As a High School or Undergraduate Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, or Geography teacher, you can use this lesson plan to teach your students about climate change and global warming and specifically the impacts of climate change in Ethiopia.
This lesson plan provides an introduction to climate change, causes and impacts of climate change globally, climate change risk profile for Ethiopia that includes climate impacts on major sectors of the country such as agriculture, water resources, human health, ecosystems, energy, infrastructure, and disasters. This lesson plan also includes the current and future health risks in Ethiopia due to climate change.
Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to teach Climate Science and Climate Change in your Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Geography classrooms.
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 global impacts of climate change?
- What are the impacts of climate change in Ethiopia?
- How will increased temperatures impact Ethiopia?
- How will changing weather patterns including changes in precipitation, storms, droughts impact Ethiopia in the future?
- What are the current and future health risks due to climate change in Ethiopia?
About Lesson Plan
| Grade Level | High school, Undergraduate |
| Discipline | Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geography |
| Topic(s) in Discipline | Climate Change, Global Warming
Climate Change Risk Profile of Ethiopia Health Impacts of Climate Change |
| Climate Topic | Introduction to Climate Change, Climate Variability Record,
Climate and Health, Climate and Agriculture, Climate Change and Food Security |
| Location | Africa, Ethiopia |
| Language(s) | English |
| Access | Online |
| Approximate Time Required |
60 – 75 min |
Contents
| Reading (15 min) and 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. This can be accessed here.
Optional: A set of 7 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. This can be accessed here. |
| Reading
(30 min) |
A set of two readings to explain climate change and impacts in Ethiopia:
Reading 1 by climatelinks: A Global Knowledge Portal for Climate and Development Practitioners USAID. This can be accessed here. Reading 2 by the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank. This can be accessed here. |
| Reading
(15 min) |
A reading by the World Health Organization on how climate change can impact human health in Ethiopia.
This can be accessed here. |
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.
| Introduction to Climate Change | 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.
This can be accessed here. Optional: You may choose to provide your students with further information about global climate change using a set of video micro-lectures. 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: This video playlist can be accessed here. |
| Readings ‘Climate Change in Ethiopia’ | Use the following readings to explain climate change and climate risks in Ethiopia to your students.
A. First, use the factsheet Climate Change Risk Profile: Ethiopia from climatelinks: A Global Knowledge Portal for Climate and Development Practitioners USAID. This factsheet (5 pages) includes the climate summary, historical and future climate, impacts on major sectors such as agriculture, water resources, human health, ecosystems, energy, infrastructure, and disasters, for Ethiopia. This can be accessed here. B. You may wish to have your students explore climate change and its risks in Ethiopia in more detail through a resource from the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank. This can be accessed here. This resource contains information specific to Ethiopia and includes the following sections: 1. Overview Each section contains relevant climate change information including data, projections, and visualizations. The data is visualized through interactive graphs and users can select different indices, model projections, timescales, and sectors to better understand the impacts of climate change in Ethiopia. |
| Reading: Climate Change and Human Health Impacts in Ethiopia |
Use a reading by the World Health Organization (WHO) to stress to your students how climate change can impact human health in Ethiopia. This factsheet (8 pages) titled Climate Change and Health: Country Profile: Ethiopia includes information on climate hazard projections for Ethiopia and current and future health risks of climate change in Ethiopia. You could use this factsheet to help your students better understand what risks does climate change poses to human health in Ethiopia with respect to infectious disease, malaria, and undernutrition. This resource can be accessed here.
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The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:
- learn about climate change and global warming
- understand the impacts of climate change in Ethiopia
- discuss how changing weather patterns due to climate change could affect Ethiopia’s future
- describe the current and future health risks in Ethiopia due to climate change
Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation :
- What is climate change? What are the causes of global warming?
- What are the global impacts of climate change?
- What are the impacts of climate change in Ethiopia?
- How will increased temperatures impact Ethiopia?
- How will changing weather patterns including changes in precipitation, storms, droughts impact Ethiopia in the future?
- What are the current and future health risks due to climate change in Ethiopia?
If you or your students would like to explore the topic further, these additional resources will be useful.
| 1 | Webpage ‘Ethiopia’ on Climatelinks | Climate Change in Ethiopia specific factsheets, case studies compiled by Climatelinks, USAID |
| 2 | Reading | ‘Ethiopia’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) : Document submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) |
| 3 | Webpage | ‘INDCs as communicated by Parties*’ on UNFCCC: UNFCCC webpage for accessing the INDCs for various nations |
| 4 | Teaching Modules | ‘Climate Change and Human Health Lesson Plans’: Educational material by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) |
| 5 | Reading | Technical Report USAID ‘Climate Change and Conflict in Pastoralist Regions of Ethiopia’ |
Credits and copyrights
| 1 | Reading “The Causes of Climate Change” | By NASA’s Global Climate Change website |
| 2 | A set of videos “Climate Change: Lines of Evidence” | Presented by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine |
| 3 | Readings “Climate Change Risk Profile- Southern Africa’ and ‘Climate Change Information Fact Sheet- Ethiopia’’ | By Climatelinks: A Global Knowledge Portal for Climate and Development Practitioners, USAID |
| 4 | Reading “Climate and Health Country Profile- 2015: Ethiopia” | By World Health Organization (WHO) |
| 5 | Additional Resources | Climatelinks, USAID |
| 6 | Images | Climate Change Knowledge Portal By World Bank Group |