- The Human Impact of Climate Change - Resources for primary schools
- The Human Impact of Climate Change: Resources for secondary schools
The Human Impact of Climate Change - Resources for Primary Schools
Classroom activities for ages 9-11
- Engaging and thought-provoking activities to bring climate justice into the classroom.
- Use stories, pictures, film and role play to investigate the human element of the climate crisis.
- Curricular links include Citizenship, English/Literacy, Geography and PSHE.
Teaching about climate justice
Climate change is threatening humankind and pushing people into poverty. While the climate crisis is affecting us all, it’s hitting some communities harder than others – and it’s the people who’ve done the least to cause it who’re suffering the most. Who you are and where you are in the world matters.
Elizabeth Stevens/Oxfam America
A boy in Vanuatu juggles a ball where there was once a playing field. “We used to play football here,” says a community member..
RESOURCE AIMS
- Investigate the links between climate change and human rights.
- Develop understanding of the unequal impacts of the climate crisis: why who you are and where you are in the world matters.
- Explore how communities around the world are being affected by climate change, and how people are responding and adapting to these challenges.
- Build empathy and promote critical thinking, debate, and discussion.
TEACHER GUIDE
Resource outline, curriculum links and background information about climate justice.
Baseline activities
Track changes in learners’ understanding, values and attitudes.
Session 1 - Climate Connections
Use the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals to investigate the links between climate change and human rights.
SESSION 2 - CLIMATE CHANGE CONSEQUENCES
Use a consequences wheel to make inferences about the human impacts of the climate crisis.
SESSION 3 - THINKING ABOUT IDENTITIES
Think about the overlapping identities that make up each one of us. Consider how these can affect how we are treated and interact with the world.
SESSION 4 - THE CLIMATE GAME
Play a climate game to learn more about how different inequalities might intersect to affect people’s experiences of climate change.
SESSION 5 - CLIMATE CHANGE STORIES
Use stories and role play to investigate how some communities around the world are being affected by and adapting to climate change.
SLIDESHOW
For use alongside some of the activities.
FILM FOR USE IN SESSION 2
Andy Aitchison/Oxfam
LEARN-THINK-ACT
Our climate action guide has practical advice, classroom activities and helpful planning tools to inspire young people to make change happen.
Banner image: Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti founded the Green Generation Initiative in Kenya in 2016 as a way to get more young people interested in climate action and the environment. Part of their work is to ‘green’ schools in Kenya by planting trees. They have planted more than 30,000 trees so far! This project is funded by the European Union.
