Learning Activities

In this lesson, students analyze and synthesize data, and design local wildfire preparation strategies to answer the question "What can we learn from past wildfires to prepare for future wildfires?"

In this lesson, students analyze and synthesize data about how drought is measured, how scientists expect drought to change in the future, and how we can mitigate the impacts of drought in our communities.

In this lesson, students build an understanding of drought in Colorado through exploring case studies, authentic data, and online resources. After completing this lesson, students will be able to understand the basic causes and impacts of droughts, analyze a case study and current drought data in Colorado, and summarize the main preparedness steps and response strategies for drought events.

In this hazard lesson, students build an understanding of flooding in Colorado by exploring case studies, authentic data, and online resources. After completing this lesson, students will be able to understand the basic causes and impacts of floods, analyze case study and current flood data in Colorado, and summarize the main preparedness steps and response strategies for flood events.

In this lesson, students investigate wildfires in Colorado by analyzing wildfire data and information to create a local news story that educates community members about wildfire risk. In Part 1, students watch and discuss a short documentary about wildfires. In Part 2, students analyze wildfire data to build understanding of the causes, impacts, locations, and frequency of wildfires. In Part 3, students create a local news story for their community.

In this lesson, students will participate in a short scavenger hunt to familiarize themselves with climate change mitigation strategies and solutions for decreasing heat-trapping emissions.

In this lesson, students will take time to connect to a place that is special to them. They are asked to sketch the features of their special place and prompted to think about how they interact with that place.

Emotions wheels have been a visual tool used by psychologists for decades to help people better understand and interpret their own feelings. The goal of this lesson is that looking at this wheel will help students and teachers identify emotions about the climate and learn to work with them.

Talking about emotions related to climate change can help youth to process emotions, move on, and develop trust and connection with others through shared solidarity. In this lesson, students will discuss their thoughts and feelings about climate change with others, and learn how to reframe some of their thoughts. Consider teaching the Emotions Wheel and Acitive Listening activities before this in order to help students develop language and discussion skills.

In this lesson, students will identify emotions they experience as they learn about the impacts of climate change. In pairs, students will practice active listening skills as one student describes their emotions to the partner who applies active listening skills. They then flip roles and the other student describes their emotions while the partner listens.