Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource in the following sequence:

5 minutes

Tune In: Climate actions

20 minutes

Find Out: Living with climate change - Technology

25+ minutes

Take Action: Living with climate change - Design

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Climate actions

Step 1

Pose the question:

How is the science behind climate change influencing our everyday actions?

Suggest to students that our increasing understanding of climate change means that more and more of us are taking action in our everyday lives to help address climate change.

Step 2

Invite students to stand around the board and suggest everyday actions that we can take to address climate change.

Pose the following questions to help facilitate discussion around the actions they come up with.

Are there actions that are well-known?
Are there actions that are new or surprising?

Step 3

Explain to your students that there are many actions we can take to tackle climate change, and science can tell us which types of actions are most important or valuable in terms of climate impacts. Some of these are personal actions, and some are actions that must be taken collectively or by governments and industry.

Science is also informing the types of technologies that are being developed and proposed to address climate change, and increasingly, we are turning to technology to help us address climate change and live with its impacts.

Step 4

Invite your students to read this quote on their student worksheet.

Professor Mark Maslin studies climate change and human impacts:

We have all the technology we need to move to a cleaner, renewable world. All the stats are showing incredible growth: we have exponential growth in solar, wind, EV batteries, which is all fantastic. We also have politics – 90% of the world’s economy says it will be net zero some time this century. That’s huge.
(Source)

You might like your students to undertake a Projecting Across Time Visible Thinking Routine to dig deeper into this quote.

What do you already know about this topic?
Reach back in time. How has this topic played out over the past 50 years
Reach forward in time. How do you think this topic will play out 100 years into the future?
How has your thinking changed about this topic?

Note: As many students will be aware, we are already living with climate change. It might be useful here to stress that even though climate change is already happening, this doesn’t mean life is terrible and that it will always be terrible. Yes, there will be some things that impact us in negative ways, and these may be hard and upsetting and might cost us in unexpected ways. But we have so much collective knowledge, technology and ingenuity that we can build a positive future even with a changing climate.

Find Out: Living with climate change - Technology

Step 1

Students will explore the technologies, tools and knowledge that could be used to help us live with climate change. They will explore those that are already available to us, those that are in development, and those that are still just ideas.

Students could explore the following categories (*for supported students):

Food and fibre production
Energy production
Transport*
Urban design and buildings.

Students could work in groups or pairs, with each group conducting the necessary research to answer the questions below (also available on the Students Worksheet):

What is the relationship between this category and climate change (e.g. how does it contribute to climate change)?
What are some examples of technologies in this category that can be used to help us live with climate change? Consider both current and emerging technologies.
What do you believe is the potential for the technologies that you looked at in this category? Explain your answers.

Students can create a simple poster to share the results of their research (posters can be created on butcher paper). This poster should include information about the different technologies in each category and where to get further information. Including visuals in the posters is encouraged, and all research must be referenced. Posters will be displayed in the classroom and used as a resource in the Take Action activity of this lesson.

Suggested resources to kick-start research (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Food and fibre production	Severe hot weather forces farmers to look for ways to keep cattle cool How can technology help us to grow healthy, safe and sustainable food? Tech Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture
Energy production	The Future of Renewables – Innovations in Energy Technology Top 10 Innovative Technologies in Sustainable Energy Sector SA's proposed $425m green hydrogen plant in Tailem Bend promises jobs, energy for future
Transport	8 Sustainable Transport Solutions to Improve Urban Mobility in the US 12 Future Transportation Technologies to Watch High-fat flight is the first jetliner to make fossil fuel-free flight from London to New York
Urban design and buildings	The Future is Now: 10 Green Building Trends to Keep an Eye On 10 of the best sustainable city plans in the world Designing the city of the future: key features of sustainable urban planning Why hot Australian cities keep laying dark heat-absorbing asphalt, and not pale 'cool roads'

Step 2

Invite your students to share their presentations with the class, discussing their findings.

Take Action: Living with climate change - Design

Step 1

Students will now design a house or community incorporating some of the current and emerging technologies featured in the posters to show how technology can help us live with climate change.

Students could work in pairs or small groups to create a drawing or scale model of their designs.

Students could consider (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Incorporating technologies from each of the categories explored in the previous task (see the posters the class created)
Will the design be futuristic with sci-fi elements with new infrastructure required? Or will it be fairly ‘normal’ with technologies absorbed into existing infrastructure?
How your design will be appealing/beneficial to the people who live there as well as helping people to live with climate change
What would make students want to live in this building or community? How can these ‘wants’ be incorporated into the designs in a way that is sustainable and addresses climate change?

Suggested steps for creating the design (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Decide whether to focus on one building or a community design
Work in groups to brainstorm ideas
Create a rough draft of the design
Share the rough draft with peers for feedback and improvement
Create the final version

Encourage your students to pitch their ideas to the class and explain the concept in more detail. Students can use the Pitch Fact Sheet and the Pitch Rubric to guide the creation of their pitches

Reflection

Students work independently to respond to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Consider the role of technology in helping us to live with climate change:

Can technology solve all the problems presented by climate change? Why or why not?
What do you see as the relationship between climate science and technology? How are they connected?

Climate Literacy: Living With Climate Change

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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