Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Climate connections

30 minutes

Find Out: Interactions of Earth’s spheres

25 minutes

Take Action: Earth’s spheres and renewable energy

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

understand how the interactions between Earth's spheres are impacted by climate change
explore how renewable energy technologies can mitigate the effects of climate change.

Students can:

identify and describe the impacts of climate change on the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere
analyse how different renewable energy sources (solar, hydro, wind and batteries) influence climate change and energy flow between Earth's spheres
explain how technologies like solar panels, hydroelectric power, wind turbines, and battery storage help mitigate the effects of climate change and contribute to sustainable energy flow.

Tune In: Climate connections

Step 1

Show the following video to your class which highlights the causes and impacts of climate change.

CLIMATE CRISIS | Causes, Consequences, and Solutions | FuseSchool - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQCifUD-pY)

If you or your school has a ClickView account, you might like to use this video instead.

Step 2

After watching the video, read or display the following quote from the Future Energy Jobs Guide to your class using the attached Visual Explainer.

The truth is that shifting to renewable energy is going to create all sorts of jobs that will offer exciting opportunities to help address the impact of climate change and promote more equitable access to renewable energy. The people who will fill these jobs are now at school, early in their career or looking to make a career change. People like you.
Future Energy Jobs Guide, Queensland Government

Step 3

After introducing students to these prompts, use the circles of action thinking routine to reflect on the different levels of action that can be taken to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Distribute post-it notes to students and write or display (using the next slide of the Visual Explainer) the following questions on the whiteboard. Encourage students to write their responses on their post-its and stick them in the appropriate section, discussing their answers once students have finished thinking of ideas.

What can I do to address the impact of climate change?

What can communities do to address the impact of climate change? (Think about your local neighbourhood and your school)

What can the world do to address the impact of climate change?

Step 4

Explain to students that the causes and impacts of climate change are complex and interconnected. However, in order to effectively address the issues and create solutions, people must first understand how climate change is being caused and its impacts on our society and environment.

Find Out: Interactions of Earth’s spheres

Step 1

Explain to students that there are 4 spheres that interact to maintain our planet. These are the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. If you haven’t covered these concepts with your class yet, you might like to explain each of the spheres using the information in the Teacher Content Information or with the following video:

Earth's Interconnected Cycles - Lincoln Learning Solutions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j5iHvYBIcg)

Ask students to think about 1 of the spheres - the atmosphere - and consider how this sphere relates to climate change (remind students of the video watched at the start of the lesson). Students can share their ideas through a class discussion.

Suggested answer: students should recall the atmosphere from the video they watched at the start of the lesson. Gases in the atmosphere, called greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane, trap heat to keep the planet warm. Human activities have increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, meaning more heat is trapped and the Earth is warmed past its normal temperature, contributing to climate change.

Step 2

Pose the question to students:

Do impacts on the atmosphere, stay within the atmosphere. Why/Why not?

Discuss their responses, encouraging them to think about the descriptions of the different spheres and how they are all interconnected with each other.

Step 3

Build on this discussion using an example of the hydrosphere. To aid in your description, you might like to display the image of the water cycle on the attached Visual Explainer.

The water cycle, as a part of the hydrosphere, works in the following way:

The sun (energy source) heats water in the hydrosphere (oceans, lakes, rivers), causing evaporation.
Water vapour rises into the atmosphere, where it cools and condenses to form clouds.
Clouds move and eventually release the water as precipitation (rain, snow), which falls back to the geosphere(land) and hydrosphere.

As the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases, more heat is trapped, which leads to impacts such as:

Increased evaporation: higher global temperatures increase the rate of evaporation, releasing more water vapour into the atmosphere.
Intensified storms: More water vapour can lead to heavier and more intense storms, which can cause flooding and erosion in the geosphere.
Altered precipitation patterns: changes in climate can disrupt normal precipitation patterns, leading to droughts in some areas and excessive rainfall in others.
Melting glaciers: warmer temperatures cause glaciers to melt, adding more freshwater to the oceans and impacting sea levels.

Step 4

Invite students to create the beginnings of a mind map in their workbooks, writing the names of each sphere in a circle on their page.

Building on your discussion, encourage students to think about how climate change impacts each sphere and the interconnections between these impacts. Then, have them create a mind map to show these impacts and interconnections.

Students requiring support might jot down the interconnections you have spoken about in your example, but encourage students to think of as many interactions as they can.

Step 5

Once the mind maps have been finished, group students with their peers sitting around them and encourage them to share their responses to add more information to their mind maps.

Discuss students’ findings as a class, emphasising the significant impact of the burning of fossil fuels.

Step 6

Revisit the quote you read to students at the beginning of the lesson and ask them to discuss in their small groups how would shifting to renewable energy address the impact of climate change and mitigate its effects on all spheres.

The truth is that shifting to renewable energy is going to create all sorts of jobs that will offer exciting opportunities to help address the impact of climate change and promote more equitable access to renewable energy. The people who will fill these jobs are now at school, early in their career or looking to make a career change. People like you.
Future Energy Jobs Guide, Queensland Government

Select a few students to share their insights with the class, highlighting that shifting to renewable energy would mean less fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas being mined and used to generate electricity. This would mean less greenhouse gas emissions, which would impact the greenhouse gas effect, the atmosphere and in turn, all of the other spheres.

Take Action: Earth’s spheres and renewable energy

Step 1

Explain to the class that this part of the lesson is about investigating renewable energy technologies that can mitigate the effects of climate change and lead to more sustainable and positive interactions between the Earth’s spheres.

If your students need a refresher on renewable energy, you might like to show them this video from FuseSchool to get the conversation started.

Step 2

Keeping the same groups as before, assign each group a different renewable energy technology. The most important renewable energy sectors in Queensland are solar, hydropower, wind, and battery storage. However, depending on your focus, you might also like to include geothermal, hydrogen and biofuels.

Task each group with creating a presentation (format of their or your choosing) explaining how their assigned technology mitigates climate change and contributes to sustainable energy flow within the spheres. They should address the following questions:

How does your assigned technology work?
How does your technology help mitigate the effects of climate change?
How does your technology contribute to a sustainable energy flow between Earth's spheres?
What are some real-world examples of this technology in action?

Extension opportunity: Early finishers, students requiring an extension or an alternative task, could use the Future Energy Jobs Guide to complete a fifth question: “What could I do to contribute to this issue?” Encourage them to think about their skills and interests and look into a type of job or career that would allow them to have a positive influence on mitigating the effects of climate change.

Step 3

If time permits, bring groups back together to present their findings to the class or other groups. Encourage students to discuss the interconnections of their technologies and the interactions between the spheres.

Reflection

Reflect on the lesson with your students using the following question:

How has learning about renewable energy technologies changed your perspective on climate change and what actions can you personally take to support renewable energy in your community?

Influencing Earth’s Spheres with Renewable Energy

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