Download Understanding Climate Change

Lesson Plans - Understanding Sustainable Energy
The following 5 activities have been developed for use in the classroom – they are most
suited to CSPE or Transition Year students. Prior to carrying these activities out in
class, we suggest you cover the following topics from www.combatclimatechange.ie :
climate change facts, climate change in Ireland, climate change around the world. The
activities can be used in sequence or on their own, according to the needs of the
teacher.
Activities cover the following themes:
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


Activity 1: Energy usage in our everyday lives
Activity 2: Non renewable and renewable energy
Activity 3: World use of energy & unequal distribution
Activity 4: Understanding climate change
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Activity 1: Energy Guzzlers or Careful Consumers
Aims:
 To encourage students to think about the ways in which they use energy in their
everyday lives;
- directly e.g. through switching on a light or turning on a kettle
- indirectly e.g. through the transport of their food from other parts of the
world or through manufacturing of electronic equipment
 To get students to think about ways of conserving energy
You will need:
Energy action sheets
One chair for each person in the class
To do:
 Photocopy the 2 energy action sheets and tear each ‘action’ into strips.
 Place these strips in a container.
 Invite participants to sit round in a circle on their chairs – make sure there is nothing
on the ground in the circle.
 Invite one person to pick a strip and stand in the middle of the circle.
 Remove this student’s chair, so that there is one more student in the group than
chairs.
 Ask the person to read out the ‘action’ on their strip.
 All the students in the class who have ALSO participated in that activity at some
stage in their lives, must change seats.
 The student who is ‘on’ must try and reach one of the spare seats, leaving one
person standing in the middle to continue on the activity.
 Continue with the activity until all strips have been used up.
Energy Action Sheet 1: Energy savers:
Change places if……………..
You always turn lights off when leaving a room
Change places if……………..
You always turn off the standby light on the tv
Change places if……………..
You try to buy food or clothes made in Ireland
Change places if……………..
You leave the car at home when you can, walking
or cycling for short journeys
You only use the amount of water you will need
when boiling the kettle
Change places if……………..
Change places if…………….. You re-use your plastic bottles
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Change places if…………….. You re-cycle aluminium cans
Change places if……………..
Your house or school has double-glazed windows
Change places if……………..
You turn of radiators at home or in school when
rooms are not in use
Change places if……………..
You look for energy efficient electrical equipment
Change places if……………..
You reuse and recycle your paper
Change places if……………..
You make sure your clothes are washed at 40
degrees
Change places if……………..
You shower instead of taking a bath
Change places if…………….. You turn the tap off when brushing your teeth
Change places if…………….. You use reusable batteries
Energy Action Sheet 2: Energy wasters
Change places if……………..
You don’t turn lights off when leaving a room
Change places if……………..
You don’t turn off the standby light on the tv
Change places if……………..
You don’t buy food or clothes made in Ireland
Change places if……………..
You take the car for short journeys
Change places if……………..
When boiling the kettle you fill it with more water
than you need
Change places if…………….. You bin your plastic bottles after one use
Change places if…………….. You don’t recycle aluminium cans
Change places if……………..
Your house or school has doesn’t have doubleglazed windows
Change places if……………..
You don’t turn off radiators at home or in school
when rooms are not in use
Change places if……………..
You don’t look for energy efficient electrical
equipment
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Change places if……………..
You don’t reuse and recycle your paper
Change places if……………..
You don’t make sure your clothes are washed at 40
degrees
Change places if……………..
You take a bath instead of a shower
Change places if……………..
You leave the tap running when brushing your
teeth
Change places if…………….. You use normal batteries
Follow up:
Each positive strip has a corresponding negative strip. Ask the positives and negatives
to find each other and form teams. Following this, pose these questions for a
brainstorm session with your class:
1. How is energy being used in the action both directly and indirectly?
2. Each ‘action’ shows a way of wasting energy and a way of saving energy. How
could the some of the actions be made more energy efficient?
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Activity 2: Running Out – Exploring Renewable and Non-renewable resources
Aims:
 To demonstrate that non-renewable energy such as oil, coal, gas and peat are finite
and will run out at some stage in the future.
 To show that renewable energy such as wind, solar, biomass and hydro are
alternative, clean options.
You will need:
 A4 pictures of an oil rig (attached), one of each picture for each student
 A4 pictures of the wind turbine and solar panels (attached), enough for the total
number of students in the class
 Radio / CD player
To do:
 Make a large clear space in the classroom. This game runs in the same way as
musical chairs, except instead of chairs students stand on their picture of the oil rig.
 The game starts in the year 2007. There is enough oil for everyone in the class to
have their share.
 When the music commences the teacher should remove a few of the pictures of the
oil rig. The next time the music stops, we will be in the year 2012, and there will be
less oil. Students who aren’t standing on an oil rig will have to sit down.
 Stop the music as appropriate every 5 or 10 years, in between each stop remove 2 or
3 oil rigs.
 As individuals sit down hand each person a renewable resource card (wind or solar).
 The game finishes when there is only one person left standing on one oilrig and the
rest of the class have renewable resource cards.
Follow up:
Ask the class to think about:
 The real world basis for this game – how realistic is conflict in a world of resources
that are going to run out?
 How important is energy efficiency?
 What did this activity demonstrate about renewable and non-renewable energy?
 How important do the class think renewable fuel will be in the future?
Suggested answers:
 Over dependence on fossil fuels for production of energy
 Possible environmental conflicts in the future over depleting resources
 Importance of the switch to renewable fuels
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Activity 3: How much is too much?
Aims:
 To show the disparity in energy use and population between the developed and the
‘developing world’.
You will need:
 5 x A3 blank sheets
 Marker
 Chair for each person
This activity is based on a class of 30 students but can be adapted for larger or smaller
numbers (divide each number by 30 & multiply by the number of individuals in your class).
To do:
 Make a large clear space in the classroom.
 Write the name of each continent on each A3 sheet (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin
America, North America) and place these around the classroom.
 Explain to the class that there are 5 areas continents on the planet and each uses
energy very differently.
 The class represents all the people currently on the planet and the chairs represent
all the energy resources currently on the planet.
 As a class, they must decide on:
1. Population – on the basis of their class size, what proportion of people in the
class would represent the population of each continent?
Hints for the teacher to ask: Would Africa have more people than Asia?
Would Europe have more people than North America?
2. Energy use – using their chairs, what proportion of chairs would represent
the amount of energy each continent uses.
3. Once the class has discussed the above, ask them to move, with their chairs
to appropriate parts of the room.
Below are the answers based on a class of 30.
Energy/
Continent
Population Wealth
Africa
3
2
Asia
17
4
Europe
6
14
Latin America
2
1
North America
2
9
Total
30
30
Follow up:
Some questions to ask the class:
 Is this distribution of energy resources fair?
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 Why are energy resources distributed this way?
 What effect does the western world’s reliance on energy have on the planet?
 Is it affecting the climate throughout the world?
Activity 4: Understanding Climate Change
Aims:
 To understand the causes of climate change and how energy use worldwide is effecting it
 To be aware of the environmental and social consequences of climate change
The main task for the teacher in this activity will be to act as a facilitator for the class and to
guide them in their role-play. Encourage the class to be creative.
You will need:
Craft material (paper, scissors, stapler and staples, crepe paper)
Photocopy the ‘roles’ sheet and cut out one of each ‘role’
Flip chart
Markers
To do:
 Divide your class into teams – give one role card to each team.
 Ask the class to read their card and present their position to the rest of the class.
 Invite the groups to use the ideas sheet to help gather more information for their position.
 Encourage group to ‘dress-up’ to represent their roles.
 Once each team has presented their role, open the floor for a general discussion on an
energy related topic of their choice or to debate: Climate change – the future looks clean and
bright!
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Ideas sheet:
In the center square ask the group to fill in three key facts about their position.
Then ask the group to look at the implications of these facts for:
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
Environment – present and future, local and global
Society – present and future, local and global
Global
Present
The Facts:
Environmental
implications
Social
implications
Future
Local
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Roles for photocopying, cutting out and distributing to teams in class
Farmer Western Africa
Tour Guide – The Great Barrier Reef
Over the past number of years you have
noticed that the frequency and severity of
drought in your area has increased.
Climate change is effecting one of the most
important sites for marine biodiversity in the
world. A change in water temperature by as
little as 1 degree Celsius can lead to coral
death. In 1998 and 2002 huge areas of coral
died at the Great Barrier Reef, and with
predicted sea temperature increases of
between 2 and 6 degrees by 2100 larger areas
of coral are expected to die off.
In an area of the world that already comes
under pressure through poverty and
disease, climate change is putting increased
pressure on your land and your family.
Government official Bangladesh
In addition to being low-lying and coastal Bangladesh is criss-crossed by over 230 rivers which
flood and ravage the country almost every year. Flooding in Bangladesh could increase by 40%
if global warming pushes temperature higher. In addition increasing sea level changes will put
more pressure on the already impoverished area.
Bangladeshi government does not have the money to invest in flood defences to protect its
people from these effects of climate change.
Inuit – Alaska
The effect of climate change is taking its toll on the spiritual life of the Inuit community. The
spiritual health of each individual comes from making a contribution to the community.
Participation in family and community activities such as clamming, fishing and learning how to
process fish, hunt for seals, define and establish as sence of self and family; it also defines the
basic ethical and spiritual self. Climate change is bringing changes – increase numbers of
storms, accelerated thawing of permafrost and changes in the distribution of sea ice which all
have dramatic affects on the resources communities survive on e.g. fish, wildlife and forests.
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Danish member of the Wind Power association
Denmark is doing what we can to increase use of renewable energy. At the moment 20% of
Denmark’s energy consumption comes from wind power, this will increase to 25% by 2009 and
50% by 2025. Windpower in Denmark supports 20,000 jobs, making a significant contribution
to the national economy through a sustainable industry.
By increasing the Danish renewable energy market we are not only making a better
environment for ourselves, but it makes sense economically too!
Fossil fuel Company
There are many companies across the world that make money from the fossil fuels, keeping
the economy afloat and providing jobs. Western society depends on it. Without oil, coal and
gas we would not be able to have our comfortable lifestyles. Climate change will have a
technological solution and we have a right to extract fossil fuel resources from the earth as we
see fit. We have to look after our own interests and that means burning fossil fuels to produce
energy, despite the impact it might have on people and the environment.
Irish Home owner:
Looking at what might happen to Irelands climate in the future is a daunting thought,
increased storms and flooding, sea levels rising and the possibility of water shortages due to
droughts during the summer. That and the increased cost of home heating is causing concern
for Irish energy consumers. But there are ways of saving energy and making homes more
energy efficient. It’s so easy – all you have to do is think! Simple actions like better home
insulation, turning down the temperature, using energy efficient appliances will all help
counteract the effects of climate change. With more government investment in renewable
energy resources for the future, the outlook can only get better!
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