Teaching Climate

Understanding Climate Change and the Role of Nature in Creating Resilience

Topic(s): Anthropogenic Changes, Climate Data, Climate Impacts, Mitigation Strategies, Adaptation Strategies, Risk Management, Personal Responsibility, Human Responses to Climate

Grade Level: High School (9-12)

This comprehensive resource presents an entire 6 part unit for understanding major themes in climate change including common misperceptions, global and seasonal trends, and disproportionate risk to climate change by category.

Household Carbon Calculator

Topic(s): Personal Responsibility, Human Responses to Climate

Grade Level: Middle (6-8), High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

This interactive simulation allows users to calculate their household carbon emissions based on travel, home usage, food, and shopping habits. Students will be alerted to how their usage and habits affect their total carbon emissions as compared to others in their zip code. Users are then provided a list of potential actions they can take to reduce their emissions.

Lessons for Understanding Our Water Footprint

Topic(s): Water Cycle, Availability of Water Resources, Personal Responsibility, Human Responses to Climate

Grade Level: Middle (6-8), High School (9-12)

This activity contains lesson plans aimed at teaching about water resources, water use and conservation, and the importance of personal and household choices regarding water use.

Envisioning a Resilient Future

Topic(s): Climate Impacts, Mitigation Strategies, Adaptation Strategies, Personal Responsibility

Grade Level: Middle (6-8)

In this lesson, students create a vision for the future of their community and identify what resources are most important to them as a starting point for resilience planning.

If I just explain the facts, they'll get it, right?

Topic(s): Climate Impacts, Personal Responsibility, Human Responses to Climate

Grade Level: Middle (6-8), High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14)

This video from Texas Tech Climate Science Center describes best practices for engaging in a discussion about climate change with a person who disagrees about the scale of the problem, or outright denies climate change. The video presents an argument with multiple lines of evidence to suggest a more effective discussion approach, such as identifying an agreed upon value, and suggesting how climate change oriented solutions can support that value.

Stories from the Climate Crisis: A Mixer

Topic(s): Extreme Weather, Availability of Water Resources, Agricultural Changes / Food Security, National Security, Public Health, Economic Impacts, Climate Impacts, Personal Responsibility, Human Responses to Climate

Grade Level: Middle (6-8), High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14)

Students will embody a specific person who is impacted by climate change and engage in conversations during a mixer. In these conversations, the students will learn how people from around the world are impacted by climate change.

Realistic Ways You Can Combat Climate Change, Today

Topic(s): Mitigation Strategies, Personal Responsibility

Grade Level: Middle (6-8), High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16), Graduate/Professional, Informal Education

This visualization offers a variety of realistic actions anyone can take to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Topics include how to create an energy efficient home, how to practice sustainable shopping, how to adopt sustainable eating habits, and how to prioritize eco-friendly transportation and travel.

Plum's Island Explorer: Land and Water

Topic(s): Personal Responsibility

Grade Level: Primary (K-2), Intermediate (3-5)

This is an interactive video in which students navigate around a virtual island while learning about the characteristics of land formations and bodies of water.

Food Sustainability and Security

Topic(s): Agricultural Changes / Food Security, Personal Responsibility, Human Responses to Climate

Grade Level: Intermediate (3-5), Middle (6-8), High School (9-12)

This activity has students analyze the lifecycle of food in their homes.

Earth Day 1970 - 2020: 50th Anniversary - Time Will Tell

Topic(s): Anthropogenic Changes, Climate Impacts, Mitigation Strategies, Adaptation Strategies, Personal Responsibility

Grade Level: Middle (6-8), High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14), Informal Education

Using real data, this animated video provides numerous facts comparing human behaviors and Earth characteristics related to climate change through time - from the first Earth Day in 1970, to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020.

Topics

Grade Level

Climate Literacy Principles

Energy Literacy Principles

Teaching Climate