Climate Change Education Across the Curricula, Across the GlobeLesson Plan: Climate Change Impacts in Bangladesh

This lesson plan provides an introduction to climate change, causes and impacts of climate change globally, climate change risk profile for Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh 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.

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 Bangladesh 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	Asia, Bangladesh
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 Bangladesh:

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 Bangladesh.

This can be accessed here.

Step-by-Step User Guide

Learning Outcomes

Questions/Assignments

Additional Resources

Credits

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:
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

This video playlist can be accessed here.

Readings ‘Climate Change in Bangladesh’

Use the following readings to explain climate change and climate risks in Bangladesh to your students.

A. First, use the factsheet Climate Change Risk Profile: Bangladesh from climatelinks: A Global Knowledge Portal for Climate and Development Practitioners USAID. This factsheet (7 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 Bangladesh.

This can be accessed here.

B. You may wish to have your students explore climate change and its risks in Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh and includes the following sections:

1. Overview
2. Climate Data -Historical and Future Projections
3. Climate by Sector – Agriculture, Energy, Water, Health
4. Vulnerability
5. Climate Impacts – Agriculture, Water, Sea Level Rise
6. Adaptation

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 Bangladesh.

Reading: Climate Change and Human Health Impacts in Bangladesh

Use a reading by the World Health Organization (WHO) to stress to your students how climate change can impact human health in Bangladesh. This factsheet (8 pages) titled Climate Change and Health: Country Profile: Bangladesh includes information on climate hazard projections for Bangladesh and current and future health risks of climate change in Bangladesh. You could use this factsheet to help your students better understand what risks does climate change pose to human health in Bangladesh with respect to infectious disease, undernutrition etc.

This can be accessed here.

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 Bangladesh?
How will increased temperatures impact Bangladesh?
How will changing weather patterns including changes in precipitation, storms, droughts impact Bangladesh in the future?
What are the current and future health risks due to climate change in Bangladesh?

If you or your students would like to explore the topic further, these additional resources will be useful.

1	Webpage ‘Bangladesh’ on Climatelinks	Climate Change in Bangladesh specific factsheets, case studies compiled by Climatelinks, USAID This can be accessed here.
2	Reading ‘Bangladesh’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC)’	Document submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) This can be accessed here.
3	Webpage ‘INDCs as communicated by Parties*’ on UNFCCC	UNFCCC webpage for accessing the INDCs for various nations This can be accessed here.
4	Teaching Modules ‘Climate Change and Human Health Lesson Plans’	Educational material by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) This can be accessed here.
5	Reading Climate Change and Health in Bangladesh	Report Climate Vulnerability Assessment: Impacts on Health Outcomes in Secondary Cities of Bangladesh’ USAID This can be accessed here.

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 National Research Council, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
3	Readings; “Climate Change Risk Profile- Bangladesh’ and ‘Climate Change Knowledge Portal- Bangladesh’	By Climatelinks: A Global Knowledge Portal for Climate and Development Practitioners, USAID By World Bank Group
4	Reading; “Climate and Health Country Profile- 2015: Bangladesh”	By World Health Organization (WHO)
5	Additional Resources	Climatelinks, USAID UNFCCC NIEHS
6	Image(s)	Climate Change Knowledge Portal By World Bank Group