An introduction to climate change and the greenhouse effect

An introduction to climate change and the greenhouse effect

Lesson 1 of 9 in this unit

  • Secondary
  • Year 7 - 8
  • English
  • Science
  • Environmental
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • ...

Lesson summary

This activity has been designed to introduce students to the topic of climate change and provide students with the opportunity to create and investigate personally important questions around this topic. Students begin the activity by brainstorming climate change and creating a word cloud. Students then read information about climate change from the Cool Australia Climate Change Toolbox and develop questions about what they read using question starters. They are then asked to investigate these questions and present their answers to the class.

Learning intentions:

Students will...

  • recognise that different people think about climate change in different ways
  • understand that there are common themes in how different people think about climate change and that these can be ordered or grouped
  • understand that climate change is a complex issue with difficult questions.

Lesson guides and printables

Lesson Plan
Student Worksheet

Lesson details

Curriculum mapping

Australian Curriculum content descriptions:

Year 7 English:

  • Use interaction skills when discussing and presenting ideas and information, selecting body language, voice qualities and other elements, (for example music and sound) to add interest and meaning (ACELY1804)
  • Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)
  • Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (ACELY1728)

Year 7 Science:

  • Identify questions and problems that can be investigated scientifically and make predictions based on scientific knowledge (ACSIS124)
  • Communicate ideas, findings and solutions to problems using scientific language and representations using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS133)

Year 8 English:

  • Use interaction skills for identified purposes, using voice and language conventions to suit different situations, selecting vocabulary, modulating voice and using elements such as music, images and sound for specific effects (ACELY1808)
  • Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as appropriate (ACELY1736)
  • Experiment with text structures and language features to refine and clarify ideas to improve the effectiveness of students’ own texts (ACELY1810)
  • Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively (ACELY1738)

Year 8 Science:

  • Identify questions and problems that can be investigated scientifically and make predictions based on scientific knowledge (ACSIS139)
  • Communicate ideas, findings and solutions to problems using scientific language and representations using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS148)

Syllabus Outcomes: SC4-4WS, SC4-9WS, EN4-2A, EN4-3B, EN4-4B. 

Time required: 60 mins

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – oversee activity and facilitate brainstorming

Resources required

  • Internet and computer access
  • student worksheet.

Additional info

This is an original Cool.org lesson. Facts and figures in these lessons may have changed since this lesson was published. We always endeavour to update our resources in a timely manner, but if you see an error or issue in our resources please get in touch with us.

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  • Lesson 2 of 9
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  • Secondary
  • Year 7 - 8
  • Mathematics
  • Environmental
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
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  • Year 7 - 8
  • Science
  • Environmental
  • Climate Change
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  • Year 7 - 8
  • Mathematics
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