This article examines how climate change is impacting the health of Wisconsinites, exacerbating racial and socioeconomic inequities within the state, and causing a number of environmental issues in the state.
Students will learn about extreme heat events, populations more prone to pollution, the effects of extreme rain events, and how changing stream temperatures are affecting trout.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article is succinct and well-organized.
This article also examines how climate change impacts multiple industries within Wisconsin.
Additional Prerequisites
Students need to have a basic understanding of what climate change is.
Differentiation
This article could support a lesson on how climate change is altering environments around the world that are similar to Wisconsin.
This article could enhance a lesson on how climate change is impacting personal health among different groups.
This article could supplement a lesson on what executive orders are and how they're different from laws.
This article could augment a lesson on the importance of maintaining infrastructure and making improvements that will help cities adapt to changing environmental conditions.
Scientist Notes
This resource from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources highlights the work of the state’s Office of Environmental Justice and lists climate change impacts across the state. The article provides concise yet ample evidence of how climate change is impacting the people and industries in Wisconsin. An example given is that climate change has shifted the habitat for wild rice north, a food source that is culturally and spiritually important to Native Americans. This article features clear text, evocative images, and a link at the bottom of the page to a climate solutions article for further reading. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science
LS2: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics Within Ecosystems
HS-LS2-6. Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
English Language Arts
Reading (K-12)
R.11-12.2 Objectively and accurately summarize a complex text to determine two or more themes or central ideas and analyze their development, including how they emerge and are shaped and refined by specific details. (RI&RL)
Health
Standard 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
1:4:A5 Analyze how environment and personal health are interrelated.
