The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

This month, we are highlighting the online resources created by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. The folks at YPCCC have created a great resource library of lesson plans for grade 6-12 educators of every content area to incorporate climate change education into their classrooms. These resources center around student-friendly explanations of climate change basics, survey data about the opinions of U.S. Americans on climate change, and activities that help students interpret the survey data and understand the nature of perspectives about climate change.

Personally, in my Civic Literacy classroom, I have used these lessons to help students explore what opinions U.S. Americans hold about climate change and why. We discuss what people believe about climate change, what leads different people to have different views, and distinguish between fact and opinion. All of this relates to the NC Civic Literacy essential standard “CL.G.1 Understand the role geography plays in civic participation, legislation, and public policy.”

Additionally, taking the time for students to dissect survey data on U.S. American opinions can tie into standard I.1.4 “Analyze data from charts, graphs, timelines, and maps” and “CL.B.1.1 Explain how values and beliefs influence the creation and implementation of public policy and laws.” If you want a NC-specific connection, you can also use their climate opinion maps to specifically explore the opinions of North Carolinians about climate change and how they vary geographically.

Yale’s resource library has lesson plans available in both Word and PDF formats. They can also relate to every content area, as listed below:

• Natural Science:
  • Climate Change Basics: 5 Facts, 10 Words
  • Climate Change Jigsaw
  • Introductory Essays About Climate Change
  • Why should we care about climate change?
• Math / Statistics:
  • Decoding the Data
  • Connecting Data to Storytelling
• English / Language Arts
  • Re-representing a Climate Change Story
  • Role Play” Six Views on Global Warming
• Human Sciences:
  • What is a survey?
  • Climate Change Communication Investigation
• Geography:
  • Meet Global Warming’s Six Americas
  • Navigating the Yale Climate Opinion Maps

Yale also has its own list of external resources for educators to use in supplementing their own. Overall, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication is a great resource for any grade 6-12 educator to incorporate climate change education into their classroom! 

• Robert Alvis