This lesson is designed for fifth grade students. It focuses on the “big idea” that humans depend on, are shaped by, and affect the earth’s climate. Students will first take an in-depth look into the earth’s climate, the roles humans play in climate changes, and the impacts the changing climate will have on humans. Then, they will propose solutions to minimize the consequences of climate change on our earth and its people.

This video adapted from KTOO takes a look at Earth's warming and cooling cycles and the current atypical trend of warming that is impacting the glaciers in Alaska's Inside Passage.

We hear about climate impacts all over the world, often in global terms. But what is happening where? And what will happen in our own communities? Students play a game to understand changes to precipitation. Then, using the US Climate Resilience Toolkit, they investigate local climate concerns and solutions.

This Guide for Educators was developed by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative as an extension of our TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) podcast, to make it easier for you to teach climate change, earth science, and energy topics in the classroom. It is an extension of the TILclimate episode "TIL about climate impacts."

This video documents the effects of increasing global temperatures on biodiversity (changes in distribution, range, and numbers) and human populations. Adaptations to climate change are also outlined.

The third of the series, this video features Georgetown faculty and administrators describing what the University community is already doing to battle climate change on campus and beyond.

The second of this series, this video features Georgetown University faculty and administrators exploring the interdisciplinarity of climate change and its implications for education, including the need for project-based learning.

The first in a series of videos engaging the Georgetown University faculty and staff in a conversation about the relationship between a Georgetown education and climate change. Each brief video explores a different theme or set of questions. Above, you will find the first video, which features interviewees discussing students' "scientific literacy" with respect to climate change. In the following week, we'll produce and share two additional videos, one exploring the interdisciplinarity of climate change and its implications for education, and the other describing what faculty and students are already doing to battle climate change on campus and beyond.

This graphic indicator describes trends in average precipitation for the United States and the world.

This resource is part of a collection of visualizations that illustrate observed changes in temperature, precipitation, storms, floods, and droughts. This resource focuses on US and Global temperature. Rising global average temperature is associated with widespread changes in weather patterns. Scientific studies indicate that extreme weather events such as heat waves and large storms are likely to become more frequent or more intense with human-induced climate change. The larger collection includes climate change indicators within the oceans, snow and ice, and other ecosystems and the effects on humans and our society.

This Jigsaw exercise has students discuss radio stories from the Yale Climate Connections (YCC) project as a team to deepen their thinking around climate change issues.

How does climate change lead to an increase in size, intensity, and frequency of wildfires in California? Students will use the phenomenon of wildfire intensity increasing in California to explore the causes, effects and solutions to climate change in California.

This resource is a hub for information about teaching climate change across grade levels and content areas. 

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students explore four major categories of climate change, identify one to further research, and create a fact sheet.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson introduces students to factsheets and infographics and how powerful they can be in providing and relaying information. Students start the lesson by reading through a factsheet/infographic about New Jersey’s changing climate followed by a partner discussion about how the factsheet makes them feel. Students are then able to pick one of four categories, do research about their topic, and create their own factsheet and infographic. Student factsheets/infographics are shared and compared/contrasted with one another. This lesson allows for multiple instances of student autonomy and provides a creative outlet for discussing climate change. It is hereby recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used in English, social studies, computer science, digital art, or science classes. It can be easily adjusted to be multidisciplinary.
-Students are given voice and choice in this lesson.
-Students become agents of change in their own communities, identifying problems and solutions.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should be familiar with the basics of climate change.
-Students should be familiar with school-appropriate websites from previous school-related research.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students’ communication can be as simple or as thorough as you desire. They will need more time to research and craft their communication if you want their writing to be more fact-based and robust.
-Students can work independently or in a group with adjusted requirements.
-Teachers can use subject and grade level vocabulary already being learned in class. Teachers can add more vocabulary words in the glossary slide of the Teacher Slideshow.
-To deepen a social studies or global connection, students can explore the history of their chosen issue, how other countries are addressing the issue, or focus on a global solution strategy.
-To connect to computer science or digital art, students can create their infographic and fact sheet digitally.
-To further develop practical science or engineering skills, students can work together to create and implement a workable solution at the school, home, or community level.
-Some students may wish to communicate their advocacy via social media. Make sure to follow all school rules and monitor students’ progress if you allow this in the classroom.

This lesson has students create, compare, and solve linear, quadratic, exponential, and cubic functions based on a primary source from Weather Underground about the melting of the polar ice caps. If the formatting is an issue, contact me at rob.leichner@gmail.com for a Google drive link to the lesson plan.

This activity is designed to help students visualize and explain the relationships between various terms and concepts related to the science of climate change. After performing this activity students will (hopefully) be able to define various climate change terms and explain the process of climate change.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This poster is about Climate Change: A Call to Action. This material can be used in mitigating Climate Change around the world. 

Average inquiry level: Guided inquiry
In this laboratory exercise for introductory geology or environmental science courses, students use data to examine climate change in their local environment. They compare local changes to global data over different time scales. As an assessment, students create an infographic to demonstrate their understanding of how local climate change may affect their region and what people can do to be better prepared. This lab was originally designed for online instruction, but may be used in face-to-face instruction as well.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This course provides a broad overview of issues related to climate change, with an emphasis on those aspects most relevant to computer scientists. Topics include climate science, climate models and simulations, decision-making under uncertainty, economics, mitigation strategies, adaptation strategies, geoengineering, policy-making, messaging, and politics.The course will culminate in a presentation of a research project which might include a paper, a blog, software etc.