Climate change and the forests
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how deforestation contributes to climate change and how climate change impacts forests.
Key learning points
- Global temperatures are increasing because of climate change.
- Forests remove carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere and replace it with oxygen.
- Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change.
- Climate change can cause changes to species in a forest; the spread of pests and diseases and more and worse wildfires.
Keywords
Greenhouse gases - gases in Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat
Carbon dioxide - one of the greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere that traps heat
Solar radiation - energy radiated from the sun via electromagnetic waves
Deforestation - the complete removal of trees
Decompose - to break down a substance into smaller parts
Common misconception
The greenhouse effect has a negative impact.
The greenhouse effect is a natural process that is essential for life on Earth. Without it, our planet would be too cold to sustain most life forms.
Teacher tip
A homework task linked to this topic could involve students calculating their own carbon footprint using an online calculator.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is climate change?
Q2.What is a greenhouse gas?
Q3.What does deciduous mean?
Q4.Humans contribute to climate change by ...
Q5.What is the name of the process by which plants transform carbon dioxide and water into glucose?
Q6.What is deforestation?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1. gases are the name given to the gasses in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat.
Q2.Match the key terms.
This means that Earth is warm enough for us to survive
Too many greenhouse gases trap in too much heat in the atmosphere
A long-term change in Earth's weather patterns
The heating of Earth's surface due to human activities
Q3.What human activities emit carbon dioxide?
Q4.How does climate change affect forests?
To help you plan your 7 geography lesson on: Climate change and the forests, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 7 geography lesson on: Climate change and the forests, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 geography lessons from the Forest biomes: why are forests so important? unit, dive into the full secondary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.