KS3 & KS4 science curriculum

The purpose of this unit is to give a brief introduction to the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change using concrete ideas from topics covered through Y7 science lessons. It introduces pupils to evidence from climate science, to start addressing their questions about climate change in a clear, positive and relevant way. The key message is that climate change ‘is real, it’s us, it’s bad, there’s hope’. In the next climate change unit, the local actions considered here are used as stepping stones to understand how larger scale actions for tackling climate change can be delivered.

1. The greenhouse effect
2. Global warming
3. Climate change and human activities
4. Sustainable use of resources
5. Eating sustainably
6. Heating and cooling our school sustainably
7. Waste and recycling

• Organisms interact with the environment in which they live.
• Changes to the environment may make it harder for organisms to survive in a particular habitat.
• Each element has particular chemical properties.
• A compound may have different properties to each of the elements that it is made from.
• Heating a solid makes its particles vibrate more quickly.
• In thermal conductors, vibrating particles quickly cause the particles near to them to vibrate as well.
• In thermal insulators, it is hard for vibrating particles to cause the particles near to them to vibrate as well.
• Air is a good thermal insulator because it is a gas.
• Thermal insulators often contain trapped air.