Here's a great overview of climate change curriculum, activities and resources for you and your students!

1. Alicia Keefe - Alicia.Keefe@noaa.gov
Education and Outreach Coordinator
West Coast Region
June 27, 2016
Climate Change in Your Classroom

2. YOUR BACKGROUND

3. What’s in the news?
June 26, 2016
• Climate Change Puts Squeeze on Cuddly
Koalas
• Brexit could slow progress on fighting
climate change
• Climate change could be even worse for
Boston than previously thought
• Climate Change Poses Urgent Threat to Poor
• Food Crop Breeding Programmes are Being
Outpaced by Climate Change

4. What’s in the news?
June 26, 2016
• New Coalition Of 7,100 Cities Launched To
Tackle More Effectively Climate Change
• Native American tribes learn to fight
climate change
• Oslo votes to slash emissions 95% by 2030
• Portland School Board Bans Materials
Questioning Human-Caused Climate
Change

5. POWERLESSNESS, TERROR, AND HOPE

6. What will the world look
like in the next 50-100
years (2066-2116)?

7. Ecophobia
A fear of ecological problems and the natural world.

8. Learned Helplessness
Personal
See themselves as the problem; internalize
the problem.
Pervasive
See the problem affecting all aspects of life.
Permanent
See the problem as unchangeable

9. What do you want the world
to look like in the next 50-100
years?

10. “As educators, despair is
not our business.”
- Edmund O’Sullivan, Transformative Learning Center

11. POSITIVE CLIMATE CHANGE RESOURCES
Credit: Linh Do, Flickr Credit: Fusionvision, Flickr

12. Teaching Climate
www.climate.gov/teaching
• Case studies
• Experiments
• Professional development
• Visuals

13. National Climate
Assessment
nca2014.globalchange.gov
The National Climate
Assessment summarizes the
impacts of climate change
on the United States, now
and in the future.

14. U.S. Global Change
Research Program
www.globalchange.gov
• Climate change scenarios
• Data
• Multimedia resources
• Regional climate impacts
• Reports

15. Yes! Magazine
www.yesmagazine.org
• Writing competition
• Curriculum
• Student writing lessons
• Teacher stories
• Email newsletter
• Free Teacher Subscription

16. Newspapers for Education
nie.seattletimes.com
• Lesson plans
• Free subscriptions
• Special inserts
• Stewardship and
Conservation in
Agriculture
• The Science of Climate
• Seafood 101

17. Story of Stuff
storyofstuff.org
• Movies
• Story of Bottled Water
• Story of Cap and Trade
• Story of Change
• Podcasts
• Books
• Curriculum
• Buy, Use, Toss?

18. Climate Voices
climatevoices.org
Speakers voluntarily meet
with groups of citizens who
would like to understand the
science of our climate and
engage in discussion about
the effects and possible
means of adapting to
potential changes.

19. Young Voices
for the Planet
youngvoicesonclimatechange.com
Young Voices documents
youth who are speaking out
and creating solutions.
○Books
○Curriculum
○Movies

20. Climate Voices
climatevoicespodcast.com
Podcast that features news
about and interviews with
people who are fighting
climate change on the front
lines.

21. Alliance for
Climate Education
acespace.org
Teach climate science in a
way that puts teenagers at
the center of the story.
○Action projects
○Assemblies
○Lesson plans
○Music
○Videos

22. Climate Literacy
Awareness Network
cleanet.org
CLEAN hand-picks and rigorously
reviews educational resources that
are aligned with the Climate
Literacy and the Energy Literacy
frameworks, and the Next
Generation Science Standards.
NOAA curriculum
Reviewed by scientists and
teachers.

23. My Nasa Data
mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov
With the Live Access Server
data viewer, you can create
a variety of charts, plots,
and graphs to explore the
Earth system and answer
research questions.
Lesson plans are peer-
reviewed and aligned with
the Climate Literacy
Essential Principles or Energy
Awareness Principles.

24. 7 Billion Others
www.7billionothers.org
• Exhibitions
• Testimonials
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Climate Voices Project
○600 interviews
○17 countries
○7 continents

25. Facing the Future
www.facingthefuture.org
Lesson plans
• NOAA and NASA data
• Tested in classrooms around
the US
• Interdisciplinary
Professional development

26. FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

27. Defining
Sustainability

28. Sustainability
The principle of meeting current
needs without limiting the ability
of future generations to meet
their needs.

29. Models of Sustainability
Credit:greenmonday.org

30. Is it sustainable?
• Potential costs
• Potential benefits
• Are the anticipated effects short- or long-term?
• Are the anticipated effects small- or large-scale?

31. CLIMATE CHANGE CURRICULUM

32. Climate Change:
Connections and Solutions
- Equity and poverty
- Global connections
- Greenhouse effect
- Greenhouse gases
- Personal solutions
- Structural solutions
- Regional impacts
- Renewable energy
- Nonrenewable energy
- Temperature trends
- Carbon cycle
- Carbon dioxide trends
- Carbon footprint
- Climate change policy
- Ecosystems
- Emissions trading
- Energy use
- Energy conservation
- Environmental justice
- Environmental
regulations

33. Scope and Sequence

34. Shopping Heats Up
• Make and explain
purchasing/consumption choices
• Compare different
purchasing/consumption choices and
their impacts on climate change
• Describe how relative affluence and
high consumption levels relate to
climate change
• Discuss personal choices to reduce
the negative environmental and
social impacts of consumption

35. Needs and Wants
• List your needs
• List your wants
Food (what types, packaging)
Clothing, shoes, jewelry
House
Coffee, juice, tea
Vacation and travel
Computer, TV
Electricity
Clean water
Newspaper
Car, bicycle, boat
Sports equipment
Landscaping equipment
Camping and hiking gear

37. Pick 1 card without looking.

39. Get into groups of 3-5 with
people who have the same
dollar amounts.

40. Critical Thinking Questions
• What choices are available to people
with relatively little access to
wealth/income compared to people
with relatively high access?
• What are some environmental and
social impacts of each of those choices
and decisions? How do these impacts
contribute to climate change?
• What personal choices can we make to
help reduce our impact on climate
change?

41. Extension
Assign each group a family
from the book, Material World,
by Peter Menzel. Have the
students analyze what that
family owns and brainstorm
the relative impact those
items might have on climate
change. Have them examine
and compare the carbon
dioxide emissions from each
family’s country.

42. Extension
Have students research cost-effective ways of
reducing greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., compact
fluorescent light bulbs, sealing cracks around
windows and doors, unplugging appliances when
not in use).
Some high-tech solutions are too costly for many
people to use; finding cost-effective measures is
essential to involve more people in climate change
solutions. Give students a “budget” of $50 and
challenge them to find the most effective ways to
reduce CO2 emissions within that budget

43. CULMINATING PROJECTS

44. Deep Space
3000
From Engaging Students Through Global Issues
- Why do we sometimes act as though
Earth is not a closed system?
- What are the ultimate consequences of
such actions on a closed system?

45. Bio-Poem
From Exploring Global Issues
Students create a concept
map that illustrates their
strengths, interests, and the
factors that have encouraged
these strengths and gifts.
Students then create a bio-
poem that describes who they
are and the future they
desire.

46. 30 Days for Change
From Exploring Global Issues
Students identify a personal action or
habit that they can create to lead a
more sustainable lifestyle.
The class will then participate in a 30-
day Sustainability Challenge in which
they try to make this personal action a
habit. Each week of the challenge,
students will meet with group
members for encouragement and
accountability.

47. Creating Our Future
From Exploring Global Issues
How do we create a just and humane
world for ourselves and for future
generations?
Students identify and plan what they
want their future to look like. Using
an action planning model, students
visualize their desired future, identify
objectives, develop a plan to address
local and global issues, and implement
their vision through action and service
learning.

48. CLIMATE EDUCATION LEGISLATION

49. Senate Bill 3074
Senate Bill 3074, introduced in the U. S. Senate
on June 16, 2016, would, if enacted, authorize
NOAA to establish a climate change education
program.
Included is a grant program aimed at improving
climate change education at the K-12 level.
"Everyone concerned about equipping students
with the knowledge and know how required for
them to flourish in a warming world should urge
their congressional representative to support
these bills."
- Ann Reid, Executive Director, National Center for Science Education