ENVIRONMENT
Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers’ Toolkit.
Discussion Ideas
- What is climate change?
Climate change includes all the gradual, long-term changes in weather on our planet. “Global warming,” which often includes periods of intense cold, is the current period of climate change.
- What elements of climate change does Noah Gue, the first-grader in the video, see in his rural Montana home?
- Noah says glaciers are receding. According to the Nat Geo News article, Noah was inspired by his grandmother’s picture book about Montana’s Glacier National Park, and her stories about what the glaciers looked like when she was a girl.
- Noah also runs into a patch of dry grass when skiing down a hill near his home, and cites this as evidence of a warm winter. “February in Montana at 9,000 feet,” he says. “What a shame.”
- Noah holds soot, the burned remains of a tree, while standing in a charred forest. He draws a connection between forest fires and climate change. (Noah’s father is a firefighter, so he might have an unusual awareness about fire conditions!)
- Can you identify any elements of climate change in your neighborhood?
- Noah talked to his grandmother and parents. Talk to older adults to see what the weather was like when they were growing up.
- Did they have more or fewer snow days?
- Do they remember the level of a local lake or river being lower or higher?
- When did they start wearing winter or summer clothes? (Could they wear flip-flops in February? Did they need heavy parkas in May?)
- Talk to farmers or gardeners.
- What crops or plants have grown in your region historically? What crops are grown now?
- What types of fertilizer or irrigation methods have traditionally been used? What methods are used now?
- Visit your local library. Ask a librarian or archivist to help you find historic maps and almanacs.
- How have precipitation patterns changed?
- How have zoning methods changed—have rivers changed course, or are people building closer or further from the ocean or lake?
- What natural hazards—such as hurricanes, forest fires, or thunderstorms—have historically impacted your community?
- Have these extreme natural events increased or decreased over the past century or even 25 years?
- Make your own video, or ask an adult to help. Noah’s parents made his video using a GoPro camera and an inexpensive app!
- Noah talked to his grandmother and parents. Talk to older adults to see what the weather was like when they were growing up.
- Take a look at how other “Young Voices for the Planet” are making their voices heard—from planting a million trees to designing social-media-friendly logos. Get inspired by your own passions and talents, and add your voice to the chorus!
TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT
Nat Geo: Watch Six-Year-Old’s Gripping Video on Climate Change
Montana Department of Environmental Quality: Climate Change in Montana
The Wilderness Society: Montana’s Changing Climate
Nat Geo: Young Voices for the Planet videos
Fantastic……………..