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What I Can Do About Climate Change Educator Guide
https://climate.mit.edu/til-what-i-can-do-educator-guide

Climate Portal

This resource from MIT engages students in a conversation about their unique skills and perspectives that can contribute to climate change solutions. In this discussion based activity, students will listen to a 17-minute episode from the Today I Learned: Climate podcast and reflect on the stories presented. They then work in small groups to brainstorm and discuss the intersections of their individual skills, passions, and priorities as they relate to climate change.

This learning activity takes two 45 minute class periods.

Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»


Grade Level

Online Readiness

Topics

Climate Literacy

This Activity builds on the following concepts of Climate Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

Energy Literacy

This Activity builds on the following concepts of Energy Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

Notes From Our Reviewers The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy | Technical Details

Teaching Tips

  • Consider assigning the podcast for outside of class and encourage students to reflect on it before they discuss as a group.
  • Social Studies and ELA teachers could incorporate this activity into a unit, or work together to compare the communication strategy with social impact.
  • This resource includes a complete teacher and student guide. All activities are completion-based and there is no rubric or answer key.
  • This activity is largely based on reading comprehension and discussion, which may appeal to some but not all students. The teacher guide suggests using small self-assembled groups to engage all students.
  • It may be difficult for teachers and students to connect the podcast to the assignment, and there are a few challenges regarding the instructions in the teacher's guide. Instructions are provided for helping students who are not comfortable with diagramming and show how students can approach the activity differently, but they are unclear and may not accomplish an equivalent understanding of the material.

About the Content

  • The climate content focuses on impacts and solutions.
  • This activity focuses on social studies and ELA skills, though the science described is accurate. If teaching this is part of a science class, students will need background information on climate change in order to engage in the topic.
  • Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.

About the Pedagogy

  • In this lesson, students are challenged to engage in a conversation about climate using new social skills they learn through the activity and podcast.
  • The lesson could also be co-taught in ELA, social studies, and science classes with each contributing their realm of expertise to the exercises described.

Technical Details/Ease of Use

  • This resource is complete in scope and ready to use. All links and supplementary materials are easily accessed through Chrome web browser.

Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN

Entered the Collection: March 2025 | Last Reviewed: January 2025

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