Teacher preparation:

Overarching learning goal: By participating in this activity is is hoped that students will recognise that different people think about climate change in different ways. Students will understand that climate change is a complex issue with difficult questions but that there are common themes in how different people think about climate change.

Teacher content information:

Cool Australia Presents Climate Change from Cool Australia on Vimeo.

The IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was created to:

provide policymakers (governments) with regular scientific updates about climate change;
highlight the impact climate change will have on the planet in the future; and,
offer some ideas about how to tackle the challenges of climate change's potential effects on the planet.

In 2021-22, the IPCC released their sixth assessment report. This is the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change.

The report makes a number of important points:

It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.
Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades (B1). The report describes five possible climate futures, where #1 is not great and #5 is extremely bad. If we want to keep global warming at less than two degrees, which the IPCC says is the best-case scenario, we need to reduce our CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions significantly and start right away.

'Net zero' or 'carbon neutral' are terms that refer to achieving an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions taken out of the atmosphere. Getting to net zero means we can still produce some emissions, so long as we're doing something else to reduce the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere at the same time, kind of like balancing a set of scales (more info).

Psychological safety. The IPCC Report sets a hard challenge. While this real-world issue is essential for students to understand, there is no doubt it can make them feel sad or anxious about the future is becoming darker and scarier by the day. So, reassure students that we can have a hopeful and optimistic outlook on this report, rather than one of doom and gloom. Explain that optimism involves looking objectively at a situation and making a conscious decision to focus on the good (more info), and that hope is the belief that you can make an impact (more info). Explain to students that you are going to look ahead, identify what needs to be improved, and then work on the skills and confidence so that they can go out and do it. If you're interested in learning more about how to approach challenging topics around climate change and sustainability in your classroom through a Hope and Optimism lens, consider our PD course.

Student and classroom organisation:

Step 1.

Begin this activity by asking each student to write down 10 words that spring to mind when they think of the terms 'climate change' and 'the greenhouse effect'. The words can come from what students already know about the science of this topic, or can reflect an emotive response to this topic.

Ask students to share these words with the class, and as a class, create a word cloud using Wordle.

Once complete, hold a brief discussion with your students about the class word cloud. Consider using the following questions:

Which words are the most common in your class?
Why do you think these words are the most common?

Step 2.

Ask students to spend 10 minutes exploring the Climate Change Toolbox on the Cool Australia website. Students must read this section on climate change and the Climate change fact sheet. Once these two items have been read, students can spend the rest of the time looking through the other resources.

Once the 10 minutes are up, ask students to create questions using the following question starters based upon what they saw and read in the Toolbox (question starters also available on the student worksheet):

How would it be different if…?
Suppose that…?
What are the reasons…?
What if…?
What if we knew…?
What is the purpose of…?
What would change if…?
Why…?

Step 3.

Once students have completed their questions, ask them to select one question they would like answered. Students should write this question on a piece of paper and hand this paper to the teacher. The teacher should then distribute these questions amongst the class to be answered.

Ask each student to investigate an answer to the question they were given. Students should create a poster that shares the question and describes the answer. Answers should be kept to a maximum of 5 sentences and students can use images in support of their answer.

Step 4.

Once all students have completed their posters, display the posters in the classroom and engage students in a discussion around the posters. Consider using the following questions to guide your discussion:

Which types of questions were most popular? Why do you think that is?
What topics were the most popular? Why do you think that is?
Which types of questions/topics were the easiest to answer and why? Which were hardest and why?

Assessment/Reflection

1. Again working as class, create a new Wordle word cloud using key words from the class posters. Work together to decide what sorts of words you will include (emotive, scientific, descriptive etc). Alternatively, students could work in groups to create word clouds based upon different sorts of words.

2. Ask students to reflect on this activity using the PMI chart (available on the student worksheet).

An introduction to climate change and the greenhouse effect

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