Teacher preparation:

Overarching learning goal: In this activity students explore the use of four seasons as a way of describing the annual changes in climate. Students understand that seasons are based upon changes in climate over the course of a year and recognise that Indigenous Australians have their own way of understanding these changes, one that is different to the four seasons. Students also recognise that four seasons may not always be the best way to understand the annual changes in climate in some parts of Australia.

Teacher content information: While climate change is a complex concept with science that is beyond the reach of most young children, students in years 1 and 2 can still engage with the topic by exploring the topic of weather and its impact on plants, animals and humans.

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 holding a brainstorming session with your students around the seasons. Use an online brainstorming tool (e.g. mindmeister or bubbl.us) or record answers on the board. Consider the following questions to stimulate discussion:

What are the seasons?
When do the seasons occur (what time of the year) and in what order do they occur?
What types of weather do we typically associate with the seasons?
What types of weather do we normally get in these seasons in Australia? Are these the same as what we would expect?

Step 2.

Once the brainstorming is complete, introduce students to the concept that the idea of seasons is something that humans have created. Although we can see that at different times of the year we get different types of weather, nature doesn’t know that it should be following four seasons. In fact, Indigenous Australians typically don’t use four seasons to describe the general changes in weather over the course of a year. This website (Bureau of Meteorology Indigenous Weather Knowledge) shows a different way of dividing the year into seasons. Ask students to spend several minutes exploring this sections on this website, answering the supporting questions on the student worksheet.

Step 3.

In this part of the activity students will create their own seasons for the area they live in. Work as a class or break the class into groups of 3 or 4 and work through the following questions (also available on the student worksheet) with the aim of creating your own seasons and descriptions of these seasons.

Begin by discussing what we expect to happen in each season and what actually happens:

Spring

What we expect: e.g. birds tweeting, baby animals, blossoms blooming.
What actually happens in spring where you are?

Summer

What we expect: e.g. warm sunshine, gentle breezes, long days and warm nights.
What actually happens in summer where you are?

Autumn

What we expect: e.g. leaves changing colour and falling, cool breezes, crisp nights.
What actually happens in autumn where you are?

Winter

What we expect: e.g. cold weather and snow, short days, animals in hibernation.
What actually happens in winter where you are?

Write student responses on the board or ask students to record responses on the student worksheets.

Assessment/Reflection

In this part of the activity students will think about the seasons where they live and will investigate the signs of these seasons in our natural environment.

Ask students to think about whether they think four seasons is a good way of describing the changes in climate where you are:

Would you prefer more or less seasons (e.g. maybe there is only a hot season and a cold season, or maybe there are more changes in between the standard four seasons)?
If you were to rearrange the seasons in your area, how would you do this and what would you call them?

Ask students to create a drawing or poster describing these new seasons. The poster should include:

The names of one or all of the new seasons;
The order they occur in; and
Natural and environmental events that define their season (e.g. the arrival of blowflies, the grass turning brown or green).

Rearranging the season

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