Climate Change in Middle School Science

New Jersey is the first state in our Nation to incorporate climate change into its K-12 learning standards. Effective for the 2021-22 school year, the new standards apply to Health/PE, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Visual/Performing Arts, and World Languages. Here are some tools to incorporate climate change into your middle school science curriculum to incorporate the new climate change standards.

School districts, some still working remotely, have  until September, 2021, to incorporate this change into their curricula.

Of course, most middle school science teachers are already teaching climate change as some component of their curriculum. I talk about climate change in my decomposition unit because decaying organisms release carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are greenhouse gases. I’ve also taught climate change as a stand-alone unit. This year, that stand-alone climate change unit was followed by a quick lesson an alternative/renewable energy and then a series of hyperdocs on petroleum and renewable energy sources. 

Scientific literacy and the ability to think critically about items in the news is an important component of being a contributing member of society and it often falls to middle school science teachers to begin to build those skills. Climate change sometimes falls into the category of politically dividing and your students may have their own charged opinions about the issues based on what they believe.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is credited with saying “Science is true whether you believe it or not.” It’s our job to make sure that students learn to separate science from opinion. When I’ve heard students say they “don’t believe in climate change,” I’ve responded, “It’s not like the tooth fairy.” Believing isn’t what’s important – understanding climate change is what matters here. Incorporating climate change into middle school curricula will help build the understanding that students can use to separate fact from opinion.

In anticipation of this curricular change I imagine we’re all going to be looking for hands-on climate change activities. I’ll race you to Pinterest!