Provided by: National Center for Science Education
Lesson Plans Grades 9-12
Synopsis
In this unit, students will work through five activities to become familiar with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, understand how they are related to climate change and climate solutions, learn how climate change impacts humans, determine the most effective solutions, and discover that a combination of solutions is necessary to achieve net zero.
The unit also includes optional Side Quests where students will find out the causes of climate change and how climate change is measured, how to work through strong climate-related emotions, the impacts climate change has on different ecosystems, the effects of fossil fuels, and other related topics.
The resource also emphasizes challenging misconceptions and media literacy skills.https://ncse.ngo/climate-change-story-shorts
The Climate Mental Health Support Activities in Activity 2a are excellent resources for all grades.
Many of the activities include opportunities for extension, modification, and implementation of pedagogical strategies.
Prerequisites
The QR code on Slide 7 of the Activity 1 Slide Deck_Solutions is disabled. Students will need to copy and paste the link themselves.
The Green Revolution link on page 22 and the link for enactingclimate.org on page 23 of the Climate Mental Health Support Activities in Activity 2a are broken.
If students are not familiar with the claim, evidence, and reasoning format, they may need additional guidance, especially with using reasoning to explain how their evidence supports their claim.
Differentiation & Implementation
Language arts teachers can use the claim, evidence, and reasoning activity to build toward more extensive persuasive and informative writing projects.
The SubjecttoClimate resource database has several resources for region-specific citizen science projects to support the Activity 1b Side Quest, especially for Wisconsin, Maine, and Connecticut.
To extend Activity 3, students can choose a solution from the cards to research and create a poster or infographic to post around the school.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
National Center for Science Education
NCSE works with teachers, parents, scientists, and concerned citizens at the local, state, and national levels to ensure that topics like climate change, evolution, and the nature of science are taught accurately, honestly, and confidently.