Climate Classroom

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Citizens’ Climate Education Presents

Climate Classroom!

A flexible, multi-disciplinary middle school curriculum, designed to give students a toolkit of advocacy skills for climate solutions!

  • Facilitated by a trained CCL volunteer and supported by the classroom teacher
  • Guest volunteers, including CCL members, youth leaders, students, and local experts
  • Lessons grouped in three modules: Impacts of Climate Change, Climate Solutions, and Taking Action.
  • Instructional materials include lesson plans, slide presentations, and a Climate Classroom Journal for students to reflect, take notes, and do independent assignments
  • Climate Classroom instruction for small and large group activities, cooperative participation, quickwrites, videos, slides, and research—online and/or in person.
  • Content instruction aligned with National Standards in English Language Arts (ELA), Social Studies, and Next Generation Science Standards.

Scope and Sequence

Lesson Topic Lesson Description

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Lesson 1 – Impacts of Climate Change: 

Introduction to Climate Classroom

Introduce students to Climate Classroom, Citizens’ Climate Education, citizen engagement, and empowerment, while checking for students’ knowledge in climate change solutions.
Lesson 2 – Impacts of Climate Change: 

Climate Justice Around the World 

Climate change is a global issue, but there are great disparities in how it impacts people in different places and situations. Introduce students to the concept of empathy.
Lesson 3 – Impacts of Climate Change: 

Climate Justice in Your Community 

What are the impacts of climate change in my region? Who is vulnerable and what are the disparities?  What is an empathetic response and what actions can be taken?    
Lesson 4 – Impacts of Climate Change:  

Create Your Climate Story

Creating your own personal climate story and learning to tell it well is an important step in taking action on climate change.

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Lesson 5 – Climate Solutions:  

Introduction to En-ROADS, Part 1

How do we measure progress in addressing climate change?  What are the most powerful solutions?
Lesson 6 – Climate Solutions:  

EnROADS, Part 2

What can the EnROADS Simulator tell us about the most powerful solutions to climate change?
Lesson 7 – Climate Solutions:  

Climate Solutions and Policy

What is a policy, and can climate solutions be implemented through policy? What climate policies are being worked on at the federal level and why are these  policies important? 

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Lesson 8 – Taking Action:  

Contacting Congress

How can we communicate with our Members of Congress and let them know what is important to us?
Lesson 9 – Taking Action:  

Get Published! 

Writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper is an important way to take action on climate change. Youth have  powerful voices; getting your letter published is exciting and important.
Lesson 10 – Taking Action:  

Engaging Community Leaders 

Community leaders have powerful voices which can amplify our own. Developing relationships with community leaders helps get your point across.
Lesson 11 – Taking Action:  

Lobbying Your Member of Congress, Part 1

What does lobbying mean and how is it a form of civic engagement? What are the parts of a lobby meeting and what are ways that we can lobby?
Lesson 12 – Taking Action:  

Lobbying Your Member of Congress, Part 2

What does lobbying mean and how is it a form of civic engagement? What are ways we can lobby, and what are the parts of an in-person lobby meeting?
Lesson 13 –  

Becoming a Climate Advocate

 What have we learned about climate change solutions?
 What have we learned to take action on climate change?
Lesson 14 –  

Climate Classroom Celebration!

What have we learned about climate change solutions and how to take action?  What actions will we take in the future?

Curriculum Components:

  • Lesson Plans
  • Slide Presentations
  • Student Journals
  • User’s Guide to Climate Classroom
  • Feedback Forms

How to Access Climate Classroom

Interested in becoming a Climate Classroom Facilitator?  

We welcome CCL Volunteers to take Climate Classroom into their local schools.

 

To access the curriculum, we ask that you watch the forty-minute training video below.  It will walk you through the various modules of the curriculum, introduce you to the lesson plans, presentations, and journal pages, and answer other questions about how the curriculum works.  It also provides tips on how to approach a teacher or administrator at a local school. 

 

When you’ve watched the training video, you can click Sign me up! and fill out the form to let us know. Once we hear from you, we will give you access to the materials.

Are you ready to solve climate change?