Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Flipped classroom

20 minutes

Find Out: What is climate change?

25 minutes

Take Action: Action cards

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

explore climate change
build their thinking and questioning skills.

Students can:

understand individual practices that contribute to climate change
collaborate with peers to create and design action cards.

Tune In: Flipped classroom

Step 1

In their own time, students will watch the video.

Climate Change Everyone’s Business - (vimeo.com/65187288/f6c1d94912)

Students are to take notes in the Student Worksheet whilst watching the video to record the facts and their feelings.

Find Out: What is climate change?

Step 1

Invite students to share their responses to the Facts and Feelings table in the Student Worksheet. Allow each student to discuss their viewpoints and clarify any questions.

Step 2

Read the excerpt below to students:

“Climate change is the large-scale and long-term shift in the average temperature and weather patterns over an observable period of time on both regional and global scales. While the Earth’s climate has been constantly changing, the last 200 years have seen it change at a rate that has not been seen in the past 10,000 years. Some of these shifts can be naturally occurring, occasionally altering due to changes in the sun’s activity or significant volcanic eruptions yet the term ‘climate change’ is widely used to refer specifically to human-made changes to the climate over the past 200 years, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas.” (Source: WWF Australia)

Step 3

Explain to students that they have ten minutes to learn about climate change. Direct students to read through the WWF Australia webpage on climate change here. As they build on their knowledge, students are to add new information to the Facts and Feelings table on the Student Worksheet.

Step 4

Invite students to do a ‘turn and talk’ by engaging with one peer in the class to share a fact they recorded that they were surprised to learn.

Take Action: Action cards

Step 1

Divide students into small groups and provide each group with a stack of index cards and markers. Explain to students that they have ten minutes to write as many actions as possible that individuals can take to slow the progress of climate change.

For example:

turning off lights
using reusable bags
no single-use plastic items
choosing renewable resources.

Step 2

After writing, ask groups to sort their actions into energy-saving, waste-reduction, and sustainable living categories. Students can create unique categories if they prefer.

Step 3

Encourage students to decorate their action cards with illustrations related to the core action. Students can use markers, pencils, or pens.

Step 4

Invite students to the front of the classroom to briefly present their top actions and categories to the class. While students present, ask each group to identify how these actions relate to Earth Hour and the impact of individual actions on climate change.

Numeracy extension: Students could assign a numeric value to each action card and use each card in a trade game. For example, climate actions with less global impact could have a lower numeric value, and to live sustainably, students must accumulate a certain number of climate points.

Reflection

Invite students to reflect on what they think we can do to care for our environment and slow the progress of climate change.

Use the whiteboard to draw the table below and invite students to the whiteboard to write their responses.

Start Things we need to start doing:	Stop Things we need to stop doing:	Keep Things we need to keep doing:

Earth Hour - Cards for Climate Action

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Info

Related Professional Learning

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