Activity Introduction
In this lesson, students will be immersed in, and connect with, the documentary film 2040, focusing on the topic of climate change. Students are introduced to this lesson by participating in a guided discussion around a clip from 2040. They then explore how actions for climate change can be categorised as either carbon reduction actions or carbon sequestration actions, before looking at examples of each from the 2040 documentary.
Students are then introduced to a range of natural solutions to climate change. They work collaboratively to research, read, analyse and reflect on one or more articles about natural solutions to climate change, before conducting a SWOT analysis of these solutions and engaging in a class discussion around their analysis.
- Students will understand key terms and processes relating to climate change
- Students will understand that the actions we can take for meeting the challenges of climate change broadly fall into two categories; actions for reducing carbon production and carbon sequestration
- Students will understand some of the natural solutions to climate change
- Topic: Sustainability, Climate Change.
- Unit of work: 2040 – Science – Years 7 to 10
- Time required: 95+ mins.
- Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – lead students in guided discussion, oversee activities and facilitate class discussions, oversee debate.
- Keywords: 2040 documentary, climate change, carbon sequestration, carbon reduction, geoengineering.
To view our Australian Curriculum alignment click here.
To view our NZ Curriculum alignment click here.
- Student Worksheets – one copy per student. Device capable of presenting a video to the class.
- SWOT Analysis Template.
Articles:
- Massive restoration of world’s forests would cancel out a decade of CO₂ emissions, analysis suggests
- Halting deforestation is essential for climate stability
- The ocean and climate change
- Look after the soil, save the Earth: farming in Australia’s unrelenting climate
- How farming giant seaweed can feed fish and fix the climate
- Biochar
- In-depth: Could ‘rewilding’ help to tackle climate change?
Optional resources:
2040 is an innovative feature documentary that looks to the future, but is vitally important NOW! Director Damon Gameau embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream.
In Australia: Order the Schools Version of the 2040 DVD. The Schools Version includes an educational license and is for Australian primary and secondary schools that wish to utilise the film as a learning tool or host free on-site screenings for the school community.
In New Zealand: Order the Schools Version of the 2040 DVD. The Schools Version includes an educational license and is for New Zealand primary and secondary schools that wish to utilise the film as a learning tool or host free on-site screenings for the school community.
If you are teaching in either New Zealand or Australia, you can now organise a virtual screening of the film for your class. To enquire about this option, simply email [email protected] and the 2040 team will help you set this up! If you have already bought a DVD of the film and you have a ClickView account, you can email the team for permission to upload the film to your account to make it more easily accessible for your teachers and students.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
Cool Australia, GoodThing Productions and Regen Pictures would like to acknowledge the generous contributions of Good Pitch Australia, Shark Island Institute, Documentary Australia Foundation, The Caledonia Foundation and our philanthropic partners in the development of these teaching resources.
Teacher preparation
