1.1 What causes climate change?

Teacher & Student Materials > Powering a Warming Planet

1.1 What causes climate change?

Lesson Overview

Guiding question:

What causes climate change?

45 minutes

Purpose:

This lesson serves to contextualize and introduce the problem of climate change on our planet, and introduce the unit’s driving question: Why does our use of energy cause climate change, and what can we do about it?

Overview:

Students will read and interpret images of climate change and carbon dioxide emissions. They will also discuss the connection, specifically the correlation, between climate change and carbon dioxide emissions.

Design Principles:

Contextualizing the issue
Public data

Background Knowledge:

All necessary background knowledge will come from this lesson.

Common Misconceptions:

Safety:

Unit Connections:

Teacher

Teacher Slides titled: 1.1 What causes climate change?

Student

Student material: 1.1 Card sorting images (recommend 1 set per group)

Instructional Sequence

Tell a story using the images provided to students (slide 3)

Materials:

Teacher Slides titled: 1.1 What causes climate change?
Student material: 1.1 Card sorting images (recommend 1 set per group)

Small group discussion (15 min)

Assign 2-4 students into small groups and provide each group a set of cards with images. Ask students to interpret the images, sort them into themes and connect the themes in a logical way, so they can tell a story.

Walk between groups, and ask students:
- Is there a picture missing in order to tell your story?
- Is there anything that you are curious about from the pictures?
Class presentation (10 min)

Choose 2 groups to present their story to the entire class. After the each presentation, ask the presenting group:
- Is there a picture missing in order to tell a complete story?

Read the graphs – Global temperature rise is correlated with atmospheric CO2 concentration (5 min)

There are two graphics in the images in the first activity. At this point, you should know how students interpreted them from the small group discussion and class presentation. Now, you will explain the graphs based on students’ understanding of them.

Discourse opportunity:

Class presentation
Whole class discussion

Slide 4

This graph shows the global average temperature from 1850 to 2022. First, explain the x and y axis.

x axis: year from 1850 to 2022.
y axis: temperature in celsius degrees. 0 ℃ is the 1961-1990 average temperature.
Ask: what’s the trend you see in the graph? Even though the line is not a smooth line, but generally the average global temperature has risen since 1900.

Slide 5

Global Atmospheric CO2 Concentration.

Both graphs have the same y axis. PPM describes the density of substance (CO2) in the atmosphere.
The x-axis of the two graphs are different. One is from 1 to 2020, and the other one is from 1870 to 2020. We see a significant increase from the 1800s.

Slide 6

We put the global average temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration together. What similarities and differences can you find from the two graphs? Both lines in the two graphs suggest an increase from around 1850.

Important: we CANNOT conclude that CO2 leads to temperature increase at this point. From the two graphs, we can only see a correlation between CO2 and temperature. No causal relationship can be established at this point.

Generating driving question board:

Ask students what they are curious about or want to know more. Write down the questions on the board. Sort the questions into the driving question board.

Discourse opportunity:

Whole class discussion

Information for Planning & Teaching

Background Knowledge
Lesson Timing
Student ideas & Experiences
Science Practices
Teaching Cases