Causes of climate change
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I understand the physical and human causes of climate change.
Key learning points
- There are both human and physical causes of climate change.
- Volcanoes, sunspots and Earth's changing orbit around the sun can change the climate.
- Human activity since the industrial revolution has been blamed for climate change.
- Greenhouse gases absorb energy from long-wave radiation and re-emit it back into our atmosphere.
Keywords
Climate change - a large-scale and long-term change in the planet’s climate, including weather patterns and average temperatures
Cause - the reason why something happens
Greenhouse gas - gases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat
Greenhouse effect - the retention of heat in the atmosphere caused by the build up of greenhouse gases
Common misconception
Climate change is entirely caused by humans.
Students will recognise that our climate changes naturally and there are physical causes of this. Humans have intensified the process in recent years.
Teacher tip
Reinforce that climate change is not just caused by humans, and that we do expect climate to change naturally over time.
Licence
except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is climate change?
Q2.Which of these is a natural cause of climate change?
Q3.What are greenhouse gases?
Q4.Which human activity releases the most carbon dioxide (CO₂)?
Q5.True or false? Earth's climate has never changed before humans existed.
Q6.As the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, the temperature of Earth...
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Which of these are examples of natural causes of climate change?
Q2.Put the greenhouse effect in the correct order.
Q3.When erupt they release ash and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In the short-term, ash cools Earth, in the long-term, the greenhouse gases add to global warming.
Q4.Why are humans causing climate change?
To help you plan your 7 geography lesson on: Causes of climate change, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 7 geography lesson on: Causes of climate change, 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 Weather and climate: how do they vary? unit, dive into the full secondary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.