In the week between 3rd and 9th March, Britain’s biggest climate change campaign takes place, which hopes to ‘inspire a new wave of action to create a sustainable future’. Every year, 3000 events organised by schools, businesses, charities and councils are attended by up to half a million people hoping push the issue of climate change to the forefront of our minds. The organisers of ‘Climate Week’ want different groups and organisations to start planning events, no matter how small, in order to support the campaign.
This is a great opportunity to bring to the attention of your students issues and topics associated with climate change, conservation issues, conservation volunteering and sustainability. In order to help you deliver these subject areas, Teaching Resources UK offer some fantastic lesson resources and assembly plans appropriate for both key stage 3 and 4 students which are thought-provoking and engaging. They include:
• Climate Change Assembly - this is an excellent assembly plan that aims to clarify what is meant by climate change and to teach students about the disasters that have occurred already and whether they were as a result of a changing climate. The teaching resources include an assembly script and a PowerPoint presentation to aid the assembly.
• Conservation Volunteering Lesson - in this lesson students focus on their local and immediate environment, and how they might be able to improve it through the use of group work and worksheets.
• Conservation Issues Lesson - this lesson focuses on what exactly conservation means. Students investigate the major conservation issues using online, guided research, worksheets and group work.
• Sustainability Lesson – here your pupils will develop a better understanding of global warming and research issue of cause and effect. Students are encouraged to reflect on how changes can be made on a daily basis with regards to providing sustainability within environments.
The assembly and lesson plans are perfect for supporting climate week by introducing and explaining the complex and sometimes controversial issues and topic areas associated with climate change. Your students will then be interested and feel engaged and wish to contribute to the discussion and debate.