To kick off a discussion on climate climate change and environmental responsibility, try introducing these topics with Kialo discussions! Class discussions are ideal for social studies, citizenship, and geography lessons for students to gain a deeper understanding of these topics.
For each discussion, there’s even a follow-up activity to fully engage students and activate student learning! Looking for more? Check out our collection of ready-made debate topics onto further fire up class discussions.
1. Should individuals assume responsibility for climate change?
As students dive into this discussion, they may want to consider their own actions as well as those by others. Here are some questions they might explore:
- How does burning fossil fuels help them get to school?
- Have they bought anything that is a product of deforestation?
- Which of the foods they eat come from livestock farming?
Follow-up activity:
Further develop students’ argumentation skills by persuasive writing and campaigning activities. Or, ask them to write an opinion piece. Some students can target the larger organizations that they feel are at the heart of climate change, whereas others may focus on persuading the student body or the local community to take action.
To challenge students further, ask them to campaign for the opposing view. This will further develop their critical thinking and encourage them to explore multiple perspectives on this topic.
2. Should citizens try to sue corporations and governments over climate change?
Increasingly, people are turning to the law in the fight against climate change. Those students who believe responsibility for climate change lies with large organizations will enjoy delving deeper to discuss whether citizens should try to sue these corporations.
As part of the discussion, students could examine recent court cases on this issue, using them as evidence to form their own claims about whether the law should be used in this way.
Follow-up activity:
Why not bring the courtroom into the classroom and hold a mock trial? The case could be based on students’ research into climate responsibility, making the research purposeful. Students can take on the roles of judge, prosecution, defense, or witnesses.
The activity will improve students’ communication skills as well as deepen their knowledge of climate issues. Contextualizing learning in this way increases engagement and motivation, and, more importantly, makes this challenging subject fun!
3. Should “necessity defense” be a legal defense for climate activists?
As veterans to making excuses, students will enjoy learning more about the way climate activists are using the “necessity defense” to justify their behavior.
As climate protests become more extreme, students will be able to use up-to-date news articles as a basis for writing their claims about whether activists should use the law in this way.
Follow-up activity:
While researching their claims, students may discover that climate protestors sometimes target priceless works of art. You could ask your students to research and respond to the artwork involved. They could then investigate the reasons to target these specific pieces.
Students could also combine ideas collaboratively to create an innovative piece of artwork blending the traditional pieces protesters are targeting with their own representation of climate change issues.
For those students who might struggle to contribute to discussions, this is a great opportunity to demonstrate their learning.
Of course, climate change is an evolving topic and there are likely to be new issues to discuss. Fortunately, Kialo discussions are fully customizable; you may even wish to create your own discussion from scratch.
We would love to hear more about how you are empowering students to think critically about climate issues. You can contact us directly at feedback@kialo-edu.com, or via our social media channels.
