http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/roleplay/heat.html
PBS Teachers, NOVA
Activity takes three to four 45-minute lesson periods.
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Activity
supports the Next Generation Science Standards»High School: 1 Performance Expectation, 3 Disciplinary Core Ideas, 4 Cross Cutting Concepts, 5 Science and Engineering Practices
Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
GPa 
GPaOther materials addressing GPa
Other materials addressing GPc
Other materials addressing GPg
Energy Literacy
7.2 National security.
7.5 Access to energy affects quality of life.
4.2 Human use of energy is subject to limits and constraints.
4.3 Fossil and bio fuels contain energy captured from sunlight.
Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines
Other materials addressing:
A) Understanding societal values and principles.
Other materials addressing:
B) Recognizing citizens' rightrs and responsiblities.
Other materials addressing:
A) Individuals and groups.
Other materials addressing:
B) Culture.
Other materials addressing:
C) Political and economic systems.
Other materials addressing:
D) Global Connections.
Other materials addressing:
E) Change and conflict.
Other materials addressing:
E) Environmental Issues.
Other materials addressing:
A) Identifying and investigating issues.
Other materials addressing:
B) Sorting out the consequences of issues.
Other materials addressing:
C) Identifying and evaluation alternative solutions and courses of action.
Other materials addressing:
D) Working with flexibility, creativity, and openness.
Other materials addressing:
A) Forming and evaluating personal views.
Notes From Our Reviewers
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- Appropriate for a science or social studies class.
- This lesson would be a good cross-curricular performance assessment or final project.
About the Science
- Students learn about the environmental, economic, and political issues surrounding global climate change policy.
- Activity is from 2004 and can be enhanced with more recent scientific information that students can be challenged to find.
- Concise, accurate background material provided. Many additional references provided.
About the Pedagogy
- Stated learning outcome is one of participation in the negotiations. Ideally, the outcome can also include students demonstrating through their participation their understanding of related environmental, political and economic issues.
- Lesson is well-organized with detailed readings provided and some helpful suggestions about how to set up the negotiations. Suggestions about how to assess students and expand the project are provided.
Next Generation Science Standards See how this Activity supports:
High School
Performance Expectations: 1
HS-ESS3-1: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 3
HS-ESS2.D1:The foundation for Earth’s global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the sun, as well as its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and this energy’s re-radiation into space.
HS-ESS2.D4:Current models predict that, although future regional climate changes will be complex and varied, average global temperatures will continue to rise. The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere.
HS-ESS3.A2:All forms of energy production and other resource extraction have associated economic, social, environmental, and geopolitical costs and risks as well as benefits. New technologies and social regulations can change the balance of these factors.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 4
HS-C2.2:Cause and effect relationships can be suggested and predicted for complex natural and human designed systems by examining what is known about smaller scale mechanisms within the system.
HS-C4.2:When investigating or describing a system, the boundaries and initial conditions of the system need to be defined and their inputs and outputs analyzed and described using models.
HS-C5.3:Energy cannot be created or destroyed—only moves between one place and another place, between objects and/or fields, or between systems.
HS-C7.2:Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods of time. Some system changes are irreversible.
Science and Engineering Practices: 5
HS-P1.7:Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of a design.
HS-P4.3:Consider limitations of data analysis (e.g., measurement error, sample selection) when analyzing and interpreting data
HS-P6.5:Design, evaluate, and/or refine a solution to a complex real-world problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations.
HS-P7.5:Make and defend a claim based on evidence about the natural world or the effectiveness of a design solution that reflects scientific knowledge and student-generated evidence.
HS-P8.5:Communicate scientific and/or technical information or ideas (e.g. about phenomena and/or the process of development and the design and performance of a proposed process or system) in multiple formats (i.e., orally, graphically, textually, mathematically).
