Teaching Climate

These videos capture how the sun warms the Earth with support materials for teachers and students. Students will make observations to use as evidence that sunlight warms Earth's surface.

This cartoon shows where streams start and where they end up.

Students observe the process of evaporation, make comparisons about the process, then construct a diagram and use it to describe the process of evaporation.

This lesson invites young students to inquire about phase changes, about what happens as water changes into ice and as ice changes into water, observing ice melting and freezing under a variety of conditions.

This lesson introduces students to climate resilience by emphasizing that everyone has a role to play in helping others during weather emergencies. The lesson starts by activating students' thinking about the weather, and how different kinds of weather can both positively and negatively impact our daily lives. Students then consider which people in their community might face greater challenges during weather emergencies, looking at how unfairness in society might be the cause of the increased challenges some people face. At the end, students think about how they and others in their community can help those who've been impacted by an extreme weather event and write a letter thanking local heroes.

In this resource, students will explore their local schoolyard habitat, reflect on how climate change may be impacting their habitat, and work together to plan and implement an action that helps reduce local climate impacts and cultivate climate resiliency at their school. K-2 climate change education can provide foundational concepts that will support students' climate literacy in future years.

Students learn about the role the sun plays in our daily lives and how solar energy can be used. Data is collected in the mini-lessons and demonstrations including observations with shadows, creating your own solar oven, and photosynthesis.

This lesson will give students a basic grasp of the value of preserving green spaces in urban areas to mitigate the effects of urban heat islands and climate change. In this lesson, students will research cities throughout the world that contain natural areas and discuss the advantages of greening our built environment.

This activity focuses on measuring, graphing, and interpreting rainfall following an 8 day rainfall event story in Boulder, Colorado from 2013. Data is from this real world example, and background materials including how to read the rain gauge are included.

This activity focuses on adapting to climate change and building resilience to heavy rainfalls in the context of a garden. Students devise, create, and test ideas for protecting a garden from heavy rains.