Teaching Climate Change (KS 3&4)
Teaching climate change - overview of 5 lessons.
This resource contains the following lessons: Lesson 1: Understanding the Meaning of Sustainability Young people to understand the meaning of sustainability and the skills and knowledge needed to make changes. Lesson 2: How does what we eat impact the environment? Young people to understand the impact our eating habits can have on the environment. Lesson 3: What is Biodiversity? The key objective of this lesson is to learn about biodiversity and importance Lesson 4: What do young people think about Climate Change? What do young people think about Climate Crisis? What are they doing about it? Let's meet some young people. Lesson 5: The role of the UN in supporting young people with change? The role of the UN in supporting young people to support change.
This resource contains the following lessons:
Delivering Youth Social Action
Lesson 1: The main purpose of this lesson is to be able to describe the biodiversity found in Antarctica and allow the young people to learn about different elements regulating the climate as well as the role of biodiversity in sustaining health and life.
Lesson 2: The aim of the session is for young people to understand the role of the glaciers in the greenhouse effect and how greater CO2 emissions through the impact of human activities
Lesson 3: In this session, young people will look at the effects that the melting of glaciers has on the Antarctic food web.
Lesson 4: The aim of this session is to develop the skills to present an argument for the protection of Antarctica.
US-based Earth Force uses Environmental Action Civics. Students share power with adults, practice democratic decision-making, and address local environmental problems using civics.
The Green Influencers Scheme’s mission is to help young people connect with the natural environment. By taking part in youth-led projects, they learn and develop new skills, open up progression routes and help inspire their local communities to take meaningful action. In total 81 Green Influencers have taken part across Norfolk and 88 in Southampton, each Influencer spending an average of almost 10 hours connecting with nature and leading on climate action. Some projects: The Green Influencer newspaper; Team GreenPhone: The Polygon School’s repair shop for electronic devices; a traditional orchard; an allotment for young people without gardens at home.
Did you know that it takes 10–20 years for a plastic bag to break down and 450 years for a plastic bottle to do so?
Project Pristine is a youth-led litter picking scheme in which volunteers travel to beaches and collect litter in rubbish bags. There are three core aims: to protect marine life, clean beaches, and explore the ocean, as well as raise awareness about the issue. Other key partners were involved who helped with publicity and schemes like ‘Adopt a Spot’ where Project Pristine adopted and committed to regularly cleaning a beach with one of the worst litter problems.
Keeping it Wild is a programmed bringing together the youth and conservation sectors to provide opportunities for young people to engage with and protect the capital’s wild spaces, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. London Youth is part of a consortium of organizations led by London Wildlife Trust delivering a three-year programmer, encouraging young people to reflect on natural spaces, learn about protecting wildlife and then take part in developing and delivering a project or creative campaign to raise awareness and encourage practical conservation in local communities. This is a tried-and-tested methodology and there are some case study videos.
A hub of free resources for teachers to introduce environmental and social action, particularly around climate action, into the classroom. It showcases quality-rated resources, programmers and events available from various organizations. Highlights include: youth events, most prominently, the annual Transform our World Youth Summit. The Summit is free and open to young people between 8-18, taking place online every Autumn. Also available is the option to create and implement a Schools Climate Action Planner, an easy-to-use digital tool to enable teachers, students and staff to identify actions they can take to reduce their school's environmental impact and carbon footprint.
Refers to activities that young people do to make a positive difference to others while developing key skills and attributes and having fun. YSA can take place in various contexts (i.e. at home, schools, youth clubs etc) and can include volunteering, fundraising, campaigning or supporting peers. We believe social action can play an essential role: in young lives, the success of a school, the local community or more.
Our Resource Hub aims to act as a Youth Social Action search engine, offering tailored results to inspire and guide. The hub hosts a wide variety of resources, including our own Youth Social Action Toolkit, case studies, research reports, and helpful resources from other reputable organisations in the sector.
Our Resource Hub aims to act as a Youth Social Action search engine, offering tailored results to inspire and guide. The hub hosts a wide variety of resources, including our own Youth Social Action Toolkit, case studies, research reports, and helpful resources from other reputable organisations in the sector.
To find appropriate resources, use the filter feature to select the relevant options. You can filter by key stage (1-5), YSA theme (e.g. poverty), or a particular skill (e.g. communication). You can also filter by resource owner (Ormiston Trust or external organisation) and resource type, such as lesson plans. If you know what you are looking for, you can use the search bar.
To save or download resources, please sign up for a free account. In your user area, you can organise your saved items for quick and easy access. On the resource results page, you can save or download multiple resource quickly by using the tickbox feature.
Our Youth Social Action Toolkit has been carefully developed by industry professionals with input from young people to guide school leaders, support staff, and young people through a Youth Social Action project. Our curriculum guides clearly outline how YSA can be integrated into the curriculum of schools with limited time.
We don’t gatekeep – by sharing our sector knowledge and resources, we aim to enrich the lives of all young people by fostering skills development, improving agency and wellbeing, and promoting active citizenship.
The first step of the YSA process is to be inspired by an issue you care about! Check out our inspirational case studies on what you could do!
The second step of the YSA process is to explore your options! You‘ll need to research the issue that inspired you to take action to understand how you can help.
Ready to start planning your project? Access our Youth Social Action Toolkit here.
The third step of the YSA process is to plan your project! Lucky for you, we have a Project Planning Template for that.
The fourth step of the YSA process is to carry out your plan! This is when the physical activities involved like fundraising, campaigning, and volunteering kick off.
The fifth and final step of the YSA process is to reflect! Looking back at your plan, did you achieve your aims? What went well and what didn’t go so well? Can you sustain your project? Or did you take steps to ensure further projects aren’t needed?