What is climate change and how will it affect our city?

Students participating in an environment marchHelp to future proof our planet through fun activities that investigate how we can respond to climate change.

Students will learn about the role of transport, energy, food and clothing, and leave the programme feeling empowered to make a difference.

Year level  5 to 13 
Curriculum level  2 to 8
Availability Year-round
Times 9.30am to 12noon, or 12.15pm to 2.30pm
Site Ōtākaro River, corner of Colombo Street and Oxford Terrace
Cost Free
Number of students Maximum of 35

Risk analysis and management

Risk Analysis and Management (RAM) [DOCX, 33 KB]

Programme outline

Key concepts

  • Climate change
  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Sustainability
  • Mitigation
  • Adaptation

Lesson description

What is climate change and how will it affect our city?  Help to future proof our planet through fun activities that investigate how we can respond to climate change.

Students will learn about the role of transport, energy, food and clothing, and leave the programme feeling empowered to make a difference.

Possible success criteria

Students may be able to:

  • Explain the difference between the 'greenhouse effect' and the 'enhanced greenhouse effect'
  • Understand that greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere and can change the climate in harmful ways
  • Identify key human actions that are causing climate change
  • Name the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Christchurch
  • Identify the local effects of climate change
  • Identify key actions we can take to reduce emissions in the key areas of transport, energy use, agriculture and consumerism
  • Explain how carbon sinks can store carbon

Key competencies

  • Thinking: Students will use creative, critical and metacognitive processes to consider the consequences and real-life meanings of climate change
  • Relating to others: Students are expected to work together in different grouping arrangements, to maintain effective interactions with their peers in a range of contexts offered through a variety of activities
  • Using language, symbols, and texts: Students use oral, written and visual texts to understand key terms
  • Managing self: Students are encouraged to manage themselves both in groups and independently
  • Participating and contributing: Students problem-solve to come up with solutions to tasks

Future focus

  • Sustainability: Exploring the long term impact of social, cultural, scientific, technological, economic, or political practices on society and the environment
  • Citizenship: Exploring what it means to be a citizen and to contribute to the development and wellbeing of society
Learning area Strand Curriculum level Achievement objectives
Social Science   2 Understand how people make choices to meet their needs and wants.
Social Science   3 Understand how people make decisions about access to and use of resources.
Social Science   4 Understand how exploration and innovation create opportunities and challenges for people, places, and environment.

Understand that events have causes and effects.

Understand how formal and informal groups make decisions that impact on communities.

Understand how people participate individually and collectively in response to community challenges.
Social Science   5 Understand how people’s management of resources impacts on environmental and social sustainability.
Social Science   6 Understand how people interact with natural environments and that this interaction has consequences.
Social Science   7 Understand how the processes that shape natural and cultural environments change over time, vary in scale and from place to place, and create spatial patterns.

Understand how people’s perceptions of and interactions with natural and cultural environments differ and have changed over time.
Social Science   8 Understand how policy changes are influenced by and impact on the rights, roles and responsibilities of individuals and communities.
Science Planet Earth and Beyond – Interacting Systems 2 Describe how natural features are changed and resources affected by natural events and human action.
Science Living World - Ecology 3 and 4 Recognise that living things are suited to their particular habitat and how they respond to environmental change, both natural and human-induced
Science Planet Earth and Beyond – Interacting Systems 5 Investigate how heat from the Sun, the Earth and human activities is distributed around Earth by the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
Science Planet Earth and Beyond – Interacting Systems 6 Develop an understanding of how the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere interact to cycle carbon around Earth.
Science Planet Earth and Beyond –Earth Systems and Interacting systems 7 Develop an understanding of the causes of natural hazards and their interactions with human activity on Earth.
Science Planet Earth and Beyond –Earth Systems and Interacting systems 8 Develop an in-depth understanding of the interrelationship between human activities and the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere over time.