A Step-by-Step Guide for Teaching a Comprehensive High School Climate Change Unit

Teaching climate change to high school students can be daunting—complex science, data-heavy concepts, and a range of social and economic impacts to consider. But with the right approach, climate change activities, and resources, you can guide your students through this important topic in a meaningful, memorable, and scientific way. 

This step-by-step guide will walk you through each key concept in climate science using the structure of my Climate Change Unit Bundle. Each climate change activity in this bundle is designed for an experiential, inquiry-based approach, giving students an active role in their learning.

The benefit of going with the climate change unit bundle is that each resource was designed to save you time AND promote on-task, deep, and inquiry-based learning. Each resource encourages self-directed exploration, keeping students actively engaged. 

This bundle is ideal for educators who may not feel entirely confident teaching climate change concepts. If you’re new to the topic, have been asked to teach it but aren't sure where to start, or just need some support taking an experiential science approach, these resources can be super helpful.

In the step-by-step guide below, whenever I mention tasks like "lead a class discussion," "go over the concepts," or "distribute maps," everything needed for those actions is included in the resource. 

For example, if I say "Lead a class discussion on climate drivers," discussion questions are provided in the teacher guide of that resource. Similarly, if I mention "students will review the main points of Hadley cells in atmospheric circulation," the information is available in the student guide. Everything you need is included!

I have taught climate change many times, and I’ve created these materials to reflect that experience and make the process easier for you.

That said, you don’t need this bundle or the individual resources to teach climate change to your high school students. If you already have climate change activities and teaching materials, that’s great! This bundle is simply here if you need a ready-made, cohesive set of resources for teaching climate change.

​Moving on! What climate concepts should you teach, and in what order? Let’s take a look.

An Outline for Teaching Climate Change:

There’s no one right way to teach climate change to high school students—do what works best for you. If you’re seeking inspiration or a roadmap, here’s mine.

The outline below reflects the climate change concepts I teach and the order in which I present them. This approach is based on my teaching style, how I was trained, and the Next Generation Science Standards.

Feel free to rearrange the concepts below as you see fit—this is simply what has worked well for me.
​

1. The Energy Budget
2. Atmospheric Circulation
3. The Ocean’s Role in Global Climate
4. Climate Drivers
5. Climate Feedback Loops
6. The Carbon Cycle (and Disruptors)
7. Greenhouse Gases
8. Evidence of Climate Change
9. Consequences of Climate Change
10. Renewable Energy
11. Our Climate Future

Climate Change Unit Timeline:

The bundle is flexible, so you don’t need to use all the resources exactly as written—it depends on the time you have. 

While I can’t provide a specific timeline since everyone’s schedule is different, a general estimate for the activities in the bundle is about 10 weeks if you dedicate one hour per day and follow each resource as written, one at a time. 

If 10 weeks is too long, consider these adjustments:

1. Combine Resources: Instead of focusing on one resource at a time, try overlapping a few. For instance, project-based learning often includes downtime, such as waiting for responses from community experts. During these lulls—like those in the Greenhouse Gases PBL—students could start the Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning activity that comes next.
2. Focus on Key Concepts: Prioritize the resources that align most closely with your learning objectives. You don’t have to use everything in the bundle—select what works best for your students and curriculum.
3. Shorten Activities: Many activities can be streamlined by focusing on the most critical parts. For instance, you could reduce the time spent on brainstorming or reflection while still covering the essential content.
4. Assign Work as Homework: Assign tasks such as brainstorming or research as homework to save class time for discussions and feedback. The bundle’s resources are designed for independent work, with most steps manageable by students on their own. 
5. Split Topics into Groups: To save time, divide students into groups to work on different unit topics, then have them share their findings with the class. While not ideal, this approach can cover more material quickly. For this approach, focus on splitting these concepts only: energy budget, atmospheric circulation, ocean and climate, climate drivers, and feedback loops.
6. Use Digital Tools: All of the climate change activities in this bundle include a Google Slides version that can be shared with students via Google Classroom. With this digital option, students can work asynchronously, allowing you to maximize the use of your time together.

By adapting the unit to your specific needs, you can ensure your students still gain a comprehensive understanding of climate change while managing your time effectively.

A Step-by-Step Guide for Teaching Climate Change to High Schoolers

Step 1: Understanding the Energy Budget

Start the entire unit by introducing the Earth’s energy budget, which lays the foundation for understanding climate science. Earth’s energy budget explains how energy from the sun interacts with the atmosphere, oceans, and land, driving weather and climate patterns. 

By grasping the energy budget concept, students will understand why disruptions to this energy flow, such as excess greenhouse gasses, can lead to climate change. This first lesson sets the stage for everything that follows.

Energy Budget Simulations and Experimental Inquiry Activity

Climate Change Activities Implementation: 

• Introduce the energy budget with a discussion. Ask questions like, “On a hot beach day, would the air feel cooler over water or sand? Why? Would this change with white vs. black sand?” These questions prompt students to draw on prior experiences and introduce key energy budget concepts.​
• Use visual aids to show how energy flows in and out of Earth's systems. Display a ​graphic of the energy budget and encourage students to share their observations.
• Use interactive demonstrations such as modeling energy flow with light sources or heat lamps.
• Have students work in groups to create energy budget simulations, visually showing the balance between incoming and outgoing energy.
• Incorporate experimental inquiry by having students design and conduct student-led energy budget experiments, such as testing how cloud cover affects surface temperature or how colors reflect and absorb heat. Use an open-inquiry approach, allowing pairs or small groups to shape their own investigations.

Step 2: Atmospheric Circulation

​Atmospheric circulation is the movement of air around the globe, and it plays a crucial role in determining weather and climate. 

In this section, students learn about wind patterns, ocean currents, and how energy is transferred across the planet. This concept is foundational to understanding the larger impacts of climate change on global weather patterns. Students learn about these concepts from a hands-on, design thinking approach.

​Atmospheric Circulation Maker Stations

Climate Change Activities Implementation: 

• Before diving into atmospheric circulation and its role in climate, give students a foundation in key concepts. Assign these topics to small groups for research:
  • The principles of heating and cooling such as convection
  • Layers of the atmosphere (troposphere, tropopause, stratosphere, stratopause, etc.)
  • Atmospheric composition and character (N, O, Ar, water vapor, CO2, CH4, O3, NO2)
  • The Coriolis effect
  • Hadley cells
  • Ferrel cells
  • Polar cells
• Have students present their findings to the class with a slideshow presentation that explains these concepts clearly so that students are ready to fortify the concepts with an experiential activity.

• Deepen learning with a design station activity. Students create demos of the Coriolis effect and Hadley, polar, and Ferrel cells through prototyping, building, and problem-solving. This method helps students visualize how these concepts connect, highlighting the key role atmospheric circulation plays in climate.

Step 3: The Ocean and the Global Climate

Next, explore the oceans’ significant influence on global climate. Oceans absorb and redistribute heat and play a major role in regulating temperatures and influencing weather patterns. Students will learn how rising ocean temperatures can disrupt this balance, affecting marine ecosystems and contributing to extreme weather events, from an inquiry-based learning approach.

The Ocean and the Global Climate:

Climate Change Activities Implementation: 

• Introduce the concept of the ocean and its role in global climate by showing students this thermohaline circulation demo. This will spark curiosity and provide a natural opportunity to discuss the topic.
• Display diagrams and maps highlighting key elements of the ocean's role in global climate. Have students observe and discuss what they notice.
  • Salinity map
  • Surface currents
  • Global ocean conveyor belt

• Students explore the ocean's influence on global climate through a series of inquiry mapping stations. Instead of a research or lecture approach, students create maps based on observation, questioning, prior knowledge, and provided content, and compare their predictions with real scientific findings.

Step 4: Climate Drivers

​Climate drivers are factors that directly or indirectly influence the climate, including volcanic eruptions, solar radiation, and human activities. This lesson shows students how natural and anthropogenic (human-caused) factors impact global and regional climates. Help students examine both historical and modern climate drivers to understand the role human activity plays in accelerating climate change. Again, they'll do this through an inquiry-based learning activity.

Climate Drivers Inquiry Activity:

Climate Change Activities Implementation:  

• Facilitate a group discussion on various natural climate drivers versus human-driven factors (e.g. volcanic eruptions vs. greenhouse gases)
• Show images of various climate events (e.g. heatwaves) and ask students what they think might be driving those events.
• Have students predict various climate drivers' timespan and radiative forcings, coloring their representations on a prepared table or chart. This inquiry-based activity encourages students to make predictions based on their observations and experiences.
• AFTER predictions are made, students research the climate drivers (scientific publications, climatologist interviews, etc). Have students compare their predictions with current scientific understanding and note discrepancies.
• Students share their findings in small groups, discussing how their predictions align with scientific findings. Lead a class discussion to reflect on the accuracy of predictions and the broader implications for climate change understanding

This approach follows the experiential learning cycle!

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Step 5: Climate Feedback Loops

Feedback loops amplify or diminish climate change. In this section, students will explore positive feedback loops (like the melting of ice caps reducing reflective surfaces and causing more warming) and negative feedback loops that stabilize the climate through experimental inquiry. This topic can be complex, so using clear examples and visual aids is essential.

Climate Feedbacks Experimental Inquiry Stations:

Climate Change Activities Implementation: 

• Provide an overview of climate feedback loops and their importance to understanding climate change. Use simple, relatable examples, such as the melting ice-albedo effect, to explain feedback loops. This is a great starting point since students have already learned about albedo in the energy budget section.
  • This website has some neat interactive images of a variety of feedback loops in action. I encourage you to show these images and animations to your students!
• Have students create concept maps showing different types of climate feedback loops and their consequences.
• Students design and lead their own experiments related to different climate feedbacks (e.g. wildfire, sea ice albedo, water vapor). 
  • I like to break students up into small groups and assign ONE feedback to each group.
  • They deep dive into research on their assigned feedback. 
  • Finally, they design experiments to demonstrate their feedback loop. I provide testable question ideas, but you can have students ask their own questions if you wish.

Step 6: Carbon Cycle Disruptors

​The carbon cycle is a natural process by which carbon is exchanged among Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, soil, and organisms. Disruptions to this cycle, such as land-use changes, lead to increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. I like to approach this concept with problem-based learning.

Challenge students to explore disruptions in the long- and short-term carbon cycles (geological and biological). They not only research how the carbon cycles function and how human activities impact them, but also what actions can restore a natural carbon balance. Let's tackle this complex concept through problem-based learning.

Carbon Cycle Disruptors Problem-Based Learning Challenge:

Climate Change Activities Implementation:

• Introduce the short- and long-term carbon cycles with an inquiry activity. Start with a brief overview of the carbon cycle. Then ask students to sketch the path a carbon atom might take through the biosphere and geosphere.
• Review students' carbon cycle predictions as a class, using this as an opportunity to show the actual short and long-term cycles and explain how they play a role in regulating Earth's temperature.
• Facilitate a group discussion on human activities that may disrupt these cycles. 
• Students will research various carbon cycle disruptors, explore strategies to restore balance and create a comprehensive proposal to address these carbon cycle disruptors.
• Present! I enjoy having my students present their comprehensive solutions as if they were seeking approval for their plans. This activity helps students develop a wide range of valuable skills!

Step 7: Greenhouse Gases

Now, dive into the science behind the greenhouse effect and the role of greenhouse gases such as CO₂, methane, and water vapor. Students will learn how these gases trap heat and contribute to global warming. This lesson connects their understanding of the energy budget with the specific gases that influence Earth's temperature. I like to take a student-led project-based learning approach. 

Greenhouse Gases PBL

Climate Change Activities Implementation:

• Start by displaying a diagram of the greenhouse effect. Have students draw their own diagrams and then discuss it as a class.
• Assign a different greenhouse gas (e.g., methane, CO2) to small groups. Students design a project-based learning experience around that gas and its role in climate change.
• Students connect with community experts for insights and use research prompts to gather data on their gas. 
• Students create a final product to demonstrate learning on their gas's climate impact and present it to a relevant audience. I recommend providing options for the final product and authentic presentations to support those new to project-based learning.
• Wrap up the experience with a panel discussion with community experts for feedback (optional). After the panel, facilitate a reflection and provide feedback on student diagrams to assess learning. I also like to have my students redraw the greenhouse effect diagram at the end as a formative assessment.

Step 8: Evidence of Climate Change (CER)

One of the most critical aspects of climate science is gathering evidence. If you have access to interactive climate modeling programs, such as EdGCM, I highly suggest utilizing these tools. If not, a Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) approach is a great option, which is what I will cover here. 

Students learn how to use CER to support scientific claims about climate change. Students make a claim in response to a climate-related question, look at historical temperature data, ice core samples, and other scientific evidence, and use that evidence to justify their claim (reasoning). 

The Evidence of Climate Change CER Activity

Climate Change Activities Implementation:

• Explain what Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) is and why it’s important to back any claim with evidence. 
• Pose questions for students to research, make a claim, and support with evidence. An example question is: “Is the Earth’s climate changing?”
• Students make a claim in response to these questions such as “The Earth’s climate is changing.” or ”The Earth’s climate is not changing.” They then collect credible evidence and justify their claims with reasoning.
• Students write a scientific argument defending their claims and present their findings to the class. This is my favorite part. So many skills are developed in this experience. 
• After presentations, students refine their arguments based on peer feedback.

Step 9: Climate and Culture

Climate change affects not only the environment but also human communities, cultures, and ways of life. Students will investigate the social and cultural impacts of climate change, including displacement, changing agricultural practices, and threats to cultural heritage. This part of the unit emphasizes the human dimension of climate change. 

This topic isn't included in the outline because it's a "bonus" PBL experience in the bundle. If you're short on time, consider skipping this one. The next experience focuses on climate change consequences, where students can choose to explore impacts specifically on human communities. 

Climate and Human Communities PBL

Climate Change Activities Implementation:

• Students choose different communities affected by climate change, both locally and globally (displacement of people due to rising sea levels, long-term health issues from wildfires, extreme weather events destroying cultural heritage sites, etc.)
• Students will follow the same project-based learning framework as in the greenhouse gases PBL. This includes engaging with community experts, researching the issue, creating a final product to address the issue or demonstrate learning, and sharing their findings with a relevant audience. Again, the resource for this experience includes options.
• Encourage students to explore how climate change might impact their own community.

Step 10: The Consequences of Climate Change

In this lesson, students dive into the current and future consequences of climate change, from extreme weather events to biodiversity loss and rising sea levels. Understanding these effects helps students see the urgency of addressing climate issues.

Climate Consequences Problem-Based Learning Challenge

Climate Change Activities Implementation:

• Start by introducing students to the concept of real-world problem-solving with climate change. Explain that they will explore how climate change impacts specific communities worldwide and develop solutions to address these issues.
• Students identify and select a community or region to examine based on their interests.
• Students research climate change consequences specific to their chosen community. Encourage them to explore various aspects such as geography, politics, biology, and more.
• Students brainstorm potential solutions to mitigate or prevent the impacts of climate change on their selected community. Encourage students to utilize community resources and expertise, think critically, and evaluate the costs and benefits of each solution.
• Based on their findings, student develop a comprehensive plan to solve or prevent the climate change consequences on their chosen community, and propose their plan to the class.

Step 11: Renewable Energy and Sustainability

​This section covers sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, such as solar and wind power, and explores other sustainable practices that can help mitigate climate change. Students will gain insight into solutions to reduce emissions and promote a more sustainable future through a guided project-based learning experience. 

Renewable Energy Guided PBL

Climate Change Activities Implementation:

• This experience is project-based and focuses on the driving question: “How can I create a free and accessible guide for homeowners and business owners that will help them confidently and easily transition to renewable energy for their home or business?”
• A great way to start this renewable energy PBL is with a class discussion. Simply ask students what they know about renewable energy and how it might work to combat or prevent climate change. Their answers will likely reflect concepts they’ve already learned about such as feedbacks, carbon cycle disruptors, and greenhouse gases.
• Each group produces the same final product, a guide designed for home or business owners considering a shift to the renewable energy. Students create Google Maps to add to their guides that highlight the best geographic locations for the renewable energy source they studied. You can view a mapping demo here!
• Connect with at least one community expert such as wind energy engineers, sustainability consultants, solar panel installers, energy policy makers, etc. 
• In this case, the authentic presentation involves distributing the guides to homeowners and businesses.

Step 12: Our Climate Future

Finally, students will explore future pathways, including mitigation, adaptation, and global cooperation. They'll consider how today's choices impact the future climate and develop real solutions through a community action project. This approach allows students to take action on their ideas, integrating everything they've learned about climate into a meaningful final experience.

Community Action Project: Our Climate Future

Climate Change Activities Implementation:

• Create a final project where students outline a climate action plan for their school, local, or global community, specifically as it relates to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Students develop these action plans and take real action.
• Action Plan Example: The student creates a digital cookbook featuring recipes for using leftovers, along with instructional videos demonstrating how to prepare each dish. 
  • This action plan is achievable for students and builds on their understanding of landfills' role in methane production, the deforestation feedback loop, and land use changes' impact on the carbon cycle, all key concepts addressed earlier in the unit.
• Feedback is crucial throughout this project, as it involves task management, independence, and a significant workload. I recommend daily check-ins, regular feedback sessions, and teacher approvals before progressing to the next phase.
• Consider organizing a presentation event for students to share their actions with the community.

Bringing It All Together

By following this sequence, your students will develop a holistic understanding of climate change, grounded in both scientific principles and real-world implications. 

This inquiry-based, hands-on approach allows students to actively participate in their learning, resulting in a deeper understanding and lasting impact. 

Teaching climate change doesn’t have to be overwhelming—this Climate Change Unit Bundle provides everything you need, from lesson plans to interactive activities, making it easy to guide your students through this essential topic.

Ready to bring climate science to life in your classroom? Let’s go! Empower your students to explore, understand, and take action on one of the most pressing issues of our time.

If you ever have questions about teaching climate change, please email me! I’m happy to chat one-on-one.

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