This course about taking personal action to address climate change includes sections on a sustainable diet, flying and driving, consumption, having children, activism, and how much personal actions matter.
It contains text, interactive questions, infographics, links to references, a final quiz, and a certificate of completion.
Teaching Tips
Positives
It outlines many different ways individuals can take action and helps students gauge the relative impact of those actions.
Students can proceed through the content at their own pace.
Students earn a certificate if they complete the course.
Students will need a computer and Internet connection to use the interactive features.
Differentiation
This course provides two levels of learning. Use the button in the top left of the page to toggle between "Simple" and "Advanced." The "Simple" setting is recommended for middle school students, while the "Advanced" setting is recommended for high school students.
As an extension, students can research and present other possible solutions to aging populations in developed countries, such as making it easier for climate migrants/refugees/international students/etc. to immigrate to those countries.
The resource highlights various ways for individuals to reduce their carbon footprint including family planning, consuming less meat and more plant-based diets, reducing flying, etc. Students can learn how these can impact their daily lifestyles to achieve net zero carbon by 2050. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-5. Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
