Museums, climate change, and health

Overview

Next Generation Science Standards

HS-ESS3-1

HS-ESS3-6

Timeline: 3 hours

Materials: Museum map and creative materials

Learning Objective

 

At the Durham Museum of Life and Science, students will analyze data and create their own visualizations about climate change and health issues within their local (Durham) community. Following this lesson plan and using a local life and science museum,  this lesson plan can be implemented in schools anywhere.

If you have questions about this lesson plan, please feel free to reach out to our team by following the Contact Us tab on the main page of our website.

Instructor Note

This lesson plan is an example of a climate change and health issues lesson that can be conducted anywhere with field trip components that resemble the following criteria. For our lesson, we looked for a museum dedicated to science education that had staff who students could talk to and learn from. In our case, we selected the Durham Museum of Life and Science. By utilizing the resources of this museum, we were able to accomplish the goals of this lesson plan as outlined below. It is critical to have staff at the museum or other facility of your choosing that are willing to conduct hands-on activities with students to enhance learning outcomes. Looking for these components can help you establish a successful lesson plan such as this one.

Background

The Durham Museum of Life and Science aims to create a place of lifelong learning where people of all ages embrace science as a way of knowing about themselves, their community, and their world. HESP’s visit will focus on contributing to the Museum’s new partnership with Hayti Heritage Center. The project is called “Imagine Durham: A Whole-Family Humanities Approach to Climate, Health, and Possible Futures” and is funded by a Climate Change and Health Seed Grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. 

This project aims to address two challenges of local climate literacy and action: 1) a lack of public, relational (amongst families, educators), and informal (amongst peers) dialogue on climate change, and 2) the limited opportunities for local, community-driven projects to address climate-related issues. The project aims to reflect personal experiences, values, and priorities related to climate change within family units through art and dialogue.

Schedule

Our main focus for the Durham Museum of Life and Science visit will be to make data artifacts. 

1. Students will each create some type of visual representation of what they hope the future of Durham will look like based on climate projections through 2100. 

      Examples include: pictures, maps, comics, and drawings. 

2. Student artifacts will then be analyzed with the other artifacts that previous visitors have created. 

3. With a codebook provided by the museum, students will analyze these artifacts to see which words and pictures appear repeatedly. Students will determine if all of the artifacts can tell a collective story. 

4. Explore the museum. 

Objective and Standards

Learning Objectives

1. Learn how to use the Museum’s codebook to analyze if there are any patterns in the data artifacts that show how local residents anticipate climate change will affect their community

2. Verbally communicate their findings to a broader audience

North Carolina Teaching Standards

Technology as a Tool

NCES.HS.TT.1 – Use technology and other resources for assigned tasks.

NCES.HS.TT.1.1 – Use appropriate technology tools and other resources to access information (multi-database search engines, online primary resources, virtual interviews with content experts).

NCES.HS.TT.1.2 – Use appropriate technology tools and other resources to organize information (e.g. online note-taking tools, collaborative wikis).

NCES.HS.TT.1.3 – Use appropriate technology tools and other resources to design products to share information with others (e.g. multimedia presentations, Web 2.0 tools, graphics, podcasts, and audio files).

Earth and Environmental Science

NCES.EEn.2.6 – Analyze patterns of global climate change over time.

NCES.EEn.2.8 – Evaluate human behaviors in terms of how likely they are to ensure the ability to live sustainability on Earth.

Biology

NCES.Bio.2.2.1 – Infer how human activities (including population growth, pollution, global warming, burning of fossil fuels, habitat destruction and introduction of nonnative species) may impact the environment.

NCES.Bio.2.2.2 – Explain how the use, protection and conservation of natural resources by humans impact the environment from one generation to the next.

Note: These are the teaching standards for North Carolina, they may be different from the teaching standards in your state or region. Follow the link below to check out the learning standards for your state: 

https://www.educationworld.com/standards/state/toc/#science 

Next Generation Science Standards

HS-ESS3-1. – Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity. 

HS-ESS3-6. – Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity. 

Timeline

11 – 12:30 p.m.: Create data artifacts

12:30 – 1 p.m.: Lunch

1 p.m. – 2 p.m.: Data analysis + independent museum exploration

Materials

Museum map (below)

Chaperone guide (below)

Creative materials – paper, writing utensils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc.

Guiding Questions

What are some patterns you found in the data artifacts as you analyzed them?

How do you think the  “Imagine Durham” project will play a role in how Durham (and North Carolina at large) responds to climate change?

Can you think of other ways to creatively analyze people’s perceptions of climate change?

If you are conducting this lesson plan and wish to use the same museum, here are the contacts used: 

Contacts:

Max Cawley (Education Dept,  Director: Climate Research and Engagement)

P: 919.220.5429 x316

C: 703.628.2528

max.cawley@lifeandscience.org

Sasha Zaslavskaya (Reservations Team)

P: 919.220.5429 Ext. 313

reservations@lifeandscience.org

If you have questions about this lesson plan, please feel free to reach out to our team by following the Contact Us tab on the main page of our website.