to greenhouse gas production in both direct and indirect ways. The calculation of their own carbon footprint emphasizes this concept. There are also options for the final action plan to be implemented at the community level. |
| Locally-Focused Learning: Includes learning experiences that take advantage of issues/elements within the local community.
| ||
| Past, Present & Future | Good | The case studies and activities in Session three examine ways that people and communities are and could be affected by climate change now and in the future. A positive future is possible only if we start to decrease carbon dioxide emissions and we continue to look at ways to help people adapt to the changes already caused by climate change. |
| Past, Present & Future: Promotes an understanding of the past, a sense of the present, and a positive vision for the future. | ||
Pedagogical Approaches
| Principle | Rating | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Open-Ended Instruction | Good | A combination of guided and student-led inquiry involving brainstorming, individual research projects, case study examinations, role play, experimentation, consequence maps and calculating carbon footprints allow students to consider and develop their own thoughts and opinions. |
| Open-Ended Instruction
: Lessons are structured so that multiple/complex answers are possible; students are not steered toward one 'right' answer. | ||
| Integrated Learning | Good | Although primarily a social studies and science resource, there are opportunities for addressing outcomes in geography and language arts. |
| Integrated Learning: Learning brings together content and skills from more than one subject area
| ||
| Inquiry Learning | Good | |
| Inquiry Learning: Learning is directed by questions, problems, or challenges that students work to address.
| ||
| Differentiated Instruction | Good | Activities do address a wide range of learning styles and teach to both the cognitive and affective domains. There are accommodations suggested in many activities. A variety of instructional strategies are used including experimentation, consequence maps, role play, board race game, life cycle activity, calculating carbon footprints, and reflecting/ analyzing case studies. |
| Differentiated Instruction: Activities address a range of student learning styles, abilities and readiness.
| ||
| Experiential Learning | Good | |
| Experiential Learning: Authentic learning experiences are provided
| ||
| Cooperative Learning | Satisfactory | |
| Cooperative Learning: Group and cooperative learning strategies are a priority.
| ||
| Assessment & Evaluation | Satisfactory | Reflection questions are provided to check understanding, and to stimulate discussion. There are no suggested rubrics for evaluating student work. |
| Assessment & Evaluation: Tools are provided that help students and teachers to capture formative and summative information about students' learning and performance. These tools may include reflection questions, checklists, rubrics, etc. | ||
| Peer Teaching | Satisfactory | |
| Peer Teaching: Provides opportunities for students to actively present their knowledge and skills to peers and/or act as teachers and mentors.
| ||
| Case Studies | Very Good | |
| Case Studies: Relevant case studies are included. Case studies are thorough descriptions of real events from real situations that students use to explore concepts in an authentic context. | ||
| Locus of Control | Good | The structure and variety of the activities provide meaningful opportunities for students to delve deeper into a chosen issue. There are also several links to provide additional information for this. |
| Locus of Control: Meaningful opportunities are provided for students to choose elements of program content, the medium in which they wish to work, and/or to go deeper into a chosen issue. | ||
