Lesson Plans & Activities

Three children sitting on a wooden log meditating with a green forest in the background

Mindfulness Practices & Guided Meditation

This activity is one of seven activities in the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.
In this lesson, students will participate in some practices designed to help them start to pay attention to their breathing and pay attention to the present moment. These practices can help students practice self-care and emotional regulation. When used regularly, mindfulness can help students build emotional regulation skills and build a community of compassion and respect.

Lesson

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

University/College

2024 Arctic sea ice summer minimum. The image depicts a satellite view of the Arctic where the sea ice is at a minimum during the summer as compared to the median extent that has been averaged from 1981 to 2010.

Arctic Sea Ice and Glaciers - Effects of Albedo

This Data Lens is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of Data Lens lessons.
In this short activity, students will strengthen their critical thinking skills by carefully observing the data, forming ideas, and backing them up with evidence.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

United states map with an Arctic air mass that is varying shades of blue covering a large part of the United States

Data Puzzle: Weather vs. Climate - Extreme Cold in a Warming World?

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
In this Data Puzzle, students explore the difference between weather and climate in the context of an extreme cold event that occurred during a NFL playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on January 13th, 2024. The air temperature at kickoff was -4°F, making it the fourth coldest NFL game ever played! But what does this cold weather event tell us (if anything) in the context of long-term average temperature patterns in the region?

Lesson

Middle School

High School

Satellite shot of the Earth from space at night with light pollution.

Earth at Night - Human Impact

This Data Lens is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of Data Lens lessons.
In this short activity, students will sharpen their critical thinking skills by making careful observations, forming ideas, and backing them up with evidence.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

a photo of a man riding a bicycle on the road with green trees in the background

Connecting with Special Places in Nature

This activity is one of seven activities in the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.
In this lesson, students will take time to connect to a place that is special to them.

Lesson

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

University/College

Out-of-school/Non-formal

With a blue sky and mountain with a white peak in the background, the metal poles are visible of the East River Watershed field site

Data Puzzle: Snow in the Rockies

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
Water from snowmelt high in the Rocky Mountains feeds into the Colorado River, a river system that more than 40 million people rely on for water. In this Data Puzzle, students analyze snowfall and snowmelt datasets to investigate the question, "How have snow conditions in the East River Watershed changed over time?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Virtual field trip

Middle School

High School

Talk About Climate Change Today Graphic from CLEAN Resource "Have the Talk: Climate Conversations"

Nature Appreciation

This activity is one of seven activities in the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.
In this lesson, students will play, explore, appreciate, and practice perspective-taking in nature. All of these actions help positively connect youth to nature, and instill an ethic of care for the environment.

Lesson

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

University/College

Out-of-school/Non-formal

Active Listening Skills

This activity is one of seven activities in the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.
In this lesson, students will identify emotions they experience as they learn about the impacts of climate change. In pairs, students will practice active listening skills as one student describes their emotions to the partner who applies active listening skills. They then flip roles and the other student describes their emotions while the partner listens.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

University/College

The Emotions Wheel

This activity is a stand-alone exercise part of seven activities from the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.
Emotion wheels have been a visual tool used by psychologists for decades to help people better understand and interpret their feelings. This activity is for people of all ages and can be done with family members, in a classroom, with friends, work colleagues, etc.

Lesson

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

University/College

Out-of-school/Non-formal

Cartoon image of green pine trees with orange fire shapes over them with dead brown brush at the bottom and a dark grayish blue sky

Data Puzzle: Wildfire, Drought, and the Future of Forests

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
Wildfires are burning more and more of the forests across the western United States. In this Data Puzzle, Data Puzzle, students analyze post-fire forest recovery datasets as they gather evidence to construct explanatory models for the following question, "How do climate conditions impact the recovery of forests after a wildfire?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

Orange sun with squiggly orange lines pointing down to green earth with electrons and molecules demonstrating global warming

Data Puzzle: Not All Warming is Equal

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
The dramatic increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide has caused global temperatures to rise by more than 1.1°C (~2°F), but not all warming is equal. In this Data Puzzle, students analyze temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide datasets to construct explanatory models for the following question, "Do the places on Earth where temperatures are increasing the most also have the greatest increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

Screen Capture from Rocky Mountain National Park Virtual Reality tour

Ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park

This virtual reality tour is part of a larger lesson focused on ecosystems.
Students explore biotic and abiotic interactions in Rocky Mountain National Park ecosystems in this virtual reality tour.

Lesson

Virtual field trip

Middle School

Map of the United States with red dots showing the location of Wind Turbines in the United States

Data Puzzle: Wind Farms of the Future

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
Transitioning from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources like wind is essential if the US is to reduce its carbon emissions. But where should new wind farms be constructed? In this Data Puzzle, students analyze surface roughness and wind speed data to construct an evidence-based explanation for the following question, "Where in the United States (lands and waters) should new wind turbines be constructed to generate the most energy?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

Moss campion (pink flowering plant) growing from speckled gray and light orange rocks with some green grasses

Data Puzzle: The Tipping Point

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
Plants like moss campion are uniquely adapted to the cold, dry climate characteristic of the tundra biome...but temperatures are on the rise. In this Data Puzzle, students analyze temperature and reproduction data to construct explanatory models for the following question "How is moss campion reproduction affected by temperature?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

Demonstrates an arctic food web with animals including ocean algae, zooplankton, polar cod, a seal colored gray, a bowhead whale colored black and white, a polar bear, and sea ice algae colored green. In the background is a yellow sun, light blue sky, and there is also White Sea ice which the polar bear is on and the sea ice algae is underneath.

Data Puzzle: Tracing Carbon Through the Arctic Food Web

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.

The Arctic is home to a huge variety of living things (humans included) that have adapted to harsh conditions. However, these conditions are changing as Arctic temperatures rise and sea ice declines. In this Data Puzzle, students trace the flow of carbon through the Arctic food web to construct explanatory models for the following question, "How might the decline in sea ice affect Arctic organisms large and small?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

An open journal with writing and text across that says "Explore, Read the letters and get to know their authors"

Letters to the Arctic

Letters to the Arctic is one of four activities in the The Drifting North Polar Planetarium Experience that invites students to explore what it was like to participate in the MOSAiC expedition to the North Pole.
In this activity, students put themselves in the shoes of a scientist who works in a fragile and changing environment. Learning will be guided with the driving question: How do scientists feel about the places they study?

Lesson

Middle School

High School

Student engaging with Polargram station at Fiske Planetarium wearing an orange snowsuit standing in front of a green screen

Drifting North Polar Planetarium

In this MS/HS lesson, students will be transported to the Arctic with the MOSAiC expedition, The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Arctic Climate, in an immersive classroom and field trip experience.

Lesson

Unit

STEAM Activity

Middle School

High School

Seen from the air the Polarstern floats alongside the MOSAiC ice floe

Introduction to the MOSAiC Expedition

Introduction to the MOSAiC Expedition is one of four activities in the The Drifting North Polar Planetarium Experience that invites students to explore what it was like to participate in the MOSAiC expedition to the North Pole.
In this activity, students will learn about the conditions in the Arctic and the scientists who study them through slides, audio podcast, and a worksheet. Learning will be guided with the driving questions: What is the Arctic? Who studies the Arctic? and Why should we care about the Arctic?

Lesson

Middle School

Aerial images of Lake Mead show the dramatic decline in water levels (~143 feet) from 2001 to 2015. Image from the National Park Service. First photo shows water up to top of dam, and second shows blue water much lower exposing orangish-gray rock on side of dam.

Data Puzzle: Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
Much of the western United States is experiencing drought conditions. In this Data Puzzle, students analyze authentic climate data to construct explanatory models for the following question, "What is causing the megadrought in the Colorado River Basin?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

Green pine forest being consumed by red and orange flames with thick dark smoke rising from trees with flames surrounding them

Data Puzzle: Megafire - Rare Occurrences or the New Normal?

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
Megafires have been a hot topic in the news over the past few years, but are they a new phenomenon? In this Data Puzzle, students analyze authentic wildfire data to construct explanatory models for the follow question, "How and why has the number of megafires have changed over time?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 79% of the surface of Greenland. Greenland is located north of Canada and the United States. Map credit: QGreenland

Data Puzzle: Balancing Act

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
Since the early 2000s, the Greenland Ice Sheet’s mass balance has been consistently negative, meaning more mass is being lost than gained. But this change in mass balance hasn’t always happened at the same rate. What could account for observed changes to the amount of ice in the Greenland Ice Sheet in recent decades?

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Geospatial resource

Middle School

High School

MOSAiC scientist Gina Jozef poses with her drone on snow with giant ship in the background and a small white and red sled with a brown box behind her.

Data Puzzle: It's All Connected

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
What makes the Arctic climate system so unique is the sea ice, which influences the Arctic climate in many ways. In this Data Puzzle, students analyze authentic Arctic data to construct explanatory models for the following question, "What effect, if any, do leads (cracks in the sea ice) have on the transfer of moisture between the Arctic Ocean and atmosphere?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

NASA photo showing Arctic sea ice minimum extent for each year from 1979 through 2019 with red line over image on faded graph showing decline in sea ice minimum.

Data Puzzle: To Reflect or Not to Reflect

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
The color of Earth's surface determines how much of the Sun's energy is reflected or absorbed, where lighter-colored surfaces are more reflective (higher albedo). In this Data Puzzle, students analyze authentic Arctic data to construct explanatory models for the following question, "How might the Arctic’s albedo be affected by the observed decline in sea ice?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

Flattened image of globe with colors ranging from white to yellow to orange to red showing changes in Celsius from 1950-2019. Darker the color is equal to a higher change in temperature.

Data Puzzle: On a Budget

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.
The Arctic is currently warming at a rate faster than the global average, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. In this Data Puzzle, students analyze authentic Arctic datasets to construct explanatory models for the following question, "Why might the Arctic be warming faster than other places on Earth?"

Lesson

Data Puzzle Resource

Middle School

High School

A group of seven penguins on an ice sheet with the dark ocean in the background

How does the changing climate impact the penguins around Antarctica?

This is the second lesson of a five-part curriculum about Antarctic physical environments and ecosystems.
In this lesson, students investigate the life history characteristics of different Antarctic penguin species and identify the changes that their populations have experienced.

Lesson

High School

Antarctic Iceberg in McMurdo Sound with dark blue water surrounding it

Human Impacts on Climate Change: What will happen and what can we do about it?

This is the fifth lesson of a five-part curriculum about Antarctic physical environments and ecosystems.
In this lesson, students explore how human activities will continue to impact Antarctic ice, discuss human contributions to climate change, and investigate what we can do to stop/reverse these negative effects.

Lesson

High School

Long stretch of blue ice in East Antarctica with brown snow covered mountains in background and bright blue sky

Why does the ice melt on the “Frozen Continent”?

This is the fourth lesson of a five-part curriculum about Antarctic physical environments and ecosystems.
After exploring albedo in the previous lesson, this lesson expands on more factors that lead to surface ice melt in Antarctica.

Lesson

High School

Emperor penguin colony gathers tightly together on dark blue snow

Antarctic Life & Albedo

This is the third lesson of a five-part curriculum about Antarctic physical environments and ecosystems.
In this lesson, students explore the importance of albedo (or reflectivity) to penguins and the surfaces they inhabit and learn how penguin colonies may be mapped using satellites.

Lesson

High School

What do we already know, or think we know, about climate & Antarctica?

This is the first lesson of a five-part curriculum about Antarctic physical environments and ecosystems.
In this lesson, students will elicit initial ideas about climate, explore images of Antarctica, learn important vocabulary, and synthesize how satellite imagery can help us understand climate change in Antarctica.

Lesson

High School

Big Thompson Flood. Brown muddy flood water flows through street with en trees greand houses with blue and green roofs to the side

A Changing Climate: Understanding Floods in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to floods in Colorado.
Students build an understanding of flooding in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format.

Lesson

Middle School

Impacts of drought on the Colorado River in the Southwest U.S., Photo Credit: USGS. A river lays low in the valley of red and orange rocks

A Changing Climate: Understanding Drought in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to drought in Colorado.
Students build an understanding of drought in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw activity.

Lesson

Middle School

A scenic mountain landscape with patches of melting snow on a rocky slope in the foreground. Below, a small turquoise alpine lake is surrounded by dense evergreen forest. In the distance, tall rugged peaks rise above the tree line under a partly cloudy sky

A Changing Climate: Understanding Wildfire in Colorado

This lesson is best used as part of the HEART Force curricular unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to wildfire in Colorado.
Students build an understanding of wildfire in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format.

Lesson

Middle School

Trelynn Watkins, 10, laughs as she plays in the Julia Primrose Fountain.

What’s Up With The Rising Temperatures in Colorado Cities?

This is the first lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
This lesson introduces why certain cities in Colorado are getting hotter using a video by the Denver Post that describes the pattern.

Lesson

Middle School

A grocer checks milk on a shelf at a grocery store, the milk jugs have different colored caps of light blue, dark blue and red.

How Can We Understand Waste and Emissions in Our School's Food System?

This is the third lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.
This lesson outlines for students how to design and carry out an investigation to audit their school’s food waste system.

Lesson

Design Challenge

Action Project

Middle School

High School

A trash can overflowing with food such as lettuce, tomato, bread, banana, and a milk jug with a blue lid.

How Does Our School Food System Create Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

This is the second lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.
In this design challenge lesson, students examine their school food system and develop an investigation about food waste in order to know what should change.

Lesson

Design Challenge

Action Project

Middle School

High School

A large truck dumps trash into a landfill with a blue sky in the background.

How Can We Decrease Our Impact on the Earth’s Climate at our School?

This is the first lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which was designed to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.
In this design challenge lesson students explore the Denver Public School District’s solid waste plan and discuss how their school can save or decrease emissions by reducing solid waste at our school.

Lesson

Design Challenge

Action Project

Middle School

High School

A student stands while doing a presentation.

How Can We Present Solutions for Food Waste and Emissions at School?

This is the fifth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.
This lesson provides guidance for students to create and practice a presentation about their design challenge results that they developed in the previous lessons and how to present it to the school administration.

Lesson

Design Challenge

Action Project

Middle School

High School

A group of students using laptops at desks all pushed together to form one collaborative workspace.

How Can We Reduce Emissions Associated with Food Waste in Our School?

This is the fourth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.
In this activity students utilize the data that is collected and propose solutions to mitigate food waste in their school.

Lesson

Design Challenge

Action Project

Middle School

High School

The carcasses of dead fish lie in a dry lake bed.

What Impact do Increasing Greenhouse Gases Have?

This is the sixth and final lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education High School Climate Unit.
In this lesson, students utilize case studies to learn about the ways climate change is currently impacting people and other living things around the world.

Lesson

High School

The sign at the entrance of NOAA's Maua Loa Observatory in Hawai'i.

Is it Normal That World Temperatures Are Rising This Fast?

This is the fifth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education High School Climate Unit.
This lesson explores if it is normal that world temperatures are rising at the currently observed fast pace.

Lesson

High School

Two smokestacks releasing smoke into the air with a blue sky.

How Do Humans Contribute to the Increase in Global Temperatures?

This is the fourth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education High School Climate Unit.
Students explore the greenhouse effect in this lesson using a computer simulation and develop a model for how it works.

Lesson

High School

A satellite image of the state of Colorado.

Why Are Cities and Other Regions of the World Getting Hotter?

This is the third lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education High School Climate Unit.
This lesson has students investigate how albedo is contributing to temperature increasing in some places, like cities, are increasing at faster rates than elsewhere.

Lesson

STEAM Activity

High School

A table of states with the fastest warming summers from Climate Central.

What is Special About Cities Compared to Rural Places?

This is the second lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education High School Climate Unit.
This lesson explores climate data at local, national, and global levels to determine that temperatures are changing all over the world, and that there are certain locations where temperatures are warming faster than the global average.

Lesson

High School

Why Are Cities Getting Hotter?

This is the first lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education High School Climate Unit.
During this lesson, students explore the increase in summer temperatures and describe the pattern as it relates to Colorado using a video by the Denver Post.

Lesson

High School

A cloud spelling CO2 wafts out of smoke stacks with a blue sky in the background.

How Does Human Activity Affect the Warming Temperatures on Earth?

This is the sixth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
This lesson explores whether human activities release greenhouse gases, like CO2, and whether these activities can cause temperatures on Earth to increase.

Lesson

Middle School

$Sun flare refracting through leaves.$

What Makes Cities Hotter?

This is the second lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
In this lesson, students explore reasons why temperatures in particular Colorado cities are rising.

Lesson

Middle School

A satellite image is shown over the same image in infrared, showing that the paved sidewalks and roads retain more heat than homes and vegetation.

Why Are Growing Cities Hotter?

This is the third lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
This lesson has students explore what land use changes are happening and how changes in surface color affects temperatures in cities.

Lesson

Middle School

A surface temperature anomaly or trend map by NASA.

Are Other Parts of the World Getting Hotter?

This is the fourth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
In this lesson, students investigate whether other parts of the world are changing and getting hotter just like Colorado.

Lesson

Middle School

A graph showing global temperature rising over time from 1880 to 2020

What Was Earth’s Temperature Like in the Past?

This is the fifth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
Students examine what the world’s temperature trend was in the past and whether temperatures have changed recently.

Lesson

Middle School

How Do Cars Impact CO2 in the Atmosphere?

This is the seventh lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
During this lesson, students explore how fossil fuel burning in cars contributes CO2 to the atmosphere.

Lesson

Middle School

An illustration of how solar radiation is trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which includes the earth and a yellow squiggly line bouncing on and off the earth's surface.

How Does an Increase in CO2 Cause an Increase in Temperature?

This is the eighth and final lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.
In this lesson, students learn how more CO2 in the atmosphere causes global warming.

Lesson

Middle School

Person in a pink plaid shirt operating a video camera on a tripod in an open field with mountains in the background under a clear blue sky.

Filmmaking: Production

This is the second part of a 3-part unit on the filmmaking process for both formal and informal education settings.
In this lesson, students film interviews with content experts as well as additional B-roll footage, and film mentors help students find existing footage and media to supplement their films.

Lesson

Action Project

Middle School

High School

Out-of-school/Non-formal

A close up image of a grooved glacier in black and white

Exploring Arctic Climate Data

This is the third activity of a three-part curriculum about Arctic climate; the activities may be used independently or in sequence.
In this final activity, students use authentic Arctic climate data to explore albedo and its relationship to seasonal snowmelt as a self-reinforcing feedback mechanism, which is then applied to large scale global climate change.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

University/College

Gloved hand holding circular ice core with blue sky

Ice Core Demonstration: The Past is the Key to the Future

Project EXTREMES lessons were written to be stand alone lessons but can be incorporated into a larger unit.
This lesson has students explore how the gases trapped in ice cores over the last quarter of a century can be used to understand how Earth's atmosphere has changed in the past.

Lesson

Middle School

Arial view of northern North America with red lines showing the Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage: Then and Now

Project EXTREMES lessons were written to be stand alone lessons but can be incorporated into a larger unit.
In this lesson, students learn about some of the early explorations of the Northwest Passage, and how the changing sea ice extent has prompted new explorations of this region to transport goods from one region of the Northern Hemisphere to another.

Lesson

Middle School

Greenish yellow fern growing in between two brown rocks

Photosynthesis, Respiration, and the Short-Term Carbon Cycle

Project EXTREMES lessons were written to be stand alone lessons but can be incorporated into a larger unit.
This lesson is focused on the short-term cycling of carbon and is designed to put the processes of photosynthesis and respiration within a global perspective.

Lesson

Middle School

Lesson Plans & Activities

Lesson Plans & Activities

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