Photo: Kids Climate March in Minnesota in 2017, by Lorie Shaull
To the Teacher
This sequence includes six lessons that can be spread over six or more days:
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How is the climate changing?
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How are glaciers changing over time?
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How will sea level rise affect us?
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How does climate change make weather more extreme?
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Why is climate change happening?
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What can young people do about climate change?
Alternatively, use the ideas and links as resources for your existing climate change lesson plans.
These lessons rely on climate change data from NASA, articles from Newsela, and two key books for middle-school readers:
How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch (Dawn Publications, 2010) collects a wide range of evidence demonstrating how the climate is changing, and presents it in an empowering way by emphasizing how young people are researching and taking action on climate change.
Rising Seas: Flooding, Climate Change, and Our New World by Keltie Thomas (Firefly Books, 2018) focuses on one of the most striking effects of climate change, and explores how sea level rise is already impacting coastal regions around the world in order to bring home the urgency of climate action.
1. How is the climate changing?
Ask students what they already know or have heard about climate change. Record their knowledge and wonderings on a KWL chart. (That is, what do you Know about this topic; what do you Want to know; and, what did you Learn).
Next, introduce NASA’s Global Climate Change website.
As a class, examine the Global Temperature indicator. Ask students to interpret the chart and the visualization map for what they show about how global temperatures have changed over time.
Then ask students to make predictions about how these changes in temperature might affect the planet. Turn these predictions into questions and add them to the KWL chart.
Note to the teacher: Students may have heard people argue that current climate change is not caused by humans because climate change has also occurred in the past. Be prepared to investigate with students how much faster the rate of climate change is now than in the past, and to make predictions about how those fast-moving changes might be even more challenging for humans and other animals than the slower changes of the past.
2. How are glaciers changing over time?
To explore this question, use the lesson plan “Disappearing Glaciers” from the teacher’s guide to How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate, pages 19-21.
This lesson plan includes a kinesthetic exploration of a glacier’s life cycle and an analysis of the changes in a glacier over time using a Venn diagram.
You can also show this time-lapse video of Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska.
Ask students what learning and wonderings they can add to the KWL chart based on today.
3. How will sea level rise affect us?
Introduce the lesson’s guiding question about how sea level change affects humans by having students conduct an experiment with ice and water, demonstrating how glacier melt affects sea level.
A video of one such demonstration is available here.
After the demonstration, have students explain to each other how glacial ice melting affects sea levels.
Then have students examine the sea level simulation data at NASA’s Climate Time Machine.
Alternately, show students these photos of children standing in water at the level of expected sea level rise during their lifetimes.
Ask students to make predictions about how these changes in sea level will affect people in coastal cities.
Then have students work in small groups to examine selections from the book Rising Seas. Pages 6-9 offer an overview of sea level rise, and other sections discuss effects on specific regions from Miami Beach to the Maldives. Be sure to clarify that some of the pictures are photo illustrations based on predictions, not actual photographs. Have students discuss and revise their predictions based on their reading.
Finally, have students write their own creative narratives about how changes in sea level might affect a family like theirs, living in a coastal city of their choice.
Ask students what learning and wonderings they can add to the KWL chart based on today.
4. How does climate change make weather more extreme?
Brainstorm with students: What kinds of extreme weather events have you heard about recently? What are some ways that climate change and global temperature rise might affect the weather and make it more extreme?
Divide into small groups and have each group read one of these four Newsela articles at a time at an appropriate Lexile level, and then discuss the given questions as a group (free Newsela account required).
After groups discuss their article, ask them to work together to write a short summary of the article. Have each group share its summary with the class.
Cyclones and Climate Change (560-1190L)
Ten ways climate change can make wildfires worse (410-820L)
Why there’s a big chill in a warmer world (380-810L)
Climate change in the US Southwest (550-1210L)
Group questions:
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What kinds of extreme weather are discussed in our group’s article?
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How does climate change cause that extreme weather?
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How does that extreme weather affect people?
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Who does it affect?
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What kinds of damage does the extreme weather cause?
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What can people do to help?
Ask students what learning and wonderings they can add to the KWL chart based on today.
5. Why is climate change happening?
To explore this question, use the lesson plan “Life in the Green House” from the teacher’s guide to How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate, pages 28-33.
This lesson plan includes an informal pre-test of knowledge about the greenhouse effect, an interactive lecture on the greenhouse effect with a graphic organizer, and small-group discussion questions.
Then, consolidate knowledge by having students work in groups to construct cause-and-effect diagrams showing the causes and effects of climate change, using arrows to show how causes lead to effects. Diagrams should link together at least 5 different phrases, and should include target vocabulary, such as “fossil fuels,” “carbon dioxide,” “sea level,” and “global temperature.”
As an extension activity, you might ask students to discuss and use a Venn diagram to record which parts of the world have contributed the most to climate change and which parts of the world are suffering the most consequences from climate change. Ask: What responsibility does our country have to help solve this problem? You can introduce this discussion with a reading from Rising Seas, page 45.
Ask students what learning and wonderings they can add to the KWL chart based on today.
6. What can young people do about climate change?
Ask students to use a Carbon Footprint Calculator to estimate their carbon footprint Invite them to discuss results with their neighbors as they do.
Discuss as a class:
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What kinds of actions emit more carbon?
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How can we reduce various forms of carbon emissions?
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Which kinds are harder for individuals to stop or reduce?
Read together pages 50-55 from How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate. Then, as a class, have students brainstorm ways they can fight climate change. As students come up with actions, take notes on the board. Analyze the results together.
Students are likely to focus on individual actions they can take to reduce their energy consumption. Ask students: What is the difference between individual actions and collective actions? After they identify the difference, ask why collective actions can be more powerful. You might point to the ways our government or institutions contribute to climate change (such as government support for the fossil fuel industry), and encourage ideas about how to change such government decisions. See if they can come up with any more ideas for collective action.
Ask students: Did you know that children like you have been working together with adults to bring lawsuits against the U.S. government to stop climate change?
Have your students read this Newsela article at an appropriate Lexile level:
Children’s court case to fight climate change (580-1250L)
Discuss as a class:
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What do you think about this lawsuit?
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How does climate change affect children more than adults?
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What are some ways the government is causing climate change?
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Do you think the government has a responsibility to protect the climate for children?
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What kinds of collective actions could students like you take to fight climate change?
Ask students to reflect on their learning one last time with the KWL chart.