Teach Climate Science
Find resources and activities that accompany The Teacher-Friendly Guide™ to Climate Change, and learn about our professional development workshops for teachers.
Explore Toolkits by Topic
Explore Toolkits by Chapter of the Teacher-Friendly Guide
Workshops
Other Useful Resources
Climate Change Teaching Toolkits: BY TOPIC
Energy and Atmosphere
Climate Change Mitigation
Communication and Advocacy
ENERGY AND ATMOSPHERE
Infrared energy
Infrared absorption by carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide and temperature
Box Model: steady state vs. non-steady state behavior
Heat capacity
Thermal expansion of water
CARBON AND WATER CYCLES
Carbon Cycle
Diurnal variations in carbon dioxide
How many molecules make a trace gas?
NOAA Mauna Loa data and rate of CO2 increase
Respiration
Hydrologic Cycle
Rainfall and river response
CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
Renewable Energy
Solar energy
Near-surface geothermal energy
Wind energy
Carbon Sequestration
Afforestation and Reforestation: tree biomass & carbon dioxide storage
COMMUNICATION AND ADVOCACY
Community Science
Climate Change Teaching Toolkits and Resources: by Chapter of The Teacher-Friendly Guide™ to Climate Change
This list of activities includes ones we have developed as well as links to resources and activities developed by partners and other organizations.
Overview: A Quick-Start Guide to the 12 Chapters of the TFG to Climate Change (Download, 9.6 MB)
Chapter 1. Why Teach About Climate Change? (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf 2.7 MB)
Chapter 2. What Should Everyone Understand about Climate Change and Energy? (Download, 3.9 MB)
Chapter 3. What is Climate? (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf, 14.9 MB)
Chapter 4. Climate Change through Earth History (Download, 16.6 MB; see also Introduction to Climate on Earth@Home)
Chapter 5. Evidence for and Causes of Recent Climate Change (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf, 4.6 MB)
Chapter 6. US Regional Climates, Current and Future (Download, 18.4 MB; see also updated, online guides to climates of U.S. regions on Here On Earth)
Chapter 7. Climate Change Mitigation (Find enhanced online version here, or download pdf, 10.8 MB)
Chapter 8. Geoengineering (Download, 6.3 MB)
Chapter 9. Climate Change Adaptation (Find enhanced and updated online version here, or download, 5.2 MB)
Chapter 10. Obstacles to Addressing Climate Change (Download, 1.1 MB)
Chapter 11. Perspective (Download, 3.6 MB)
Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions about Climate Change (Download, 5.2 MB)
You can download the entire Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change HERE.
Workshops
Teacher Professional Development
PRI will tailor workshops to help you teach about climate change past, present, and future, and about topics such as energy resources, sustainability, and biodiversity. For information contact our Director of Teacher Programming at teacherPD@priweb.org.
Learn about current workshops through our Learning Earth newsletter for teachers. Subscribe to the newsletter here.
Example topics and activities from some of our recent professional development workshops include:
Measuring carbon storage in trees
Tabletop and outdoor measurements of carbon fluxes, photosynthesis, and soil temperature, and how these measurements relate to climate change solutions
Creating and teaching about a Go Bag, to prepare students and their families for extreme storms
Where does gasoline go? An exploration of the math of how much carbon dioxide is generated by burning a gallon of gasoline
Teaching about the IPCC and its reports
There’s no such thing as a free megawatt: the Marcellus shale as a gateway drug to energy literacy
Rules of thumb for teaching controversial issues
Fire and Brimstone and Fort McMurray: considering the implications of apocalyptic rhetoric in climate communication
How to dig into the science of climate change and its scary implications without losing hope
Project-based learning with students developing cost estimates for adapting facilities to more heavy rainfalls, using less energy by switching to LED lighting, and using solar panels to generate electricity
Other useful resources
High quality climate change information and education resources from PRI and other organizations.
