Greenhouse gases: explore II

This session provides an opportunity for learners to become familiar with the relationship between greenhouse emissions and climate change. They'll do this through looking at data and identifying targets to prevent further global warming and climate change in the future.

This is recommended as session three of the Key Stage Two Greenhouse Gases Unit, exploring the causes of climate change.

< 30 minutes
KS2

Preparation

Green skills  

  • interpreting data

Step by step

Quick starter activity 

Watch the following 1-minute video from the Royal Society:

Preview image for the video "Climate change in 60 seconds | The Royal Society".

Use the following questions as prompts for discussion:

  • If there were no greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, what would happen? 
  • Why is the ‘natural’ atmosphere important for life on Earth? 
  • Why do more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere make a difference? 
  • Where do greenhouse gases come from?

Main activity suggestions

Suggestion 1 (Indoor)

ThoughtBox: Changing climates cause and effect. These slides provide an overview of fossil fuels by focusing on the industrial revolution, then a summary of how humans use fossil fuels and an activity to create a fact sheet on the link between human habits and greenhouse gas emissions.

Suggestion 2 (Indoor)

Met Office: Exploring Climate Change Data. In this activity learners use real climate change data from the Met Office to understand how climate change is measured and how to interpret data.

Suggestion 3 (Outdoor / Indoor)

Royal Meteorological Society: Greenhouse Effect Bulldog. This game can be played on the playground or in the school hall and supports learners to understand how increased greenhouse gases leads to global warming.

Top tips

Ensure you give learners the space to reflect on how they feel. A simple idea is to ask them to list three feelings or emotions that they feel when they hear the term ‘climate change’. Allow learners time to talk about feelings and reassure them that there are many people around the world working hard to tackle climate change and that it is not their job to fix the problem, but everybody can help.

Curriculum links