SUMMARY

Student action to mitigate the effects of climate can take many forms. Crafting position
statements and testifying before the legislature, designing public service announcement
posters, videos or podcasts, planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide, starting or joining
a citizen science project to record phenology, or starting a compost for school or home
food waste to decrease methane gas release are all legitimate actions, especially when
student driven.

The most important outcome of this lesson and unit on Minnesota’s changing climate,
is that this final action project is student led and student driven. Making sure students
feel that they can part of the solution and that their ideas are valuable is an essential key
to helping them not feel overwhelmed by the current and predicted impacts of climate
change. In addition, the action projects that they develop are valuable assessments of
what they understood and connections that they made about what is causing climate
change and how it will impact their lives, biome and Minnesota as whole.
 

GOALS

• Students will brainstorm appropriate solutions and select one for their group, class or school.
• Students will develop a climate action plan and begin to implement it.
 

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION AND TEACHING MATERIALS

Download pdf >> Lessons 1 - 6

LCCMR_Elementary [Lessons 1-6].pdf
 

TEACHING NOTES / CONTEXT FOR USE

Introduction:

1. Divide students into five groups and hand out one key issue to each group. Ask
each group to dissect the issue to the root cause.

2. Ask students to glue the issue in the center of a large piece of butcher paper or
poster board. From the issue, ask them to break it into smaller and smaller parts
to identify the root cause or problem.

3. Once they have identified a few problems, ask them to turn their poster over
and put one problem in the middle of their paper and make a concept map of
solutions. Encourage creative thinking and tell them no idea is too crazy at this
point. This may also be a time to do some Internet research
about solutions and project ideas.
 

ASSESSMENT

Assessment is at the discretion of the educator as to how the resource is used and what they intend to gain from using it.
 

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES