Understanding Climate Change
Provided by: OER Project|Published on: July 18, 2025|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Lesson Plans
Subjects: Chemistry, Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: OER Project: Climate
Location: Earth
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this lesson from OER Project: Climate, students will learn about the causes and impacts of climate change.
- Students will explore past instances of climate change, analyze data to link climate change to human activity, and evaluate the validity and reliability of claims related to climate change.
- This is one of many lessons in the online Climate course by OER Project.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This student-facing resource is extremely user-friendly, allowing students to navigate it with minimal teacher guidance.
- Students will love the use of multimedia elements like graphics and videos to support their understanding.
Prerequisites
- Though briefly explained in this lesson, it may benefit students to understand that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, and that fossil fuels are used to power many vehicles, utilities, and industrial processes currently, but that renewable energy is already replacing fossil fuels in many cases.
Differentiation & Implementation
- To pause the video for questions highlighting the key ideas, teachers or students should check the box below the video.
- To demonstrate their understanding of the graphic biography and other information about Eunice Foote, students can stage an interview, acting as Eunice and answering questions about her discovery and what it means.
- If teachers have many students with low reading stamina, the Current Events readings can be broken down and assigned to Jigsaw groups to read and report on.
- For a hands-on activity that demonstrates the greenhouse effect, teachers can recreate this experiment in their classrooms after students have listened to the lesson's video explaining the greenhouse effect.
This resource guides students in understanding the basics of climate science. Throughout, emphasis is placed on testing claims and analyzing evidence. Common misconceptions about climate change are addressed, and key terms are clearly defined. This resource presents both a historic and present-day view of climate and is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
