Climate Impacts and Solutions En-ROADS Learning Lab Lessons
Provided by: The Climate Initiative|Published on: May 24, 2024|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Lesson Plans
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences, Civics
Authors: The Climate Initiative
Location: North America > United States > Maine
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In the 6-lesson unit, students will explore the impact of climate change solutions using the En-ROADS program.
- Students will get an introduction to climate change and its impacts, watch a documentary featuring innovative solutions for sea level rise, write a case study about a climate equity and justice issue, participate in a climate action simulation role-playing as leaders in affecting change, test their proposed solutions using En-ROADS, and design a community action project.
- This is a companion resource for the student lab.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Many students will love the role-playing game portion of the unit!
- Using the En-ROADS program that is used by world leaders to evaluate climate decisions will help students feel a sense of authenticity in their work.
Prerequisites
- The links for Stanford Climate and Weather and What is Ocean Acidification are broken.
- Students should know how to read and analyze graphs.
- The teacher slides for Lessons 4 and 5, Annual conferences and events on climate change in Lesson 6, and CAS Briefing Statements in Lesson 3 require teachers to request access, however, most of the Briefing Statements are accessible in the CAS Teams and Materials sheet.
- In the Lesson 3 slides, teachers will need to insert the location and dress code information prior to presenting the slides. Additionally, in the Lesson 6 slides, teachers will need to add the due date for the community action project.
Differentiation & Implementation
- In videos where information is conveyed through text, students may benefit from slowing the video playback speed or having the text read aloud.
- Lessons 1 and 2, the introductions to climate change and its impacts, are extensive and will take multiple class periods. If students are already familiar with climate change impacts, teachers with limited class time may want to skip these lessons. Alternatively, there are lesson guides and student labs for nearly every topic addressed, if teachers wish to extend the learning in a certain area of impact.
- If teachers would like to involve the rest of the school or the community, they can invite others to observe the climate action simulation after the first round, tasking students with the responsibility of explaining the activity and summarizing the first round.
- Students using Project Drawdown research for their community action project can start with the Table of Solutions and look for ideas that may be relevant to their local context.
This lesson provides teachers with resources to teach students about climate change. This lesson touches on the causes, impacts, and solutions for climate change. Within this lesson students will use a simulation to look at different climate scenarios. This gives students an idea of how scientists use model output in their research as well as variables. The resources provided are accurate and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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