Overview
This resource was developed as a response to the gaps in knowledge, and requests for support that were identified in our national survey: Canada, Climate Change and Education: Opportunities for Public and Formal Education and feedback from teachers who have attended LSF’s professional development institutes.
The purpose of this guide is to present opportunities to evolve students’ understanding of the climate and climate change, assess the risks and opportunities to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate, unpack ethical dimensions, and honour emotions that are part of the process of coming to understand the complexity and urgency of the issue.
NB Curricular Connections
Science 6-8
- Strand: Learning & Living Sustainably- Big Idea: Responsible and Sustainable Application
Personal Wellness 6-8
- Strand: Mental Fitness- Big Idea: Positive Mental Health
Social Studies 6-8
- Strand: Wabanaki – Big Idea: Reconciliation
What You’ll Need
- Download the Empowering Learners in a Warming World Inquiry Guide or Empowering Learners Inquiry Guide FR
- Additional materials may be required for some activities.
Instructions
In order to provide a comprehensive guide to climate change education, we have created eight different inquiries that are structured to follow the inquiry process:
- Inquiry 1. What is climate change and why care?
- Inquiry 2. Climate change: where are we now?
- Inquiry 3. Monitoring change using the Climate Atlas of Canada
- Inquiry 4. Environmental impacts & restoration
- Inquiry 5. Human health: Addressing climate change makes us healthier
- Inquiry 6. A low carbon future: Economic transitions, risks and impacts
- Inquiry 7. Climate action and decolonization: Indigenous perspectives
- Inquiry 8. Ethical dimensions for children, youth, and livable futures
- Inquiry 9: Youth Agency
We recommend beginning with Inquiry 1: What is Climate Change and Why Care. This chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject matter through a slightly more prescriptive inquiry path than each other theme. This guided path of inquiry could be a good starting point for climate change education, but also to introduce the principles of inquiry into your classroom.
Each of the nine inquiry themes approach climate change from a different perspective. Given the scope of this issue, and relevance to students current and future lives, it is important to consider climate change from multiple perspectives. Depending on the subject matter you are teaching or the interest of your students, you may choose to embark on a certain inquiry journey.
Extension Ideas
- This resource can also be used in High School classes as well.
Refection Activity
NB Global Competencies
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Sustainability and Global Citizenship
Acknowledgments
Activity Downloaded from Empowering Learners in a Warming World – A Climate Change Inquiry Guide for Secondary Educators (climatelearning.ca)
