Climate change and food production
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how food production is affected by and contributes to climate change, and how changes in diet can help to limit climate change.
Key learning points
- Food production is at risk due to global warming and climate change
- Climate change makes extreme weather events more common, and this makes it more challenging to produce food
- Emissions of greenhouse gases from various stages of food production add to the carbon footprint of foods
- Changes in our diet can help us reduce emissions from food production and limit climate change
- Comparing emissions data for different diets helps us understand the impact of food choices
Keywords
Global warming - an increase in Earth’s average surface temperature
Greenhouse gases - gases in the atmosphere that keep it warmer than it would be without them
Emissions - releases of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
Climate change - a long-term shift in weather patterns
Carbon footprint - the calculated total amount of greenhouse gases emitted by an activity
Common misconception
Thinking that what we eat has no impact on climate change, or that all foods have roughly the same impact.
This lesson explores in detail the impacts of different foods and dietary choices in terms of their carbon footprint of greenhouse gas emissions.
Teacher tip
Pupils may not feel they have much agency in being able to change their diets to help limit climate change. This issue is addressed in Task B through the idea of communicating with parents as an example of positive action.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is climate change?
Q2.Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that keep Earth than it would be without them.
Q3.Global warming is …
Q4.Most scientists agree that recent rapid climate change and global warming are being caused by …
Q5.Different stages of producing food cause different amounts of emissions of greenhouse gases. The total amount of emissions for each food is called its carbon .
Q6.Put the stages of producing beef into order starting with the largest to the smallest amount of emissions.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.True or false? Rearing cows for food does not cause any emissions of greenhouse gases.
Q2.According to the bar chart, which food has the greatest carbon footprint?
Q3.According to the bar chart, which animal product has the largest carbon footprint?
Q4.According to the bar chart, which of these animal based foods generates the lowest amount of emissions?
Q5.Which meal is likely to have the lowest carbon footprint of emissions and therefore be the best choice to help limit climate change?
Q6.True or false? We can conclude that chocolate has the largest carbon footprint.
To help you plan your 9 science lesson on: Climate change and food production, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 science lesson on: Climate change and food production, 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 science lessons from the Climate change and biodiversity unit, dive into the full secondary science curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.