Climate Action Projects

Introduction

Climate Action Projects is a hands-on aiMOOC for Grades 7–8. You will learn how climate science can guide practical projects at school, at home, and in your community. Instead of only reading about climate change, you will ask questions, collect evidence, choose a realistic action, work with others, and measure what changed.

Climate action includes both mitigation, which reduces the causes of climate change, and adaptation, which helps people and ecosystems cope with climate impacts. A strong project can do one or both. For example, saving electricity can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while adding shade and water-saving plants can help a schoolyard stay more comfortable during hot weather.

Climate action is connected to Sustainable Development Goal 13, the United Nations goal on climate action. It also connects with Renewable energy, Sustainable transport, Waste management, Biodiversity, Environmental science, Geography, mathematics, design, and English communication.

As you work through this course, remember one important idea: a project is stronger when it moves from opinion to evidence. You should be able to explain the problem, describe the action, show your data, discuss limits, and suggest the next improvement.

Why Climate Action Projects Matter

Human activities, especially the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. These gases strengthen the warming effect of the atmosphere and change the climate system. Climate change can affect heat, rainfall, drought, heavy precipitation, sea level, ecosystems, health, food systems, and infrastructure. The effects are not the same everywhere.

Climate action projects help you connect global science with local decisions. A school cannot solve climate change by itself, but it can reduce avoidable waste, test better practices, prepare for climate risks, and show other people what evidence-based action looks like.

A useful project usually has four features:

Evidence: You collect information before and after the action.
Feasibility: The action is safe, legal, affordable, and realistic.
Impact: The action is likely to make a meaningful improvement.
Fairness: The benefits and burdens are considered for different people.

A project can also have co-benefits. A walking or cycling project may reduce emissions while supporting physical activity. Shade trees may help with heat while also supporting habitat. Reducing food waste may lower emissions while saving resources and money. Co-benefits make a project more valuable, but you should still measure what you can instead of claiming results you did not test.

Climate, Weather, and the Greenhouse Effect

Weather describes short-term atmospheric conditions, such as today's temperature, wind, or rain. Climate describes patterns and averages over much longer periods. A cold day does not disprove global warming, and one hot day by itself does not prove a long-term climate trend.

The natural greenhouse effect keeps Earth warm enough for life. Sunlight reaches Earth, the surface warms, and Earth gives off infrared energy. Greenhouse gases absorb and re-emit some of this energy. Human activities have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases, strengthening this warming effect.

Important greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Different gases come from different sources. Carbon dioxide is strongly linked with fossil fuel use and land-use change. Methane comes from sources that include fossil fuel systems, agriculture, and waste. Nitrous oxide is strongly connected with agricultural soils and fertilizers.

When planning a project, avoid mixing up greenhouse gas emissions with all forms of pollution. Some actions may reduce both, but the terms are not identical. Good project reports say exactly what was measured.

Two Kinds of Climate Action

Mitigation

Mitigation means reducing greenhouse gas emissions or increasing the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. School-level examples can include:

Energy efficiency: Reducing unnecessary electricity use.
Renewable energy: Learning about or supporting low-carbon energy where suitable.
Sustainable transport: Making walking, cycling, shared travel, or public transport easier where safe and practical.
Waste prevention: Avoiding unnecessary materials and food waste.
Sustainable consumption: Using products for longer, repairing items, and choosing lower-impact options when possible.

Mitigation projects should focus first on actions you can measure. Turning off unused lights may be easy to observe. A large claim such as "our project stopped climate change" would not be supported by school-level evidence.

Adaptation

Adaptation means adjusting to actual or expected climate impacts. School-level examples can include:

Heat adaptation: Mapping shade, improving access to cool spaces, or adjusting outdoor activity plans during extreme heat.
Water conservation: Reducing unnecessary water use and improving soil water retention.
Flood preparedness: Identifying safe routes and places where heavy rain causes problems.
Biodiversity: Protecting locally suitable vegetation that can support ecosystem resilience.
Emergency preparedness: Learning how climate-related hazards connect with school safety plans.

Adaptation is not the same as giving up on mitigation. Both are needed because some climate impacts are already occurring, while future impacts depend strongly on future emissions.

The sea-level experiment in the video is a model. Models simplify reality so that one process can be studied. In your own projects, always explain what your model includes and what it leaves out.

The Climate Action Project Cycle

A successful project is more than a one-day event. It is a cycle in which you investigate, act, evaluate, and improve.

Step One: Define the Problem and Baseline

Start with a question that can be investigated. A weak question is "Is our school bad for the climate?" A stronger question is "How many classroom lights are left on when rooms are empty during lunch?" The stronger question points toward observable evidence.

A baseline is the starting measurement before your action. Without a baseline, it is difficult to know whether the situation changed.

Useful baseline questions include:

What is happening now?
Where and when does it happen?
How often does it happen?
Who is affected?
What evidence can we collect safely?

Do not collect personal information just because it is available. For most school projects, names, home addresses, phone numbers, and private travel details are unnecessary.

Step Two: Choose an Action

List several possible actions and compare them. You can score each idea using simple criteria such as likely impact, cost, time, safety, fairness, and how easy it is to measure.

A good action is specific. "Save the planet" is too broad. "Reduce the number of unnecessary lights left on in three classrooms during lunch for four weeks" is much easier to test.

Before starting, ask:

Does this action address the problem we measured?
Can students carry it out safely?
Do we need permission?
Could the action create a new problem?
How will we know whether it worked?

Step Three: Plan the Project

Create a clear goal, timeline, team roles, materials list, safety plan, and data plan. Decide who will collect measurements, who will check the data, who will create the communication materials, and who will contact adults or community partners when permission is needed.

Your goal should include a clear target and a time frame, but avoid choosing a target only because it sounds impressive. A realistic target based on baseline evidence is better than an unrealistic promise.

Step Four: Collect Evidence

Use the same measurement method as consistently as possible. If you count lights at different times each day, the results may be hard to compare. If you weigh food waste, use the same type of container and procedure. If you conduct a survey, use the same questions for everyone.

Common evidence types include:

Evidence type	Example	Strength
Observation	Count unused lights left on	Direct and simple
Measurement	Weigh food waste in kilograms	Produces numerical data
Survey	Ask how students travel to school	Shows reported behavior or opinion
Photograph	Record shade at the same place and time	Provides visual evidence
Interview	Ask a facilities manager about energy use	Adds expert or stakeholder knowledge

Whenever possible, record the date, time, location, method, and unit. These details help another person understand or repeat your work.

Step Five: Evaluate, Communicate, and Improve

After the action, compare your new measurements with the baseline. Ask whether the change was large enough to matter and whether another explanation could have caused it.

A good conclusion does not hide disappointing results. If the project did not work as expected, that is still useful evidence. Explain what happened, identify limits, and propose a better next test.

Communication is part of climate action. Use charts, short reports, posters, videos, speeches, podcasts, or presentations to share what you found. Separate evidence from opinion, name your sources, and avoid exaggerated claims.

Project Lab One: Energy Detectives

Energy use is a practical place to begin because many schools have lights, computers, projectors, chargers, heating, cooling, and other equipment. Your project should focus on safe observation, not on opening electrical equipment or changing building systems yourself.

You can create an energy behavior audit by checking whether lights, screens, or other devices are left on when they are not needed. With teacher approval, you may record device power ratings from visible labels. Never remove covers, touch exposed wiring, or enter restricted areas.

A simple energy relationship is:

Energy used in kilowatt-hours = power in kilowatts × time in hours

For example, a 10-watt lamp uses 0.01 kilowatts. If it operates for five hours, it uses 0.05 kilowatt-hours. This calculation can help you compare devices, but real building energy use can be more complex.

Possible project questions include:

How often are classroom lights left on in empty rooms?
Can reminder signs reduce unnecessary lighting?
Which devices stay powered when they are not being used?
How does natural daylight affect the need for electric lighting?

Solar panels can generate electricity without burning fossil fuels at the point of generation, but a school solar project requires expert planning, permission, costs, and safety checks. For a student project, you might compare locations for solar exposure, interview a facilities manager, or study existing school solar systems rather than installing equipment yourself.

Project Lab Two: Climate-Smart Travel

Transport choices can affect greenhouse gas emissions. Walking, cycling, public transport, and shared travel can often reduce emissions compared with separate trips in fossil-fuel cars, but safety, distance, disability access, weather, and local transport options matter.

A travel project can begin with an anonymous class survey. Ask only questions you actually need, such as the main travel mode and what barriers make lower-emission travel difficult. Do not ask students to publish their home addresses or exact routes.

Possible actions include:

Create a safe-route information campaign with adult guidance.
Organize a walk-or-wheel day where local conditions allow.
Map bicycle parking and suggest improvements.
Study bus or carpool options.
Compare the climate and health co-benefits of different travel choices.

A strong project includes fairness. A student who lives far away or needs accessible transport should not be blamed for using a car. Climate action works better when it improves options instead of shaming people.

Project Lab Three: Food and Waste

Food systems use land, water, energy, labor, transport, and materials. When edible food is wasted, these resources are also wasted. In landfills, some organic waste can produce methane as it breaks down without oxygen.

A cafeteria waste project can measure what kinds of waste are produced and which parts could be prevented. Always work with school staff. Wear appropriate gloves if handling waste, wash your hands afterward, and never handle sharp, hazardous, medical, or unknown materials.

Possible measures include:

Total food waste mass per lunch period.
Food waste mass per meal served.
Number of unopened items discarded.
Number of reusable items compared with single-use items.
Student reasons for leaving food uneaten.

Waste prevention should come before simply moving waste to another bin. If food cannot be prevented or safely redistributed, composting may be an option where local rules and facilities allow it.

A good waste project can include a short action period, such as improved portion choices, a share table where school rules permit it, clearer sorting signs, or a campaign about taking only what you expect to eat. Measure again after the action.

Project Lab Four: Greener School Grounds

School grounds can support adaptation, biodiversity, outdoor learning, and in some cases mitigation. Trees and other vegetation can provide shade and habitat, reduce surface heating, and help water soak into soil. Plants also store carbon as they grow.

Planting is not automatically the best action everywhere. First protect healthy existing trees and habitats. If new planting is suitable, choose species with local expert guidance, consider native biodiversity, avoid invasive species, plan for water needs, and make sure someone can care for plants after the project ends.

Possible school-ground projects include:

Map sunny and shaded areas at the same time on several days.
Measure surface or air temperature in shaded and unshaded places using a consistent method.
Survey which outdoor spaces students avoid during hot weather.
Map existing trees and compare canopy cover in different areas.
Design a rain garden proposal with expert review.
Create a long-term plant-care schedule.

For data-based tree or canopy projects, satellite images and mapping tools can be useful, but they have limits. Resolution, season, cloud cover, and classification errors can affect your results.

Project Lab Five: Climate Communication and Community Action

Climate projects need clear communication. This is where English skills become part of climate action. You may need to explain a scientific idea, interview a stakeholder, write a proposal, create a persuasive speech, or present evidence to a school council.

Strong climate communication has four parts:

Claim: State what you think should happen.
Evidence: Show measurements, observations, or reliable research.
Reasoning: Explain how the evidence supports the claim.
Audience awareness: Choose language and examples that fit the people you want to reach.

Avoid fear-based exaggeration and unsupported promises. "Our four-week campaign reduced the number of empty classrooms with lights on from our baseline count" is stronger than "Our poster saved the planet."

You should also listen. A facilities manager, cafeteria worker, student with mobility needs, gardener, bus driver, local scientist, or family member may see a problem differently. Interviews can reveal barriers your team missed.

Your communication product might be a poster, short documentary, podcast, infographic, letter, speech, school-news article, or exhibition. If you photograph or record people, get the required permission and respect anyone who does not want to appear.

Climate Justice and Fair Decisions

Climate change affects people differently. Exposure to heat, flooding, air pollution, food insecurity, or high energy costs can depend on income, location, infrastructure, health, age, and access to resources. A fair project asks who benefits, who carries the burden, and who gets to take part in decisions.

When comparing project ideas, consider:

Access: Can everyone take part?
Affordability: Does the action create costs some families cannot manage?
Safety: Could the action increase risk for anyone?
Voice: Have affected people been asked what they need?
Benefits: Are the benefits shared fairly?

Climate justice does not mean that every person has the same responsibility or the same options. It means that solutions should take different needs, resources, histories, and risks seriously.

Working with Data

Data helps you test whether your project changed something. Begin with a clear variable and a clear unit.

A useful indicator is a measure that helps you track progress. Examples include kilowatt-hours of electricity, kilograms of food waste, percentage of trips by travel mode, number of shaded seats, or number of unnecessary devices left on.

You can improve comparisons by using a rate. Instead of only reporting "20 kilograms of food waste," you could report "food waste per meal served." This helps if the number of students changes from one day to another.

Basic ways to summarize data include:

Total: Add all values.
Mean: Add the values and divide by the number of values.
Percentage: Compare a part with the whole.
Difference: Subtract the baseline value from the later value.
Percent change: Compare the amount of change with the baseline.

Be careful with very small samples. If only ten students answer a travel survey, their results may not represent the whole school. Be careful with cause and effect too. A drop in electricity use might come from your campaign, but it could also come from a holiday, warmer weather, fewer people in the building, or another change.

Good reports include limitations. A limitation does not ruin your project; it shows that you understand the evidence.

Teamwork, Ethics, and Safety

Climate action should not create unnecessary risks. Follow school rules and adult guidance for experiments, interviews, travel, waste handling, gardening, tools, electricity, roofs, roads, and public events.

Use these project habits:

Ask for permission before changing school property.
Keep surveys voluntary and collect only needed information.
Protect private information and do not publish personal routes or addresses.
Use protective equipment when a task requires it.
Do not climb roofs, open electrical panels, or handle hazardous waste.
Credit images, data, and ideas from other sources.
Invite feedback from people affected by the project.
Report results accurately, including results that do not support your original idea.

Team roles can rotate. You might serve as project manager, data lead, safety checker, researcher, designer, interviewer, writer, or presenter. Rotating roles helps everyone build different skills.

Reliable Sources for Research

For climate projects, use sources that explain their evidence and are responsible for scientific or public information. Useful starting points include:

IPCC Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report: A major international assessment of climate science, impacts, adaptation, and mitigation.
NASA Climate Change: Explanations, observations, and Earth science resources.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13: Information about the global climate action goal.
US Environmental Protection Agency climate actions: Examples related to energy, transport, waste, and community action.
Climate action and Climate change mitigation: Useful starting points for vocabulary and further reading.

When you use any source, ask who created it, when it was updated, what evidence it uses, and whether another reliable source agrees.

Interactive Tasks

Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

What is the main purpose of climate change mitigation? (To reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase carbon removal) (!To predict the weather for tomorrow) (!To measure only local rainfall) (!To remove all natural greenhouse gases)

What is a baseline in a climate action project? (A starting measurement taken before the action) (!A final poster made after the project) (!A rule that every group must follow) (!A list of climate vocabulary)

Which example is mainly an adaptation action? (Adding safe shade to reduce heat exposure) (!Turning off unused classroom lights) (!Reducing unnecessary car trips) (!Preventing avoidable food waste)

Why should a project use the same measurement method over time? (To make the results easier to compare) (!To guarantee that the project succeeds) (!To make every value exactly equal) (!To avoid recording any limitations)

Which measure is most useful for a school food waste project? (Kilograms of food waste per meal served) (!The color of the cafeteria walls) (!The number of pages in a textbook) (!The height of the school building)

What should you do if your results do not support your original idea? (Report the results and explain possible reasons) (!Delete the results and start again) (!Change the numbers to match your prediction) (!Claim that the action worked anyway)

Which practice best protects privacy in a student travel survey? (Collect only needed anonymous information) (!Publish every home address) (!Record private routes with full names) (!Require students to share phone numbers)

What is a co-benefit? (An extra positive result from an action) (!A mistake that makes data unusable) (!A payment required to join a project) (!A weather forecast for a project day)

Why is fairness important in climate action projects? (Because people can have different needs and options) (!Because every person must use the same solution) (!Because evidence is unnecessary when a project is fair) (!Because only adults are affected by climate decisions)

Which statement is the strongest evidence-based conclusion? (The measured result improved compared with the baseline but the sample was small) (!The project definitely solved climate change) (!The result proves every school should copy the project) (!The action worked because the team liked it)

Memory Game

Mitigation	Action that reduces greenhouse gas emissions or increases carbon removal
Adaptation	Action that reduces harm from climate impacts
Baseline	Starting measurement used for later comparison
Indicator	Measure used to track progress
Stakeholder	Person or group affected by or involved in a project
Co-benefit	Additional positive effect of an action

Drag and Drop

Match the correct terms.	Topic
Energy audit	Checks where energy may be used unnecessarily
Travel survey	Studies how people usually move between places
Waste audit	Measures discarded materials or food
Shade map	Shows where protection from direct sun is available
Impact evaluation	Compares results with the starting condition

...

Crossword Puzzle

Mitigation	What word describes action that reduces the causes of climate change?
Adaptation	What word describes adjustment to climate impacts?
Baseline	What is the starting measurement before an action?
Indicator	What measure is used to track project progress?
Resilience	What word describes the ability to prepare for and recover from challenges?
Stakeholder	What do you call a person or group affected by a project?

LearningApps

Cloze Text

Open-Ended Tasks

Easy

Classroom Energy Map: With teacher permission, map lights and devices in one classroom, identify where energy may be used unnecessarily, and create a one-page improvement suggestion.
Waste Snapshot: Observe one safe school waste stream for a short period, sort the findings into clear categories without handling hazardous items, and present the results as a simple chart.
Climate Interview: Interview a teacher, family member, gardener, or school staff member about one local climate challenge, then summarize the interview in your own words and identify one possible action.
Action Poster: Design an evidence-based poster that explains one realistic climate action, why it matters, and what students can do without using exaggerated claims.

Standard

Travel Survey: Design an anonymous class travel survey, calculate the percentage of trips by different modes, identify barriers to lower-emission travel, and propose one fair improvement.
Food Waste Challenge: Measure a baseline for food waste, run a short prevention campaign with school approval, measure again, and explain whether the results changed.
Schoolyard Heat Map: Compare shaded and sunny locations using a consistent observation or temperature method, create a map, and propose one adaptation that improves comfort and access.
Climate Podcast: Produce a three-to-five-minute podcast in which your team explains a climate problem, interviews a stakeholder, uses at least two reliable sources, and ends with a practical action.

Advanced

Carbon Reduction Proposal: Use school data that you are allowed to access to compare at least three energy or transport actions, estimate likely benefits and limitations, and write a proposal to a decision-maker.
Adaptation Design: Investigate a local heat, heavy-rain, drought, or biodiversity challenge and create a scaled design or digital model for an adaptation, including safety, cost, maintenance, and fairness.
Stakeholder Campaign: Build a climate communication campaign for a real audience, test the message with feedback from at least two stakeholder groups, revise it, and document how the feedback changed your final product.
Impact Evaluation: Evaluate a completed school sustainability action by reconstructing its baseline, selecting indicators, analyzing available data, interviewing participants, and deciding what should continue, stop, or change.

Learning Assessment

Evidence-Based Project Plan: Given a school climate problem, define a measurable baseline, choose an indicator, propose an action, explain permissions and safety needs, and justify why the action fits the evidence.
Mitigation and Adaptation Comparison: Analyze two possible responses to the same climate risk and explain which parts are mitigation, which are adaptation, where they overlap, and what trade-offs they create.
Data Interpretation Challenge: Examine a small project dataset, calculate a useful summary, identify one pattern, identify one limitation, and write a conclusion that does not claim more than the data supports.
Fairness Review: Evaluate a proposed school climate action from the viewpoints of at least three stakeholders and redesign the action so that access, cost, safety, and participation are considered.
Communication Transfer Task: Transform the same project evidence into a short message for students and a formal proposal for school leaders, then explain how your language, detail, and tone changed for each audience.
Project Improvement Review: Study a project that produced weak or mixed results, identify possible reasons, propose a better measurement method, and design a second test that would produce stronger evidence.

Evidence of Learning

Important evidence of learning includes:

Knowledge: You can explain the difference between weather and climate, the enhanced greenhouse effect, mitigation, adaptation, baseline data, indicators, co-benefits, and climate justice.
Investigation skills: You can turn a broad concern into a measurable project question and choose a safe method for collecting evidence.
Data skills: You can organize measurements, calculate totals, means, percentages, differences, or rates when appropriate, and interpret results cautiously.
Project skills: You can plan roles, permissions, materials, timelines, safety procedures, and evaluation steps.
Communication skills: You can make a clear claim, support it with evidence and reasoning, adapt language for an audience, and cite reliable sources.
Collaboration: You can listen to stakeholders, share responsibilities, respond to feedback, and help a team make fair decisions.
Products: Useful evidence may include a project plan, dataset, graph, map, model, poster, report, podcast, video, presentation, proposal, or exhibition.
Transfer: You can apply the same investigate-act-evaluate cycle to a new climate problem that was not practiced in the course.
Reflection: You can identify project limits, explain unexpected outcomes, and recommend a realistic next step.

OERs on the Topic

The English Wikipedia article on Climate action provides a broad overview of activities and approaches used to address human-caused climate change.

Linked Learning Areas

Climate Action Projects

Climate Action Projects links science with real-world problem solving. In Science, you study energy, greenhouse gases, ecosystems, and evidence. In Geography, you investigate places, hazards, transport, land use, and uneven climate impacts. In mathematics, you organize and compare data. In English, you interview, explain, argue from evidence, and adapt communication for an audience. In technology and design, you develop models and practical solutions. In civics, you consider stakeholders, public decisions, responsibility, and fairness.

aiMOOC Projects