Climate change: Mind mapping

Building knowledge

Summary information

Age range:	7 - 16 year olds
Curriculum links:	Geography, PSHE/Citizenship
Time needed:	40 minutes
Group size:	Pairs or groups of 3
Setting:	Indoors
Key vocabulary:	Fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, CO2, carbon dioxide, emissions, greenhouse effect, global warming, climate change.
Sustainability learning outcome(s):	Pupils will: understand the links between human activity and climate change; recognise opportunities for tackling climate change; think about factors that can assist and/or resist change.

Preparation:

Watch the climate change videos or animations on the following websites:

Videos
www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/climate-shorts.shtml

Animations
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/climate.stm

Resources needed:

Access to the web www.wwflearning.org.uk/wwflearning-home/ or sufficient copies of the photos from Climate change images and copies of the appropriate resource sheet A (A for 7-11 year olds; resource sheet B (B for 9-16 year olds) for each group of two to three pupils, large sheets of paper; pens, scissors and glue.

Procedure:

1.Ask each group of two to three pupils to create a climate change mind map using the photos from www.wwflearning.org and the information from the appropriate resource sheet. They might wish to present some of the information from the sheet visually, eg converting into diagrams or graphs. Pupils can add lines, arrows, drawings or writing as the see fit to show the links and make comments, ask questions, etc.

2.Ask the groups to use their mind maps to identify how they feel about climate change, whether they think something should be done and, if so, how climate change could be tackled.

3.As a whole class, discuss the mind maps created by the pupils and feed back thoughts and feelings using the following questions:
“What causes climate change?”
“How do you feel about climate change?”
“Should anything be done to stop it? If so, what?” (Ask the pupils to place their suggestions on a continuum from ‘Unlikely to happen’ to ‘Likely to happen’).
“Why is this solution to climate change less likely to happen?” and “What could be done to change this?”

Extensions:

Find out about Ecological Footprints using the following activity;
www.wwflearning.org.uk/consumption/resources/ecological-footprint,231,AR.html

Evaluation:

Pupils discuss the following questions in pairs:
“What did/do I feel about climate change?”
“What did/do I know about climate change?”
“What did/do I do about climate change?”
“What did/do I plan to do about climate change?”

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