Take a Stand
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by: Population Education|Published on: November 26, 2025
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
678
Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this lesson from Population Education, students will determine their opinion on several statements relating to population growth and global issues and write a position paper defending their stance.
- Students will walk around the room to select their level of agreement with statements about government policies, water quality, agricultural practices, waste management, and other topics.
Subjects: Social Studies, English Language Arts
Authors: Population Education
Region: Global
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This is a great activity to get students up and moving around!
- The discussion questions are an excellent opportunity for students to analyze the activity and how it may have impacted them.
Prerequisites
- Students should have a general understanding of topics related to population growth and global issues.
- Teachers may want to define some terms for students ahead of time, such as sustainable, yield, climate change, Indigenous, compost, consumer, and others.
- To download the lesson plan and materials, teachers will need to provide their name, email, and grade level.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Teachers can use this activity preceding a lesson or unit on climate change and global issues to gauge students' feelings and background knowledge. Alternatively, teachers can use this following a lesson or unit of the same nature to understand the lesson's impact.
- Before beginning, students may benefit from having sentence stems, like the ones suggested in the lesson, posted in the room or on a student handout so they can refer to them throughout the activity.
- Teachers can use this activity to make many connections to the Sustainable Development Goals. Teachers can check out this curriculum guide for ideas for introducing their students to the Sustainable Development Goals.
This resource includes a lesson plan and informational video for an activity where students will share their opinions on the climate and environment, and write a document explaining one of the statements and defending their opinion. Students do not need to know everything about each topic, as the lesson helps to normalize changing one's opinions with more information, or needing more information to decide on an opinion. This lesson is important because it shows students how people can have different opinions, that opinions can change, and how to talk with and understand people who have differing opinions. The information presented is accurate, and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
Population Education
Population Education provides K-12 teachers with innovative, hands-on lesson plans and professional development to teach about human population growth and its effects on the environment and human well-being. Human population has grown from 1 billion to 8 billion in just over 200 years, so it is critical to examine human impacts on wildlife, climate, and natural resources while working toward equality and justice for the world’s people. Through memorable, standards-aligned classroom activities like simulations, cooperative challenges, and debate, Population Education inspires students to tackle a variety of real-world problems and to become positively engaged in their communities as the next generation of leaders and policy makers.
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
