McHenry County Schools Environmental Education Program

7th Grade

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Lesson: "Can YOU Mitigate Climate Disruption?"

Can you mitigate Climate Disruption?

Big Idea:

The Climate is Changing

Essential Question:

Why is Climate disruption a problem and how is your carbon footprint a factor?

This presentation seeks to educate students on the causes and likely consequences of global warming and also offers practical solutions to lessen its impact.

Objectives:

In our lesson we help students begin to to understand the science of climate change, what is it, what causes it, and what can be done about it. We strive to gain an awareness of the relationship between students' lifestyle choices and their carbon footprint And finally we explore together how one small positive change can make a huge difference

Define or describe weather, climate, carbon footprint, greenhouse effect, mitigation, disruption, impact, and carbon cycle.
Discuss the accuracy of the terms global warming, climate change, and climate disruption.
Evaluate the carbon footprint of various aspects of their daily life.
Debate the tradeoffs in efforts to reduce their own carbon footprint.

Vocabulary:

Global Warming – the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s innermost atmosphere.
Global Climate Change – the long term changes in temperature, moisture, and air mass movements occurring globally as a result of changes in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Greenhouse Effect – the trapping of heat by gases, such as carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Greenhouse Gases – gases in the Earth’s lower atmosphere that trap heat. Examples are carbon dioxide, CFC’S, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor.
Tipping Point – climate changes too late to reverse (i.e. the loss of Arctic sea ice)
Cap & Trade – Policy where the government will set a limit (cap) on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions a company can produce. Should a company need a higher limit, they can look to companies producing less and purchase their excess amount (trade).
Geoengineering – The concept of using technology to purposely cool the climate.