Climate Change

​All-Gender Course; Fall semester or Full-year course
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Earth’s climate has never been static - it is in constant cycles of warming and cooling.  The current rate of change, however, is unprecedented, and all of us are experiencing this in the form of extreme weather patterns and events.  This course will tackle several questions related to climate change: How have the Earth’s orbit, the Sun’s solar energy, and other geological anomalies affected the climate in comparison to human activities over the last 650,000 years?  What does climate change have to do with human rights? Is anthropogenic impact on the environment reversible? Under current models, how many people can our planet support? Will we reach a tipping point? This is a class for future scientists who want to save nature as well as for future politicians who want to solve an intractable problem. By the end of this course, students will have a framework for understanding the process of environmental change on both geological and human scales.  
WHAT STUDENTS SAY

"The project on how Inuit populations are affected by climate change allowed me to be able to see how climate change isn't just melting ice or endangering polar bears, which is terrible, but one of the more common portrayals of climate change in the media.”

"Prior to taking this class, I was unable to fully grasp what climate change really was.  HOW exactly did it affect us? But most importantly, I am now able to understand what we can do to change this.”

WHAT STUDENTS DO
Learning is an active process at One Schoolhouse. Students design, create and apply. And, they engage with classmates and connect with their teachers through discussions, video conferences, and projects. Specifically, in this class students will:
  • Set goals that drive their learning. Students reflect regularly on their growth, and meet on video chat with their online teacher to review progress towards their goals.
  • Have choice in how they learn new content and practice new skills. Students are given agency to determine the best ways for them to learn.
  • Apply what they are learning to the real world. Learning is meaningful and connects to concepts outside the classroom.
  • Practice constructive engagement in a diverse and changing world. Students interact with classmates from across the country and around the world.
  • Gain academic maturity. Online learning takes greater discipline and independence than a traditional face-to-face classroom. Teachers support students to build this skill.
MEET A TEACHER FOR THIS COURSE
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SECOND SEMESTER?
Students wishing to pursue a climate change project may enroll in the course for the full year.  For students continuing into Semester II, the course shifts into personalized, project-based work, where students engage in deep, sustained inquiry, authentic and iterative research, critical analysis, and rigorous reflection, revision, and assessment as they journey through a self-designed, long-term activism, design or research project on the topic of their choosing.  Guided by a One Schoolhouse teacher, students pursue individual study/self-assessment or collaborative seminar/peer-review. Pathway options from which students choose include:

  • Spring Activism Seminar: In this seminar, students identify a need and create a plan to effect economic, environmental, political, or social change in a target community.  Utilizing a social science approach to research and evaluation, students are guided through the process of planning the deployment of a novel idea and identifying markers of success.  Students may create a strategic plan for a club or non-profit or design an artistic product in this seminar. 
  • Spring Design Seminar:  In this seminar, students design a technological solution to a real-world problem.  Through the engineering design process/scientific method, students gather and analyze data to determine the effectiveness of their model or the accuracy of their hypothesis.  Students may prototype and produce a public product in this seminar. 
  • Spring Research Seminar:  In this seminar, students answer a theoretical or ethical question.  Utilizing the social science/humanities tools for source evaluation, students collect, critique, and evaluate artifacts or primary source documents to explore their thesis.  Students may create a written or multimedia product in this seminar. 

Upon completion of their inquiry-driven project, students will have gained academic maturity and expanded their ability to engage in a diverse and changing world.  They will be able to draw and defend conclusions from theoretical underpinnings, contextual background, and mathematical analysis or source evaluation. Finally, they will have created and tested something useful of their own design or will be able to defend a position based on their own research. Check out the video below to hear from the facilitators and learn more about your seminar project!
SIGNATURE ACTIVITIES
Examples of signature activities and projects for this course are:
  • Paris Agreement Climate Change Project: Students take the role of national.leaders and collaborate on the climate change metrics established by the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.
  • Personal Climate Portfolio: Students will gather and reflect upon climate change impacts that are most directly connected to their personal experiences, home location, and ecological values.
  • NASA Climate Tracking Virtual Labs: Students will periodically utilize NASA data gathering systems in tracking and monitoring sea level rise, ocean surface temperatures, and sea ice cove
COURSE APPROVAL
This course is approved by the NCAA. ​

One Schoolhouse is fully accredited with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges through December 1, 2025; we are an approved online publisher for the University of California. ​
Meredith Mikell
she/her/hers
Science Teacher
BS Eckerd College
​MA Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University