Teaching Kids about Climate Change

By Green Teacher

If you peruse the Table of Contents, you will see that this 80-page book brings together 20 articles and many activities from Green Teacher magazine to aid any educator in tackling this essential topic with K-8 students. The activities have the capacity to help young people appreciate the energy forms, solar cooking techniques, options for sustainable transportation, and much more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Green Teacher
• Release date: Jul 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9780993775376

Green Teacher

Green Teacher is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping educators, both inside and outside of schools, promote environmental awareness among young people aged 6-19. Our quarterly Green Teacher magazine offers perspectives on the role of education in creating a sustainable future, practical articles and ready to use activities for various age levels, and reviews of dozens of new educational resources.

Book preview

Teaching Kids about Climate Change

Edited by Tim Grant

A Green Teacher publication

Copyright 2018 © Green Teacher

All rights reserved.

Design and production by Sofia A. Vargas Nessi

Cover design by Sofia A. Vargas Nessi

Cover concept by Maria Gill Proofing by Amanda L'Heureux Cover photos by Shutterstock

No part of this ebook may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-9937753-7-6 (ebook)

ISBN: 978-0-9937753-8-3 (paperback)

Inquiries regarding requests to print all or part of Teaching Kids about Climate Change should be addressed to Green Teacher at the addresses below:

Green Teacher

95 Robert Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2K5, Canada

PO Box 452, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-0452, USA

1-416-960-1244 / 1-888-804-1486

www.greenteacher.com

Green Teacher is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping educators, both inside and outside of schools, promote environmental awareness among young people ages 6 to 19.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Tim Grant

Is Climate Change Good for Us? by Jackie Oblak

Gases and Greenhouses by Gail Littlejohn

Weathering Climate Confusion by David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa

The Carbon Dioxide Game by Sashi Kaufman

Follow the Light Energy from the Sun by Leah Duran and Katie Frey

Caught Up in the Carbon Cycle by Pamela Miller

Acting Out Energy Forms by Arianna Collins

Food and Climate Change by Susan Rauchwerk

Climate Change and Regional Geography by Talia Miller

Feeling the Heat by Susan Ferguson

Climate Change Treasure Hunt by Chris Summerville

Walking School Buses by Elise Houghton

Green Commuting Challenge by Duke Davidson

Investigating Public Transit by Tim Grant, Gail Littlejohn and Arthur Orsini

Energy: Making the Right Choices by Kitty Cochrane

Getting into Hot Water by Joe Umanetz

Solar Box Cooking by Sue LeBeau

Active Students, Passive Solar by Nelson Lebo

A Lean Green Sun-Harvesting Machine by Mark Walker

Teaching Passive Solar House Design by Susan Lewicki

Renewable Energy: K-6 Activities by Sue LeBeau

Acknowledgements

My thanks go first to the authors who share in these pages their wide-ranging knowledge, their diverse experience, and their passion for climate change education. Each of them gave generously of their time in writing and revising their original contributions to Green Teacher magazine. Thanks, too, to Gail Littlejohn, who, as the magazine’s co-editor for many years, edited many of the articles selected for this publication; and to editorial assistants Brandon Quigley and Amy Stubbs who worked along- side me to draft the contents of the book. Maria Gill developed an initial layout of the book and designed a colourful inspiration for the front cover. Sofia Vargas Nessi took the lead on many of a long list of tasks associated with the completion of a publication as large as this. Among her many behind-the-scenes contributions was the layout of the final version of this publication in its entirety. Finally, thanks to Amanda L’Heureux for proofing the final draft. It has been an honour to work with so many talented individuals who have helped to create what we hope will be a high-quality, useful publication.

Tim Grant

Introduction

While climate change can be described in many ways, I tend to think of it as a many-headed hydra. It has a great many dimensions and just as many potential solutions. One cannot see, taste or smell climate change, and yet it is a phenomenon that makes the news al- most daily and is the subject of international research and intergovernmental negotiation. As such, it is not surprising that it is a challenging topic for students to grasp — especially those under 14 years of age. How can we best address a topic which is so fraught with intangibles?

To answer that question, we’ve selected from Green Teacher magazine a diverse collection of popular articles and activities on teaching about climate change. You will find in these pages, activities that introduce basic concepts of climate literacy, such as helping young people to appreciate the differences between weather and climate. Other activities intro- duce renewable energy sources and sustainable transportation options. Some can be undertaken at home or in the community, while many others are designed for school classrooms and outdoor spaces. Hopefully, you will find within these pages rich offerings which provide young people with useful pathways towards an understanding of this complex topic.

Teaching young students about climate change requires us to face two challenges. The first is to acknowledge that if poorly handled, discussions about climate change can promote a sense of hopelessness. As a colleague once told me, despair is not the business of education. To properly teach about this topic, we must provide equal time to the many solutions that individuals, organizations and governments are already implementing to mitigate climate change. When young people know that the adults around them are doing something about a problem, it lifts the burden off their shoulders and limits their worrying about it. For those who teach very young children, a second challenge is to ensure that what we teach is age-appropriate. Author David Sobel once coined the expression no disasters before grade four, arguing that it is wrong to expose the very young to the daunting challenges facing humanity. Instead, our focus as educators should be to cultivate a sense of wonder about the natural world and to introduce basic energy concepts. You will find several activities in this book that do just that.

Since the publication of our popular book Teaching about Climate Change in 2001, almost every edition of Green Teacher magazine has included at least one climate-related article or activity. Rather than publish an expanded, updated version of that book, we’ve opted instead to create a pair of books which contain the best of the newer articles and activities, along with the best from the earlier book. Teaching Teens about Climate Change was published in late 2017. This is the companion volume, designed for those who work with young people ages 6 to 14.

In revisiting and selecting articles for this book, I also read summaries of the latest research in order to learn more about the current understanding of the science underlying climate change. Over time, I began to see patterns emerge, and concluded that almost all research findings fit into four categories.

The following is a summary of what I think of as the four dimensions of climate change:

Global warming.There is overwhelming consensus amongst climate scientists that a build-up of greenhouse gases caused by human activities has triggered a 1-degree Celsius warming of the planet over the last century. Most of the warming has occurred in recent decades, with polarregions experiencing much greater warming than more temperateregions.

Climatic instability.Climate change is more than global warming. It also means climatic instability. Examples of this second dimension of climate change include dramatic weather events such as hurricanes, which have become more numerous and much stronger in recent decades. Climatic in- stability also includes less dramatic changes such as droughts in areas that used to receive reliable amounts of rain (and vice versa). There is consensus amongst climate scientists that climatic inestability is a key feature of climate change, although there is debate about the mechanisms involved with each of theexamples.

Consequences of GlobalWarming.The last century’s gradual warming has triggered big changes, which in turn have led to further warming.Here’sone example: with global warming, polar sea ice has been dramatically shrinking eachsummer.In turn, newly exposed ocean waters absorb greater amounts of sunlight than reflective sea ice, thus increasing the rate of ice melt. There is scientific consensus that feedback loops are accelerating the warming that is underway and the speed at which the changes are occurring.

Climatic Flip.This term describes the tipping point at which the gradual build-up of greenhouse gases that causes an abrupt flip to a global climate that is many degreeswarmer.JamesHansen,

NASA’s former chief climate scientist, has argued that this tipping point will occur when the planet has warmed 2 degrees Celsius.

Other scientists argue that a tipping point could be reached at low- er or higher temperatures.

This ‘four dimensions’ framework offers a way to frame the issue and thus feel less overwhelmed by it. Almost none of us can become experts on the topic of climate change. That is not our role as educators. But having a framework that helps us to appreciate how each of the latest research findings fits, should help us to feel more confident as we address the topic of climate change with young people.

Climate change will be a major preoccupation of all governments for decades to come. Because the topic will remain in the public eye, many of the young people that we work with — especially those in schools — can’t help but hear and think about it. While climate change presents enormous challenges for all of us, it will also motivate us to make long-overdue changes to our transportation patterns, food choices and energy consumption. To slow the pace of climate change, we’ll need all young people to become engaged citizens who are capable and motivated to help bring about the changes we need. It is my hope that the contents of this book will help you meet this goal.

Tim Grant is the editor and publisher of Green Teacher magazine in Toronto, Ontario.

Is Climate Change Good for Us?

An activity for exploring how changes in climate could affect daily life and influence the economy of a region

by Jackie Oblak

To many people, the thought of temperatures rising two or three degrees Celsius does not seem to be a big deal, and to those who live in areas with cold winters, it may even sound appealing. Yet global climate change brings with it a number of uncertainties about how regions will be affected. This activity is designed to encourage students to consider how changes in climate could affect them personally. They are then asked to broaden their focus by looking at the big picture to see how changes could