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 China.
This lesson plan provides an introduction to climate change, causes and impacts of climate change globally, climate change risk profile for China that includes climate impacts on major sectors of the country such as agriculture, water resources, human health, and energy. This lesson plan also includes the current and future health risks in China 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.
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 China?
- How will increased temperatures impact China?
- How will changing weather patterns including changes in temperature, precipitation, storms, droughts impact China in the future?
- What are the current and future health risks due to climate change in China?
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 China, 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, China |
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.
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. |
Reading
(30 min) |
A reading by the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank to explain climate change and impacts in China. |
Reading
(15 min) |
A reading by the World Health Organization on how climate change can impact human health in China |
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 resource 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. |
Reading: Climate Change in China | Use the web resource from the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank to explain climate change and climate risks in China to your students.
This resource contains information specific to China 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 China. This resource can be accessed here. |
Reading: Climate Change and Human Health Impacts in China | Use a reading by the World Health Organization (WHO) to stress to your students how climate change can impact human health in China. This factsheet (8 pages) titled Climate Change and Health: Country Profile: China includes information on climate hazard projections for China and current and future health risks of climate change in China. You could use this factsheet to help your students better understand what risks does climate change poses to human health in China with respect to infectious disease, undernutrition etc.
This resource can be accessed here. |
The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:
- learn about climate change and global warming
- understand the impacts of climate change in China
- discuss how changing weather patterns due to climate change could affect China’s future
- describe the current and future health risks in China 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 China?
- How will increased temperatures impact China?
- How will changing weather patterns including changes in temperature, precipitation, storms, droughts impact China in the future?
- What are the current and future health risks due to climate change in China?
If you or your students would like to explore the topic further, these additional resources will be useful.
1 | Data Visualization | Data Visualization: China’s Climate Progress from Climate Watch |
2 | Infographic | Infographic GHG Emissions and Climate Risk China: Environment and Global Climate Change sector in China, IDEA USAID |
3 | Reading | ‘China’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC)’: Document submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) |
4 | Webpage | ‘INDCs as communicated by Parties*’ on UNFCCC |
5 | Teaching Modules | ‘Climate Change and Human Health Lesson Plans’: Educational material by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) |
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- Southern Africa’ and ‘Climate Change Information Fact Sheet- China’ | By Climatelinks: A Global Knowledge Portal for Climate and Development Practitioners, USAID |
4 | Reading “Climate and Health Country Profile- 2015: China” | By World Health Organization (WHO) |
5 | Additional Resources | ClimateWatch |
6 | Images | Climate Change Knowledge Portal By World Bank Group |