Cultivating climate champions: A 3-D approach to teaching climate change

By James Damico, PhD

I'm excited to share some key insights and a practical instructional strategy for creating climate champions in your classroom.

Key Insights

The 3-D approach – viewing students as detectives, delegates, and doers - provides a comprehensive framework for climate education: 

1. Climate Denial Detectives: Equip students with critical thinking skills to identify and debunk common climate denial tactics.
2. Climate Justice Delegates: Explore the complex web of historical, economic, and social factors contributing to climate injustice.
3. Climate Action Doers: Empower students to investigate and implement real-world climate solutions.

The Urgency of Climate Education

Remember those 12 words: “It’s warming. It’s us. We’re sure. It’s bad. We can fix it.” This concise statement encapsulates the core of climate science and the imperative for action.

Addressing Climate Denial

There are two types of climate denial:

1) Climate science denial, with these five main tactics: fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry-picking, and conspiracy theories.

2) Climate action denial, with these five tactics: redirecting responsibility, pushing non-transformative solutions, technological optimism, individualized responsibility, and greenwashing

Instructional Practice: The Climate Myth Busters Challenge

Here's a fun, engaging activity to help your students become climate denial detectives:

1. Preparation: Create a set of cards, each containing an example of a climate denial tactic. Here are a few examples:

• "China's emissions are worse, so why should we change?" (redirecting responsibility)
• "Geoengineering, like reflecting sunlight, will solve the problem." (technological optimism)
• "Our company is 'carbon neutral' so our products don't contribute to climate change." (greenwashing)

2. Group Formation: Divide your class into small teams of 3-4 students.

3. The Challenge: Each team draws a card and has 10 minutes to:

• Identify the type of denial tactic used
• Research and gather evidence to debunk the myth
• Prepare a brief, creative presentation (e.g., skit, rap, infographic)

4. Presentations: Teams present their myth-busting findings to the class.

5. Class Discussion: After each presentation, facilitate a brief discussion on the tactic used and its potential real-world impact.

6. Reflection: Conclude with a reflection on how these critical thinking skills can be applied beyond climate science.

This activity not only reinforces the "Detective" aspect of the 3-D model but also encourages teamwork, research skills, and creative communication.

By fostering these skills, we're not just teaching climate science: we're cultivating the next generation of informed, critical thinkers ready to tackle the challenges of our warming world.

Cover image: Composite image of global warming stripes, Climate Lab book, by Ed Hawkins, CC BY-SA 4.0, and icons © Freepik.

About the author: James Damico is a former elementary and middle school teacher from New Jersey. He is currently a Professor of Literacy, Culture & Language Education in the Curriculum & Instruction Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is an author of many publications that emphasize critical literacies and inquiry-based teaching and learning. Since 2008 he has been teaching and researching about global climate change and exploring ways to challenge climate denial and advance ecological justice. This includes writing and performing songs as he finishes a new album to be released in late fall 2024. His most recent book is titled, How to Confront Climate Denial: Literacy, Social Studies, and Climate Change published by Teachers College Press. For the past two decades James has also led the design and development of a web-based teaching and learning platform and related tools used by hundreds of teachers and thousands of students around the world.