Climate Project Climate Change Overview
Climate Project: Climate Change OverviewOverviewLength: Eightlessons. Each lesson should take one or two days.Learning Objectives•Critically assess diverse sources to fully understand the causes, impacts, and most powerful ways to address climate change.•Evaluate the impacts of climate change on natural and human systems at the global, local, and personal scales.•Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the most effective ways to leverage innovation and targeted action to drive decarbonization and adaptation.Supplemental Unit OutlineLesson 1: Introduction to Climate ChangeLesson 2: Understanding Climate ChangeLesson 3: Understanding the Impacts of Climate ChangeLesson 4: Evaluating the Impacts of Climate ChangeLesson 5: AdaptationLesson 6: The Need for Climate InnovationLesson 7: The Grand ChallengesLesson 8: Decarbonization SolutionsLesson 1: Introduction to Climate ChangeLearning Objectives: •Understand the basics of climate change including its causes, effects, and the scientific principles behind it.•Analyze historical data and trends that demonstrate climate change over time.•Using skills such as claim testing, argumentation, and reasoning, evaluate evidence and scientific consensus regarding the reality and causes of climate change.Description:Understanding the key concepts will help studentsdevelop better ways to communicate about climate change.Opener: What Does Climate ChangeMean to You?Students brainstorm ideas focused on what they know about climate change to create a meaningful and comprehensive definition they can return to as they learn more about climate change.Video: What Is Climate Change?
In this episode of Crash Course Climate and Energy, we’ll introduce some core concepts that will help studentsthroughout these lessons,such asthe difference between climate and weather, and take a lookback through the Earth’s history at other periods of significant climate change.For additional teaching support, including key idea questions, click here(log-in required).Article: “Data Exploration:How Do We Know Climate Change Is Real?”In this article, students willdig into four charts about global temperature anomaly, CO2emissions, and the correlations between them.Infographic: Small Parts, Big ImpactsThis infographic delves into the big impacts that even small changes, like 1°of warming,can have on our planet. Closer: Climate Change Elevator PitchStudents have only a minute toconvince the listener andgive theiranswer to the question, What is climate change?Additional Materials:•Graphic Biography:Eunice Foote•Activity: Making Claims About Climate Change•Activity:Introduction to Climate Change Claim TestersLesson 2: Understanding Climate ChangeLearning Objective: •Analyze why disagreement and misinformation about climate change exists.Identify what makes a source of information credible.•Evaluate evidence in support of climate optimism.•Communicate to a target audience the importance of optimism in promoting action surrounding climate change.•Describe and assess the efficacy of goals including “net zero” and “1.5° Celsius” in combating climate change.Description:Addressing climate change requires studentsto understand more thanjustthe science involved in a warming planet: theymust also assess the social, political, and economic factors that make climate change such a difficult issue to solve. Opener: Climate Policy Quote AnalysisThis activity will help studentsunderstand how climate science and climate policy intersect and will prepare themto dive into this lesson’s content.Article:“Understanding 1.5° C”This article explains why the measurement of1.5° is so important in informinginternational policiesand setting goalssurrounding climate change. Students willalso learn about how we can set climate targets to inspire action in the future.
Article: “Understanding Climate Change Disagreement”This article will help studentsdig into why even when there’s so much evidence behind climate change, there is still so much disagreement aboutit. Video:A Case for OptimismThis video,produced by Wondrium,will help studentslearn how to acknowledge the severity of climate change while remaining optimistic that we can develop solutions.Activity: Inspiring ActionIn this activity, students willfind the inspiration to design a campaign that will educate and inspire others to act,and by doing so prevent the worst impacts of climate change.Closer: Climate TargetsStudents will use theirknowledge from this lesson to revisit the statement from the opener activity to demonstrate how theirthinking has evolved.Additional Materials:•Video: International Climate Agreements•Activity: Claim Testing: Evaluating Online Sources•Activity:Claim Testing: Evaluating Authority•Article:“The Need for Climate Optimists”Lesson 3: Understanding the Impacts of Climate ChangeLearning Objective: 1.Distinguish between the direct and indirect impacts of climate change.2.Articulate the interconnected nature of current and potential impacts on human and natural systems.3.Assess how the impacts of climate change vary regionally based on factors including geography and socioeconomic conditions.Description:Students will learn about the varied effects of climate change onnatural and human systemsaround the world.Opener: Climate Impacts BrainstormIn this activity, students willbrainstorm about the different effects of climate change theyalready know to prepare themto dive into this lesson’s content. Video: How Will Climate Change Continue to Affect Us?This episode of Crash Course Climate and Energylooksat how climate change has already affected our planet, and what the future might hold.Article: “The Impacts of Climate Change”
Climate change is already impacting us all, but not everyone experiences it in the same way. Learn about the difference between directand indirectimpacts of climate change, and how these effects are interconnected.Activity: Climate Change Impacts ProfilesExplore individual stories from different regions of the world to identify and evaluate the various impacts these individuals are experiencing and learn more about the direct and indirect impacts of climate change.Closer: Climate Impacts ReviewWhat’s a direct climate impact, and what’s an indirect impact? Students will use theirknowledge from this lesson to revisit the impacts from the opener activity.Additional Materials:•Infographic: Does Half a Degree Really Matter?•Video: Understanding the Impacts of Climate Change•Activity: Direct Impacts of Climate Change•Activity: Climate Change Indirect Impacts OrganizerLesson 4: Evaluating the Impacts of Climate ChangeLearning Objective: 1.Identify and describe direct impacts of climate change including sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and global temperature increase.2.Identify and describe indirect impacts of climate change including food security, economics, migration, and health.3.Discuss how certain populations and communities are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change.4.Using writing or oral communication skills, describe climate-change impacts on a personal or community level.Description:Students will exploreindepththe direct and indirect impacts of climate change to assesshow climatechangeisaffecting communities and regions around the world.Opener: Direct Impacts ReviewStudents start this lesson by thinkingabout what the direct impacts of climate change are and why they are important.Article: “Data Exploration: Direct Impacts of Climate Change”This data exploration focuses on global sea-level rise—its connections to greenhouse gas emissions and the ways it threatens human communities all over the world.Video: Are Natural Disasters Actually Natural?
This Crash Course Climate andEnergy video looks at the ways injustice within societal structures causes climate change to affect some more than others,and discusses some of the work that environmental justice advocates are doing in response.Infographic: This Bites!Mosquitoes kill hundreds of thousands of people annually by transmitting diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. We were making progress in our fight against the spread of vector-borne diseases, but climate change is making mosquitoes more dangerous as they evolve and spread to new areas.Activity: What Is Climate Justice?Students will build an understanding of climate justice and environmental justice to decide for themselveshow to efficiently andequitably build a zero-carbon future.Closer: Climate Impact Journal EntryAdditional Materials:•Video: Understanding the Impacts of Climate Change•Activity: Direct Impacts of Climate Change•Activity: Climate Change Indirect ImpactsLesson 5: AdaptationLearning Objective: 1.Describe the difference between adaptationefforts and mitigationefforts and assess the need for each.2.Evaluate the interaction between adaptation and mitigation and identify potential areas where they work together and where they might conflict.3.Examine various adaptation strategies and evaluate their effectiveness in different contexts.4.Evaluate an adaptation strategy based on a limited set of criteria and advocate for its implementation.Description:Students will learn to understand the difference between adaptation andmitigation toevaluate solutions that will make the greatest impact on reducing the effects of climate change.Opener: Climate Solutions BrainstormStudents usetheirknowledgeof climate change and its impactsto brainstorm about different categories of climate change solutions and examples of those strategies.Article: “How Can We Take On Climate Change?”This article looks at how adaptation and mitigation solutions can be used to address climate change and its impacts.Infographic: Resilient CitiesThis infographic explores building adaptations that can make our cities more resilient and livable.
Article: “Adaptation Solutions”This article helps studentsevaluate adaptationsolutions to decide where time, energy, and money should be invested.Activity: Adaptation Solution ResearchStudents will research and evaluate a climate change adaptation solution of theirchoice. By digging into a single strategy, they’llbe better equipped to assess and understand the value of adaptation solutions theyencounter in the future.Closer: Adaptation Quick WriteStudents havelearned a lot about the impacts of climate change and about potential adaptations. They’ll reflect on what they’velearned to explain the need for adaptation and a promising way to lessen the impacts of climate change.Additional Materials:•Video: Adapting to a Changing Climate•Activity: Exploring Climate Solutions•Activity: Claim Testing: Adapting to Climate ChangeLesson 6: The Need for Climate InnovationLearning Objective: 1.Identify areas lacking viable solutions and evaluate the role of innovation in reaching climate goals.2.Define the term green premium and explain the role it plays in climate solutions.3.Evaluate the ways the green premium can be used to assess climate solutions and inform action.Description:Students will explore the innovations we need to reach our climate goalsand identify the areas of opportunity for new solutions thatcan make the biggest difference. Opener: Climate Innovation BrainstormThis lesson is all about the solutions we currently have to fight climate change, and the innovations we still need. Students will take a few minutes to brainstorm about a few of these climate innovations.Video:The Need for Climate InnovatorsThis video exploresthe different ways experts from many fields are working together to make climate solutions a reality, which will help studentsthink about the different paths theycould take to become a climate innovator.Activity: Climate InnovationsStudents will research and explore a climate innovation of theirchoice to understand why addressing the problem of climate change will require even more innovation.Infographic: What's a Green Premium?
The green premium is the cost difference between a low-carbon product and the traditional option. Understanding the green premium can help us decide where to focus our efforts and help make low-carbon solutions more accessible.Article: “Understanding the Green Premium”Green premiums make climate-friendly choices costly—but fossil fuels have their own hidden costs, too. We’ll need to reduce green premiums through continued innovation to make climate-friendly options more accessible and widespread.Closer: Innovation Mini-PosterStudents will think about the most important innovations we need to combat climate change,and will then make a fun mini-poster that highlights one innovation thatwill make a big difference.Additional Materials:•Article: “The Solutions We Have and the Innovations We Need”•Article: “Working the Levers of Climate Action”•Video: How Can We Respond to Climate Change?•Activity: Exploring the Levers of Change•Activity: Exploring the Green Premium•Video: Green Premiums: The Extra Cost to DecarbonizeLesson 7: The Grand ChallengesLearning Objective: 1.Identify the five Grand Challenges and describe how each relates to the goal of reducing carbon emissions.2.Evaluate the efficacy of this framework by identifying the benefits and challenges it provides.Description:Students explore the five main economic sectors responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.Opener: Emissions Image SortStudents will sort images of greenhouse gas emissions into different categories to prepare themto learn more about the sources of these emissions.Infographic: The Grand ChallengesThe Grand Challenges are the five main economic sectors responsible for carbon emissions. Understanding where emissions come from is essential to being able to take action to reduce them.Article: “Grand Challenge Overview”Humanity releases 51 billion tons of carbon each year. That’s a big problem. By dividing it into five categories, we can make the problem—and its solutions—easier to grasp.Activity: Grand Challenge Image Sort
Students will categorize sources of carbon emissions into their corresponding Grand Challenges to assess the value of this framework and understand where emissions come from. Bydoing so, they’llbe better prepared to address how we can work to reduce emissions in these areas.Video: Introduction to the Grand ChallengesEvery year, we release 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 studentsmake sense of climate change and consider some solutions.Closer: Using the Grand Challenge FrameworkWe’ve learned a lot about the Grand Challenges in this lesson. Now, it’s time to assess the usefulness of this framework, which will help studentsto better understand these categories and how they can inform climate change solutions.Additional Materials:•Article: “Decarbonization Goals”•Activity: Decarbonization Goals ExplorationLesson 8: Decarbonization SolutionsLearning Objective: 1.Describe and assess carbon-reduction strategies within each Grand Challenge.2.Analyze various solutions to decarbonization and determine which Grand Challenge is most critical to emissions reduction.3.Assess the benefits and challenges of evaluating climate solutions against a set of limited criteria.Description:Students evaluate the most promising decarbonization solutions and research solution a solution using the framework students have learned. Opener: Solutions SortStudents will sort solutions images into each of the five Grand Challenges. This will help prepare themto learn more about these solutions and decide which solutions have the most potential for reducing emissions.Infographic: Vacuum the SkyThis infographic explores how direct air capturetechnology works and the potential impact it could haveon the fight against climate change.Article: “Solutions to the Grand Challenges”There are a lot of options available to solve the Grand Challenges. This article offers a framework studentscan use to decide which solutions are worth our time and resources.Video: Can We Make Electricity Without Fossil Fuels?Electricity makes our modern lives possible—but can we make electricity without fossil fuels? This video explores how we might decarbonize the electricity supply.
Activity: Grand Challenge Solutions ResearchStudents will research and evaluate the purpose, opportunities, and obstacles for a decarbonization solution of theirchoice. In doing so, theywill be better equipped to assess and understand solutions theyencounter in the future.Closer: The Cost and Benefits of SolutionsStudents will reflect on the decarbonization solutionsthey’ve learned aboutto determine which Grand Challenge theythink will make the biggest impact and where we should be focusing our efforts.Additional Materials:•Article: “Envisioning a Climate Future”•Activity: Climate Expert Exploration