Lesson overview

This lesson for higher ability students extends student knowledge of climate models and how they can be used in policy development. The HIWAVES research team wrote an academic paper investigating the impact of predicted climate on renewable energy production. This lesson looks at how the research team used climate models as part of their work and then focuses on the academic journal article written by the team and supports students to access information from this level of research output.

Learning outcomes

• Examine the need to understand what the future climate may look like
• Name and evaluate the effectiveness of climate models
• Describe the findings from the academic journal article

Lesson steps

1. Introduction (5 mins)
   

   Share the learning outcomes of the lesson.

2. Climate models and their uses (20 mins)
   

   Students will read a background briefing on climate models and their application in this research. A series of questions can be used for guiding a shared discussion or for independent learning.

3. Analysing an academic journal article (20 mins)
   

   Using a student summary of the HIWAVES academic journal article, students will learn about the structure of this research output and analyse either a student summary or the full paper. A series of questions can be used for guiding a shared discussion or for independent learning.

4. Exam question (15 mins)
   

   Students answer the exam question and peer assess each other’s answers.

England

Key Stage 4 Geography

AQA - Climate change

• Managing climate change involves both mitigation (reducing causes) and adaptation (responding to change).

OCR - UK Environmental Challenges

• Identification of renewable and non-renewable energy sources.
• The contribution of renewable and non-renewable sources to energy supply in the UK.
• The extent to which non-renewable energy could and should contribute to the UK's energy future.

Edexcel - Resource Management

• Energy resources can be classified as renewable and non-renewable.
• Advantages and disadvantages of the production and development of one non-renewable energy resource.
• Advantages and disadvantages of the production and development of one renewable energy resource.
  
• The composition of the UK’s energy mix.