As a High School or Undergraduate teacher in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, Earth Sciences, or Environmental Sciences, you can use this lesson plan to teach your students about climate change and global warming through Hip-Hop.
This lesson plan provides an introduction to Hip-Hop education and the importance of the use of popular and contemporary resources such as rap music to engage with the youth in the classroom. It focuses on the album ‘The Rap Guide To Climate Chaos’ by rapper and science communicator Baba Brinkman. This lesson plan provides a template on the use of contemporary and popular rap music on the science and politics of climate change so that your students can better engage with the climate crisis.
Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to teach Climate Science and Climate Change in your Humanities, Social Sciences, Earth Sciences, or Environmental Sciences classrooms. Teachers in the Humanities and the Social Sciences can use this lesson plan to teach topics such as Race Studies, Cultural Studies, Social Theory as per their syllabi while teachers in the Earth Sciences and Environmental Sciences can use the lesson plan to teach Climate Change to their students using a novel pedagogical approach.
Questions
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
What is climate change? What are the causes of global warming?
What are the impacts of climate change?
What is the role of fossil fuel burning in the warming of the planet?
How do the current energy policies contribute to an increase in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere?
Discuss global warming and the politics underlying the problem.
Is individual agency enough to combat climate change?
What political reforms can incorporate individual responses to climate change in conjunction with large scale reforms?
What is Green Capitalism? What is Cap and Trade? How would you compare it with climate taxes?
About Lesson Plan
Grade Level
High school, Undergraduate
Discipline
Humanities, Social Sciences, Earth Sciences,
Environmental Sciences
Topic(s) in Discipline
Climate Change, Global Warming,
Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop Education, Rap
Climate Topic
Introduction to Climate Change
Policies, Politics, and Environmental Governance
Energy, Economics, and Climate Change
Location
Global
Language(s)
English
Access
Online
Approximate Time Required
60-100 min
Contents
Reading
(15 min) and Video lecture (20 min)
A reading titled ‘The World IS Yours: A Brief History of Hip-Hop Education’ by Martha Diaz, Education Chair- Universal Hip-Hop Museum and Founder – Hip-Hop Education Center as an introduction to Hip-Hop education.
This can be accessed here. (Requires sign up for free access)
A video lecture of a panel discussion hosted by the Columbia University School of Professional Studies Community Scholars Lecture and Panel Discussion: ‘Hip-Hop Education Propelling and Preserving the Movement’ that provides an overview of Hip-Hop education and its importance.
Reading (15 min) OR Video Micro-Lectures (5-15 min)
A reading from the NASA Global Climate Change website that includes contains information about what is the scientific evidence for climate change, causes and impacts of climate change.
A set of 7 of short video micro-lectures (2-5 minutes in length) on climate change and global warming developed by the National Research Council, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.
1
Introduction to Hip-Hop Education
As an educator you may wish to read ‘The World IS Yours: A Brief History of Hip-Hop Education’ by Martha Diaz, Education Chair- Universal Hip-Hop Museum and Founder – Hip-Hop Education Center as an introduction to Hip-Hop education.
Further, you may wish to watch a panel discussion hosted by the Columbia University School of Professional Studies Community Scholars Lecture and Panel Discussion, ‘Hip-Hop Education: Propelling and Preserving the Movement’ that provides an overview of Hip-Hop education and its importance.
Both these resources serve as excellent introductory resources towards how popular and contemporary material such as Hip-Hop and Rap music can be used as an effective pedagogical tool in the classroom. Rap music is an especially effective form of communicating and connecting with the youth. It is an extremely powerful tool that can make students understand the current climate crisis and an effective way to introduce the science of Earth’s climate, global warming, and its impacts.
2
OPTIONAL
Introduction to Climate Change
Optional: You may wish to introduce the basics of climate change and global warming to your students using the following resources. These resources may be especially useful for students of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Introduce to your students what is climate change and global warming using a reading from the NASA Global Climate Change website. This resource contains information about what is the scientific evidence for climate change, causes and impacts of climate change.
You may choose to provide your students with further information about global climate change using a set of video micro-lectures, ‘Climate Change: Lines of Evidence’. This set of 7 of short video micro-lectures (2-5 minutes in length) have been developed by the National Research Council, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
They include:
1. What is Climate? Climate Change, Lines of Evidence Chapter 1
2. Is Earth Warming? Climate Change, Lines of Evidence Chapter 2
3. Greenhouse Gases. Climate Change, Lines of Evidence Chapter 3
4. Increased Emissions. Climate Change, Lines of Evidence Chapter 4
5. How Much Warming? Climate Change, Lines of Evidence Chapter 5
6. Solar Influence. Climate Change, Lines of Evidence Chapter 6
7. Natural Cycles. Climate Change, Lines of Evidence Chapter 7
Audio; The Rap Guide To Climate Chaos by Baba Brinkman
Instruct your students to listen to the album ‘The Rap Guide To Climate Chaos’ by Baba Brinkman prior to coming to the classroom if you are using the ‘Flipped Classroom’ style of pedagogy. Alternatively you may select and play particular tracks from the album during the lecture.
Note that the album is available for purchase at the link above.
The tracks are available for free viewing on YouTube as part of Baba Brinkman’s performance for ‘Talks At Google’. This free resource can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ZH6R3Idb4&t=759s
Introduce the album to your class and discuss the following.
Overview: Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Climate Chaos is a hip-hop album that aims to educate people on issues of climate change by staying true to the tradition of knowledge through rhymes in the genre. The album features 24 tracks that address climate change. In songs such as ‘IPCC’, he addresses the findings of the committee and even internal disagreements on projections. On songs such as ‘Greenhouse’, he takes the listener through a sonic journey of development including the greenhouse effect, predicted rise in global temperatures from Svante’s study and puts them alongside the findings of the IPCC and its accuracy. He critiques his own consumption and the paradox of being unable to individually contribute to reducing the impact of climate change without large scale policy reforms. Brinkman speaks extensively about cap and trade vs climate taxes, and the ecological debt that richer countries owe the marginalized. The album also focuses on Exxon’s failures and lies and how what they have done is committed a criminal offence.
Direct your students to note how Brinkman addresses problems of capitalism and proposes economic solutions including what can be categorized as green capitalism. Ask them to make note of his references to economic policies, individual hypocrisies, ecological debt, geophysics and political policies along with how theological institutions can address climate change.
The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:
learn about climate change and global warming
understand the scientific causes of global warming
discuss climate politics including the roles of major energy companies in causing global warming
describe the main climate change policies
Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation :
What is climate change? What are the causes of global warming?
What are the impacts of climate change?
What is the role of fossil fuel burning in the warming of the planet?
How do the current energy policies contribute to an increase in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere?
Discuss global warming and the politics underlying the problem.
Is individual agency enough to combat climate change?
What political reforms can incorporate individual responses to climate change in conjunction with large scale reforms?
What is Green Capitalism? What is Cap and Trade? How would you compare it with climate taxes?
If you or your students would like to explore the topic further, these additional resources will be useful.
1
Reading
#HipHopEd : The Compilation on Hip-hop Education (Revolutionizing Urban Education), 2018 by Emdin Christopher (Author), Edmund Adjapong.
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