As a High School or UndergraduateEarth 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 Kenya.
This lesson plan provides an introduction to climate change, causes and impacts of climate change globally, climate change risk profile for Kenya 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 Kenya 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 Kenya?
How will increased temperatures impact Kenya?
How will changing weather patterns including changes in precipitation, storms, droughts impact Kenya in the future?
What are the current and future health risks due to climate change in Kenya?
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 Kenya
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, Kenya
Language(s)
English
Access
Online
Approximate Time Required
60 – 75 min
Contents
Reading (15 min) and VideoMicro-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.
Readings
(30 min)
A set of two readings to explain climate change and impacts in Kenya.
Reading 1 by climatelinks: A Global Knowledge Portal for Climate and Development Practitioners USAID
Reading 2 by the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank
Reading
(15 min)
A reading by the World Health Organization on how climate change can impact human health in Kenya.
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.
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
Use the following readings to explain climate change and climate risks in Kenya to your students.
A. First, use the factsheet Climate Change Risk Profile: Kenya 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 Kenya.
B. You may wish to have your students explore climate change and its risks in Kenya in more detail through a resource from the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank.
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 Kenya.
Reading: Climate Change and Human Health Impacts in Kenya
Use a reading by the World Health Organization (WHO) to stress to your students how climate change can impact human health in Kenya. This factsheet (8 pages) titled Climate Change and Health: Country Profile: Kenya includes information on climate hazard projections for Kenya and current and future health risks of climate change in Kenya. You could use this factsheet to help your students better understand what risks does climate change pose to human health in Kenya with respect to infectious disease, malaria, and undernutrition.
