The topic of climate change dominated the headlines in 2019. The issue can seem either overwhelming or distant to students who don’t know much about it. As educators, it’s our responsibility to ensure that students are prepared with the appropriate skills and knowledge to help them engage in collaborative and critical thinking around climate change.

These lessons from Learning Lab will engage your students with the topic of climate change, so that they feel prepared for discussions on responding to this global imperative.

• Grades 3–5: Solar Boxes, created by EcoRise and RIS. In this lesson, students learn about climate change through the greenhouse effect. By creating a solar box and discussing how environmental conditions affect temperature, students explore how human activities have impacted Earth’s temperatures. The lesson ends with a discussion on ways we can help reverse climate change.
• Grades 6–8: Fueling our Future (6–8), created by Facing the Future, explores climate change through the lens of energy. The unit, consisting of nine lessons, introduces foundational energy concepts and focuses on specific energy topics, such as energy access and transportation fuels. Choose to teach just one lesson from the unit, or teach all nine in an “energy-focused week.”
• Grades 9–12: Our Changing Planet, created by The Energy Coalition. In this lesson, students learn how the Earth’s climate has changed over time and how human activities have directly contributed to this change. They will research the threats that global warming poses on our planet and actions we can take daily to decrease our contribution to climate change.

All these lessons are available as part of the Learning Lab subscription, which is available for purchase for $40—less for bulk purchases.