Teach Climate Science

Find resources and activities that accompany The Teacher-Friendly Guide™ to Climate Change, and learn about our professional development workshops for teachers.

Explore Toolkits by Topic

Explore Toolkits by Chapter of the Teacher-Friendly Guide

Workshops

Other Useful Resources


Climate Change Teaching Toolkits: BY TOPIC


ENERGY AND ATMOSPHERE

  • Infrared energy

  • Infrared absorption by carbon dioxide

  • Carbon dioxide and temperature

  • Box Model: steady state vs. non-steady state behavior

  • Heat capacity

  • Thermal expansion of water


CARBON AND WATER CYCLES

Carbon Cycle

  • Diurnal variations in carbon dioxide

  • How many molecules make a trace gas?

  • NOAA Mauna Loa data and rate of CO2 increase

  • Respiration

Hydrologic Cycle

  • Rainfall and river response


CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

Renewable Energy

  • Solar energy

  • Near-surface geothermal energy

  • Wind energy

Carbon Sequestration

  • Afforestation and Reforestation: tree biomass & carbon dioxide storage




COMMUNICATION AND ADVOCACY

Community Science


Climate Change Teaching Toolkits and Resources: by Chapter of The Teacher-Friendly Guide™ to Climate Change

This list of activities includes ones we have developed as well as links to resources and activities developed by partners and other organizations.

Overview: A Quick-Start Guide to the 12 Chapters of the TFG to Climate Change (Download, 9.6 MB)

Chapter 1. Why Teach About Climate Change? (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf 2.7 MB)

Chapter 2. What Should Everyone Understand about Climate Change and Energy? (Download, 3.9 MB)

Chapter 3. What is Climate? (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf, 14.9 MB)

Chapter 4. Climate Change through Earth History (Download, 16.6 MB; see also Introduction to Climate on Earth@Home)

Chapter 5. Evidence for and Causes of Recent Climate Change (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf, 4.6 MB)

Chapter 6. US Regional Climates, Current and Future (Download, 18.4 MB; see also updated, online guides to climates of U.S. regions on Here On Earth)

 

Chapter 7. Climate Change Mitigation (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf, 10.8 MB)

Chapter 8. Geoengineering (Download, 6.3 MB)

Chapter 9. Climate Change Adaptation (Find enhanced and updated online version here, or download, 5.2 MB)

Chapter 10. Obstacles to Addressing Climate Change (Download, 1.1 MB)

Chapter 11. Perspective (Download, 3.6 MB)

Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions about Climate Change (Download, 5.2 MB)


You can download the entire Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change HERE.


Workshops

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Teacher Professional Development

PRI will tailor workshops to help you teach about climate change past, present, and future, and about topics such as energy resources, sustainability, and biodiversity. For information contact our Director of Teacher Programming at [email protected].

Learn about current workshops through our Learning Earth newsletter for teachers. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

Example topics and activities from some of our recent professional development workshops include:

  • Measuring carbon storage in trees

  • Tabletop and outdoor measurements of carbon fluxes, photosynthesis, and soil temperature, and how these measurements relate to climate change solutions

  • Creating and teaching about a Go Bag, to prepare students and their families for extreme storms

  • Where does gasoline go? An exploration of the math of how much carbon dioxide is generated by burning a gallon of gasoline

  • Teaching about the IPCC and its reports

  • There’s no such thing as a free megawatt: the Marcellus shale as a gateway drug to energy literacy

  • Rules of thumb for teaching controversial issues

  • Fire and Brimstone and Fort McMurray: considering the implications of apocalyptic rhetoric in climate communication

  • How to dig into the science of climate change and its scary implications without losing hope

  • Project-based learning with students developing cost estimates for adapting facilities to more heavy rainfalls, using less energy by switching to LED lighting, and using solar panels to generate electricity


Other useful resources

High quality climate change information and education resources from PRI and other organizations.