1. The impacts of climate change
Michelle Minton
Learning objective: To investigate the impacts of climate change on people and the environment
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2. Starter: geographical questions
Look at this map carefully and generate three geographical questions you would like to find out the answer to.
Tip: Use the 5Ws to help you (what, where, why, when, who)
Teachers notes: Display the map above for students. Students should look carefully at the map and the key and create three geographical questions they would like to find out the answer to. You may like to write these in a book, so they can be revisited at the end of the lesson.
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3. The impacts of climate change
Task 1
In pairs, read your cards carefully.
How could you categorise these cards? Once you have decided, split them into these categories
Challenge
Could you split your categories into sub-categories and divide your cards further?
Tip
Use a dictionary to define any key terms you do not know and record these in your book.
Provide each pair of students with the card sort on the next slide. Students should come up with their own ways to categorise the impacts of climate change.
Categories might include people and environment; social, economic and environmental; locational; human, physical.
To challenge more able to students, ask them to split their categories further to make sub-categories.
Students should use a dictionary to define any key terms they are not familiar with. These could be records to add to their geographical vocabulary.
Class discussion should focus on the categories which have been chosen and should explore how these impacts could link together or have a knock-on effect on people and/or the environment.
Depending on the GCSE specification you are following, you may like to suggest categories and ask students to record these in their books.
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4. Card sort
Rainfall is increasing in some areas, for example northern mid-latitudes. In the UK, summer rainfall is decreasing while winter rainfall is increasing.
In some areas drought appears to be increasing, especially borders of the desert, such as the Sahel in northern Africa.
As temperatures rise, seasons are changing. In areas where there is an earlier spring, birds are beginning to nest earlier.
Arctic sea ice is melting. In the last 20 years ships have been able to sail around the north of Russia during the summer.
As ice melts, sea levels are rising. Some island nations such as the Maldives — where the highest point is 3 metres above sea level — are at great risk of being submerged.
Lack of rain at desert margins has already caused severe famine on the edge of the Sahara.
Increasing temperatures in the UK allow farmers to grow different crops such as grapes for wine-making.
Scotland has experienced a decrease in snowfall during winter months. This will impact on the Scottish skiing industry.
Over the last 150 years the average temperature has been increasing.
To be cut up and used by students in pairs.
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5. The ‘so what?’ game
Task 2
You must now each pick one impact of climate change.
You will each have 1 minute to play the ‘so what?’ game.
Rules
Each sentence must start with a connective word.
You must aim to explain the additional consequences your chosen impact may have (think social, economic and environmental).
You must not repeat yourself.
You must use as many key terms as possible The winner is the person who speaks for the longest, or uses the most key terms.
For example…
The Maldives are at risk from being submerged. So what?
Consequently, people may have to move elsewhere as environmental refugees. So what?
As a result, children’s schooling may be interrupted. So what?
In addition, the mangroves may become flooded and destroyed. So what?
Furthermore, the tourist industry is likely to decline. So what?
Therefore, local businesses supporting tourism will lose money. So what?
This activity aims to encourage students to explain the impacts of climate change in more detail and make links between human and physical impacts.
Before the game, you should write a list of key terms on a board to encourage students to use them in their explanations. You might also like to use a visible online stopwatch to time 1 minute.
In pairs, students will then take it in turns to talk for 1 minute about their impact of climate change with the aim to explain it in detail.
You might like to play the game a few times, as it usually takes a few goes for students to become confident. You may have a student who could model the game to the rest of the class.
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6. Exam question
Task 3 Explain the effects of climate change on people and the environment. (6 marks)
Model student answer:
Climate change has resulted in more extreme weather events. For example, people living the Sahel region of northern Africa have seen an increase in drought which has reduced their crop yields. However, it has also diversified farming in the UK, as increased temperatures allow different crops, such as grapes, to be grown, which may boost the farming economy.
In addition, climate change impacts on the environment. For example, as spring in the UK appears earlier, birds have started nesting earlier. This can be a problem for their offspring, as their required food may not be available at the time of hatching. Finally, as sea levels rise, island nations such as the Maldives are at threat of flooding. Consequently, the mangrove ecosystem and its species may be destroyed.
Encourage students to dissect the question by circling the command work (explain) and underlining key words (I would suggest making a point of people AND environment) therefore both must be discussed in order to achieve full marks.
As a class you may like to develop a success criteria for answering a 6-mark question, related to the demands of your GCSE specification. One example is to use the acronym FLEA: Focus (on the question), Locate, Examples/Evidence, Analyse.
Give students 6 minutes to answer the question independently.
Reveal the model answer for students to self-assess their answer (this may need adapting to relate to particular specifications). Alternatively, the model answer could be used by students to write a mark scheme for this question.
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7. Plenary: geographical questions
How many geographical questions can you now answer?
Students should now be able to answer some of the geographical questions they generated at the beginning of the lesson.
Any unanswered questions can be taken home and answered as homework.
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