This three-week project begins with a measurement of "baseline" consumptive behavior followed by two weeks of working to reduce the use of water, energy, high-impact foods, and other materials. The assignment uses an Excel spreadsheet that calculates direct energy and water use as well as indirect CO2 and water use associated with food consumption.

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SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students identify the main character in a story and identify their character traits.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson allows students to demonstrate traits from 5 scenarios about energy conservation, biodiversity, and waste management. It is suitable to build their passion towards environmental sustainability and stewardship. All materials and activities in the lesson have been reviewed and are appropriate. On that account, this lesson is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-Students have the opportunity for auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learning.
-Students have the opportunity to work independently, in small groups, and in whole group discussions.
-Students are able to share their diverse ideas and perspectives in a variety of creative ways.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Teachers should print handouts prior to the lesson.
-Art supplies are required for comic strips.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-You have many options for how your students read Saving Planet Earthly.
-Students can read independently or in small groups.
-You can read the story out loud to the entire class.
-You may play the audio version while students follow along. The audio version is 8 minutes, 57 seconds long.
-You may read the scenario sheet out loud before students begin acting in the Investigate section.
-Students may be placed in groups of mixed abilities.
-A word bank of personal characteristics can be used to assist students in learning and creating character reactions to scenarios.

This is a classroom activity about the forcing mechanisms for the most recent cold period: the Little Ice Age (1350-1850). Students receive data about tree ring records, solar activity, and volcanic eruptions during this time period. By comparing and contrasting time intervals when tree growth was at a minimum, solar activity was low, and major volcanic eruptions occurred, they draw conclusions about possible natural causes of climate change and identify factors that may indicate climate change.

Many introductory environmental studies courses begin with climate change, perhaps because it is the environmental issue with which students have the most familiarity and concern, and because climate change impacts virtually all of Earth's socio-ecological systems. Pedagogically, this presents a challenge. Understanding climate science requires complex systems thinking that challenges students intellectually. Learning about climate change also presents a psychological and emotional challenge as it forces students and instructors to confront the reality of an uncertain future.
This activity introduces students to climate change in a new way â by beginning not with the science of climate change, nor with the data and figures depicting climate change projections, but instead with people's lived experiences of climate change. At its core, this three-day class activity relies on a set of narratives to teach students about the effects of climate change. These narratives include videos, radio interviews, and news articles in which people already living through the effects of climate change -- displacement, drought, food insecurity, etc. -- describe their experiences. In some ways, this de-centering of climate science in favor of the voices of those on the front lines of climate change is a radical approach. And yet, I find that introducing climate change this way makes the science feel more relevant, meaningful and accessible, especially for those students fearful of or disinterested in science. I hope that by starting with these narratives, we might humanize climate change and tap into students' empathy to make them more open for looking at opportunities for agency and change-making around climate change.
I am grateful to the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences members for providing suggestions for many of the climate change narratives included in this teaching activity.

Interactive map tool to assess how rising stream temperatures could affect native fish of the Northwest. Lesson concepts include the relationship between water temperatures, dissolved oxygen levels in streams, and the impacts of changing temperatures on native fish. Focused skills include use of an interactive map to assess how stream temperatures are expected to change and the impacts on native fish.

In this video segment adapted from the Alaska Native Heritage Center, discover the connections between Alaska Native subsistence culture and the natural cycle of the seasons.

This video highlights specific climate change-related phenomena that are threatening the flora and fauna of Yellowstone National Park.

This interactive visualization provides a clear, well-documented snapshot of current and projected values of several climate variables for local areas in California. The climate variables include observed and projected temperatures, projected snowpack, areas vulnerable to flooding due to sea level rise, and projected increase in wildfires. The projected values come from expert sources and well-established climate models.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students explore an interactive map, learn about Cancer Alley, and take concrete action to address environmental injustice.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson introduces students to environmental justice and asks them to use an EPA mapping tool that shows how polluted an area is. The lesson also includes a video resource from Vox that highlights the area of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley." To be as perfectly clear as possible, vast amounts of data and evidence show that people of color are disproportionately affected by pollution in the United States, and that higher exposure to pollutants directly correlates to higher incidence of disease. This video was produced in May of 2020, which is quite early on in the pandemic, and as such, some of the numbers presented in it are outdated. This outdated data is only for the numbers given when speaking on COVID-19 mortality rates. For example, the video says that Louisiana’s population is 32% Black (still correct) but Black people account for 56% of COVID-19 deaths. This is no longer the case as of July 2022, and according to data obtained from Louisiana’s government website, Black citizens account for 34% of deaths. While this is still disproportional, it is not as large of a disparity as when the video was produced. The same is true for Michigan, where Black residents now account for 17.5% of deaths but make up 14% of the population (data from michigan.gov). So, while this lesson highlights the importance of environmental justice and is overall scientifically sound, please just take note of the changes in the COVID-19 data.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson clearly connects redlining and environmental racism.
-This lesson shows a concrete example of the effects of systemic racism in the United States.
ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:Some students may never have discussed racism and climate change before. Meet your students where they are and encourage them to ask good questions.
-When teaching this sequence, it’s important to acknowledge the historical facts that have led to this injustice. Here are some resources to help you:
-Dr. Ibram X. Kendi defines racist policy as “any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups.” (Source: Article from Penguin Publishing Company)
-Government entities suppressed the Black vote through different means until the Voting Rights Act in 1965. (Source: history.com)
-Redlining was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act in 1968. (Source: ThoughtCo)

DIFFERENTIATION:
-It may be necessary to offer the letter-writing as an extension or an extra credit opportunity.
-Be sensitive to the needs of your students, as systemic racism affects them in different ways.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn Spanish phrases about animals, climates, and simple actions to save energy at home.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson provides elementary knowledge on climate change and biodiversity conservation. It allows students to identify and classify animals in respect to their habitats and climatic zones. All materials in the lesson have been reviewed appropriately and are suitable for teaching. This lesson has passed our science review credibility process.

Esta lección proporciona conocimientos elementales sobre el cambio climático y la conservación de la biodiversidad. Permite a los estudiantes identificar y clasificar animales con respecto a sus hábitats y zonas climáticas. Todos los materiales de la lección han sido revisados ​​apropiadamente y son adecuados para la enseñanza. Esta lección ha pasado nuestro proceso de credibilidad de revisión científica.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson creates a collaborative learning environment as students engage with a variety of modalities.
-The games and activities promote engagement and participation from all learners.
-The lesson introduces students to an authentic Spanish language story from Chile.
-The photographs of animals name the specific places where the animals live.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students need no prior knowledge to complete the lesson.
-Teachers may wish to print the Teacher Slideshow to hang in the room to reinforce the concepts and vocabulary.
-Some students may find the “¿Dónde está mi clima” game upsetting if they are unable to find a climate that matches their assigned animal. Teachers can choose some students to role-play the activity in front of the class instead.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Teachers can easily expand the lesson to include short sentences and more active vocabulary.
-For the postcard activity, students can cut and paste phrases provided by the teacher or copy the words by hand.

One of a suite of online climate interactive simulations, this Greenhouse Gas Simulator uses the bathtub model to demonstrate how atmospheric concentrations of CO2 will continue to rise unless they are lowered to match the amount of CO2 that can be removed through natural processes.

This climate model simulates the Earth's climate system by allowing users to toggle different influences on climate (e.g. oceans, atmospheric gases) based on model version used.

Over the past 40 years, some lobstermen in South Thomaston, Maine, say that they could "set their watches” by the start of the lobster shedding event each season. In 2012, though, extreme warm ocean temperatures—an ocean heat wave—combined with early and repeated lobster shedding. The obvious changes in lobsters during this event galvanized many lobstermen to take the impacts of climate change seriously.

This is Unit 1 of a larger module and centers on the fundamental concepts of major storms and community resilience. In this unit, students acquire a vocabulary related to storm systems and risk, engage in practical exercises on event probability and frequency, and complete written activities and oral presentations that reinforce these concepts, using two case studies as examples.

This course aims to get students thinking about politics and policy as a part of their everyday life. We treat politics as a struggle among competing advocates trying to persuade others to see the world as they do, working within a context that is structured primarily by institutions and cultural ideas. We’ll begin by developing a policymaking framework, understanding ideology, and taking a whirlwind tour of the American political system. Then, we’ll examine six policy issues in depth: health care, gun control, the federal budget, immigration reform, same-sex marriage, and energy and climate change.

In this learning activity, students analyze an actual dataset of the influence of temperature on tree growth. They use mathematical and statistical concepts like slope equations and lines of best fit to determine the relationship. They are then asked to make predictions about future tree growth under different greenhouse gas emissions, interpreting data from climate models to make these predictions.

This unit is designed to give students an introduction to this pressing societal problems and to teach students how to analyze some of the compiled data on global warming through rates, ratios and proportions; students will also learn to make projections and predictions using slope, and linear and exponential functions.

To teach this unit, the teacher has to have at least a general knowledge of global warming, the greenhouse effect, and the carbon cycle. I thought that it was important to explain the basics of these topics. This unit is designed as a math unit, to help students gain a deeper understanding of linear functions, slope, exponential functions, as well as rates, ratios and proportions. Global warming, the carbon cycle, and the greenhouse effect, will be the real life application to which we will apply our mathematics.

This is a group mapping exercise that examines the many factors that affect the distribution and possible future distribution of malaria in North and South America.

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In the Arizona desert, farmers depend on an ample supply of irrigation to grow their crops. As climate changes, irrigation managers face a host of issues to keep the water flowing.

In this video, Michael Mann and Peter Ramsdorf explore some of the information from the 2013 IPCC 5th report in light of public perceptions of climate science.