The Climate Action Challenge: Environmental Literacy Lesson Plan
Overview
This lesson plan is aimed to show why it is important to learn about climate change. Here in the north of Brazil, most students, even teachers don’t understand we should care more about the environment.
The class starts with a warmup activity showing how lots of people are already facing problems because of environmental issues.
Why should we bother about Climate change?
Title of Lesson Plan: Why should we bother about Climate change?
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Educator Author (name, country): Luciara Baleixo da Silva - Brazil
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Audience (Age, English Level): Students between 18 and 35, A2 and B1 | ||
Two Sentence Overview of the Lesson Plan: This lesson plan is aimed to show why it is important to learn about climate change. Here in the north of Brazil, most students, even teachers don’t understand we should care more about the environment. The class starts with a warmup activity showing how lots of people are already facing problems because of environmental issues.
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Resources Needed: Online tools, like google slides, Canva, and padlet. The teacher also needs to have ice cubes, a tray or a plate, and one or two toy houses (they can be LEGO ones) to put inside the plate with the ice.
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Learning Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will understand better why it is necessary to worry about climate change and do something to reduce its impacts.
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Warm-Up: 10 minutes “It’s getting hot here” - The teacher brings some ice cubes, puts them on a plate/container, and asks students what is going to happen if they stay out of the fridge and it gets hotter. The students answer that they are going to melt; The teacher puts a very small toy house (or two, if possible) on the plate and asks what might happen to the house(s); Students say the melted water is going to “invade” the house(s). Now the teacher asks “What if the earth gets hotter, and the ice caps melt? What is going to happen? Can this happen?” Obs: The ice will be melting, then by the end of the class the students confirm what happens. The teacher should put the plate/container in a place by the sun, if possible. If it is hard to bring this material to the classroom teacher can show this video, either as a homework preparation activity or during the class if there is a TV or computer available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDZWWcAfn-c
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| Time | Activities/Instructions
Pre-video activity: Rearrange the words to make a sentence Our climate is the earth’s normal weather over a very long time It usually takes hundreds, or thousands of years for the climate to change Changes make life harder for our plants, animals, and for people around the world. Obs: Teacher can write these words in sheets of paper and hand them out to the students, so they can walk around the room trying to put the sentences together. Online class: Divide students in groups (depending on the number) Each group gets a part in the sentence structure -> Subject, verb, and complement Share the Jamboard link below and ask them to drag and drop the parts according to their roles. Obs: The teacher can drag and drop and the students just say where to place the parts. Obs: Feel free to add more sentences.
Write the options below on the board or play the wordwall activity. https://wordwall.net/resource/57832857 1.How long does it take for the climate to change? a) Decades b) hundreds or thousands of years c) five years 2.Who do these changes make life harder for? a)Plants, animals, and people around the world b)Only plants around the world c) Only plants and animals around the world 3.Who/what causes the Climate to change faster? a)Humans, including plants b)Humans, including animals c) Humans, including you and me 4.What happens when we use fuels like oil and gasoline and remove forests? a)We release oxygen into the atmosphere b)We release greenhouse plants into the atmosphere c)We release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere 5.What can greenhouse gases cause? a) Rain b) temperature c) temperature rise 6. How can you and I help? a)Reuse things, ride a bike or take the bus, use less electricity, and eat food growing closer to home. b)Buy more products c) Use more plastic bags
Give them some time to share their ideas with the others, ask each one to say something they remember from the video. Then they choose a person they most agree with, give them the idea that they can choose who they work with. After this group talk (10 minutes) they create a Canva animation (15 minutes) showing the causes and possible actions to reduce our impact on climate change. If there is no internet access have some paper sheets and colored pencils so they can make some drawings, also a thread and paper clips to hold and hang their drawings to showcase what they created.
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Closing/Debrief: They should share their thoughts about the topic in an informal conversation.
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