The Grand Challenges
Teacher Resources
Driving Question: What are the five Grand Challenges and how does each relate to the goal of reducing carbon emissions?
Each year, humanity releases 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere. How can we make sense of a number that big? One way to simplify any problem—and to begin identifying the best solutions—is to break it into smaller, more-manageable pieces. In this course, we divide emissions into the five primary economic sectors responsible for releasing carbon emissions. We call these categories the Grand Challenges. This lesson explores each of the Grand Challenges, how they are connected, and some obstacles that make decarbonizing these areas so challenging.
- Identify the five Grand Challenges and describe how each relates to the goal of reducing carbon emissions.
- Evaluate the efficacy of this framework by identifying the benefits and challenges it provides.
-
Guiding Questions
-
Observe
Skim the full infographic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, numbers, charts, and types of text. How do you know where to start and which direction to read? How do you know what numbers are most important? What concept is the focus of the graphic? What big questions do you have?
Key Ideas
- What are the five Grand Challenges?
- What are the primary sources of emissions in the How We Plug In Grand Challenge?
- Which Grand Challenge is responsible for the most carbon emissions globally?
- Which Grand Challenge is responsible for the most carbon emissions in the United States?
- Why is it important to know that the breakdown of the five Grand Challenges looks different in every country?
Evaluate
- The five Grand Challenges are not the only way to categorize carbon emissions. What’s another way to break down the sources of emissions?
-
Guiding Questions
-
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- According to this article, what’s the point of the five Grand Challenges?
- Why does this article claim that how we plug in might be the most important of the Grand Challenges?
- What makes the production of concrete such a big challenge?
- Is carbon dioxide the most dangerous greenhouse gas?
- How is the Grand Challenge of how we keep cool and stay warm linked to other Grand Challenges?
Evaluate
- After reading this article, which Grand Challenge do you think is the most important or the most urgent? Would you work on the biggest challenge? The most interconnected? Or the one that’s easiest to fix?
Introduction to the Grand Challenges
Every year, we release of billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In this video, we’ll meet the five Grand Challenges. These five categories of human emissions help us make sense of climate change and consider some solutions.
Key Ideas
-
Guiding Questions
-
Before you watch
Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch!
While you watch
- What are the five Grand Challenges?
- Why would some consider How We Plug In to be the most important Grand Challenge?
- What’s the simple fact about concrete production that makes the How We Make Things challenge so daunting?
- Why does raising livestock create so much greenhouse gas emissions?
- Why do we use fossil fuels to move people and stuff around?
- Why is demand for air conditioners and heaters expected to rise in the future?
After you watch
- The five Grand Challenges are only one way you might categorize human emissions of greenhouse gases. Other institutions divide up emissions differently, into other categories. Can you think of any other way to categorize the ways that humans emit greenhouse gases?
