Climate change is increasingly becoming a topic laden with anxiety, grief, anger, and other emotions, especially for today’s youth (Marks et al., 2021), leading to a need for educator resources that can help address these emotions. To support the whole student, the following activities explore the relationship between climate and mental health, focusing on accessible, youth-friendly resources that aid teachers in approaching complex and sensitive topics in the classroom.
We recognize that teaching about climate change may give rise to controversy in some classrooms. For strategies to help facilitate difficult discussions, please see the CLEAN teaching support pages on managing climate change discourse. The activities in this set are structured by objectives, overview, and delivery method. They are also aligned with a social-emotional learning focus and the strategies listed in the graphic on the next page.
Context for Use
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. This is one of two warm-ups and seven climate and mental health activities as Climate Mental Health Support Activities.
A picture of a rainbow wheel with a different color for each emotion. Climate Emotions Wheel Activity © 2024 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Goals Header
What Students Will Do
- Make the connection between diverse emotions and climate topics.
- Create a safe and supportive space for emotions that arise when processing the impacts of climate change.
- Provide language and validation for the range of emotions that can arise when discussing climate change.
Teaching Materials
User note: To make an editable copy of the teaching materials in Google Drive, select File > “Make a copy”. This will make a copy for you to save to your drive and edit as you see fit.
