What Now? Responding to Climate Change

Lesson Plans

Grades9, 10, 11, 12Earth and Space Sciences, Geography, Engineering

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 →
Provided by King's Centre for Visualization in Science
Open Resource

What it is

  • In this lesson, students will explore many possible solutions to climate change across the sectors of electricity, transportation, land use and agriculture, buildings, and materials. 
  • An interactive module allows students to design a combination of solutions and visualize the total impact those solutions would have. 

Teaching tips

Positives:

  • This lesson plan really gets students considering the impacts of and possible solutions to climate change at a deep level.
  • The "Design Our Climate" simulation is outstanding.

Additional Prerequisites

  • This is part 9 of 9 in Explaining Climate Change, a series of lessons from The King's Centre for Visualization in Science.
  • This lesson assumes students already have an understanding of the science behind climate change.
  • Teachers should instruct students to closely read the text and follow all directions carefully.

Differentiation

  • The readings in this lesson are extensive. Teachers should consider reading scaffolds for students who would benefit from that support.
  • The lessons are set up so that students can proceed at their own pace.
  • Teachers can have students work individually, as a small group, or as a class.
  • Students can present their solutions plan from the "Design Our Climate" simulator to their classmates and discuss the pros and cons of different plans.
  • Check out this similar climate change solutions simulator by Climate Interactive.
  • Other resources on this topic include this table of solutions, this video on engineering solutions, and this interactive webpage and podcast on various solutions.

From the scientist review

This resource provides insight into community climate response mechanisms such as site-specific climate adaptation, resilience, and risk management. It is recommended for teaching climate science and environmental justice.
How we review resources

Ready to use it?

Hosted on explainingclimatechange.ca

Open Resource

Want this to fit your class?

Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.

Related Teaching Resources