Climate Change Education Across the Curricula, Across the Globe

Climate Change Education Across the Curricula

Lesson Plan: Desertification and Sustainable Land Management

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As an Undergraduate Geography and Environmental Sciences teacher, you can use this set of computer-based tools to enable students to develop an understanding of deserts and desertification. Climate change and desertification are inextricably linked. Desertification contributes to climate change by removing fertile soil and plants. Soils store significant amounts of carbon, some of which may be released into the atmosphere due to desertification, having a significant impact on the global climate system

Climate change's effects on desertification are complex, and current research on the subject is evolving. On the one hand, some dryland regions will receive less rainfall, while temperature increases may deplete soil moisture, impairing plant growth. On the other hand, if sufficient water and soil nutrients are available, a rise in CO2 in the atmosphere can promote plant growth. This lesson plan discusses climate change's effect on desertification and sustainable land approaches that can be adopted to mitigate the same.
Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to integrate the teaching of a climate science topic with a core topic in Geography and Environmental Sciences.

Teacher-contributed lesson plan by Dr. Kavita Singh (Mata Sundri College for Women, University of Delhi), Dr. Abhishek Chandra (Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi), and Dr. Robin (Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi).

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Questions

Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:

  1. What is desertification?
  2. How does climate change cause desertification?
  3. How can climate change-induced desertification be avoided, reduced, or reversed?
  4. How can sustainable land management practices play a vital role in mitigating desertification due to climate change?

About Lesson Plan

Grade Level High school, Undergraduate
Discipline Geography, Environmental Sciences
Topic(s) in Discipline Deserts, Ecosystems, Desert Ecosystems, Land Use Change, Desertification
Climate Topic Climate and the Lithosphere; Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
Location Global
Language(s) English
Access Online
Approximate
Time Required		 40 – 45 min

Contents

Video Micro-Lectures (3 min) A lecture video to introduce how human activities lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, increase earth's temperature, and change the world around us.
This can be accessed here.
Reading An introductory reading on desertification - its definition, its process, impacts, future predictions, response and case studies.
This can be accessed here.
Video/ Micro lecture (8 min) A video focusing on desertification in sub-Saharan Africa, its implication on food security and human migration, and a case study on possible countermeasures. 
This can be accessed here.
Video/ Micro lecture (4 min) A case study on Bangladesh’s struggle with natural resource depletion, land degradation, and sustainable land management.

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.

1 Introduce climate change by playing a video micro-lecture This introductory video titled “Causes and Effects of Climate Change” by National Geographic Channel, can be used to understand how human activities drive up the earth’s temperature and change the world around us. It also briefly explains how rapid increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has warmed the planet at an alarming rate. It emphasizes how climate change can directly affect people’s health and food security.

This can be accessed here.
2 Introduce the topic and demonstrate how it is related to Climate Change through this Reading  This reading titled “Desertification,” Chapter 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report from 2018, can be used to introduce and explain desertification. It illustrates the processes and causes of desertification in the context of climate change, while going into details of anthropogenic factors. This report also provides valuable insight into the knowledge gaps and significant uncertainties in this field.

This can be accessed here.
3 Explain impacts of and mitigation practices through this video case study This video titled, “The Great Green Wall of Africa: Will it help fight climate change?” by BBC Newsnight explains the impacts of desertification in sub-Saharan Africa and through the example of the ‘Great Green Wall of Africa’ project introduces ways to mitigate them.

This can be accessed here.
4 Explain causes of and adaptation practices through another video case study This video titled, “Sustainable Land Management in Bangladesh” by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, explains how the rising population places severe strain on natural resources, leading to an increase in degraded areas. Additionally, it provides insight into how to halt and reverse these trends through sustainable land management.

This can be accessed here.

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