Climate Change
Explore content and pedagogy for climate education in classrooms and schools. Resources are available to explore sustainable futures, climate science and climate justice.
Climate Change BOM provides accurate observations and information about our changing climate.
Stages 3 to 6 | Cross KLA | Information | Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Our climate system: how it works and changes – explains the processes that drive our climate with particular reference to NSW.
Stages 3 to 6 | Cross KLA | Information | NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Global warming and climate change – outlines the science and impacts of global warming and climate change and some possible solutions.
Stages 3 to 6 | Cross KLA | Information | World Wildlife Fund
Understanding Climate Change – provides answers to some common climate change science questions.
Stages 4 to 6 | Science | Information | CSIRO
Climate Solutions 101
A 6 part series focused on climate solutions, presented through videos and in depth discussions
Stage 5 to 6 | Information | Project Draw Down
This is what climate change looks like: Australian Climate Council Report highlights recent examples of the impacts on Australian ecosystems.
Stage 4 – 6 |Science, Geography | Information | Australian Climate Council
Climate Kids NASA answers the big questions, incorporates facts, information and games explaining evidence for climate change throughout the planet.
Primary and Secondary
Stand Up for Your Climate/Future – Using climate change as the central issue, this teaching and learning sequence seeks to strengthen students’ critical and creative thinking skills as an integral part of becoming socially and scientifically literate and active citizens.There are 8 modules linked to the Australian Curriculum.
Stages 3 to 6 | Cross KLA | AAEE
Teaching resources on climate change in NSW, Adapt NSW
Stages 3 – 6 | Cross KLA | Information, units of work | Department of Environment & Heritage
CSIRO Sustainable Futures – This is an innovative school-based education program that combines the latest climate science with education for sustainability. Includes interactive student activities, case studies, online games and videos describing cutting edge research.
Stages 2 to 5 | Cross KLA | Units of work, information, student activity | CSIRO
The Language of Climate Change Science: A pre-school to Yr 8 teaching and learning progression
Stage 1- 4 | English, Science, Geography | Primary English Teachers Association of Australia
Enacting Climate Change Education, Deakin University
A Climate of Change is a wellbeing focused program supporting teachers and educators to help young people navigate the emotional impacts of climate change. The six lesson program includes videos, prompts, posters and educator scripts to spark discussion, Adapt NSW.
Secondary
Climate Classrooms
A series of lesson plans on Climate Science for use teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, including Cranky Uncle, teaching critical english skills around climate denialism
Stages 4 to 6 | STEAM | Lesson Plans | Monash University
Stay Tuned to our Planet, is a mini climate action series and online resources that delivers simple, everyday actions to help the planet. Designed for teens to unpack environmental issues and reduce climate-anxiety.
Stage 4 – 6 | The Feds
Climate Change Teaching Mini Unit: Over approximately seven weeks, students explore the carbon cycle and the four global systems: biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere. Students will investigate greenhouses gases and carbon dioxide and describe the relationship between the carbon cycle and climate change.
Stage 5 | Science | Unit of work, activities | Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Coral Bleaching Teaching Unit: Students will observe different animal and plant cells under the microscope and will investigate the structure and function of different animal cells and observe and describe the function of chloroplast in plant cells. Students will investigate zooxanthellae and their symbiotic relationship with coral and use this understanding to explain coral bleaching.
Stage 4 | Science | Unit of work, activities | Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Our Climate Our Future: Alliance for Climate Education (American NFP) provides short videos on different climate topics including explaining climate change, climate science, justice and activism. Educator resources include teaching activities and information resources. You need to create a login, it is based on American examples but transferable, it is free and videos are good quality.
Stage 4 – 6 | Science, Geography, Art | Alliance for Climate Education
Searchable databases
Climate Change Education Resource Library, curated resources to support climate change education, Climate Change Education Network
Climate Change Resources for Rethinking online database and PDF summary of teaching resources. Resources for Rethinking is developed by Learning for a Sustainable Future (a not-proft Canadian organisation) and connects teachers to lesson plans, books, videos and other materials that explore the environmental, social and economic dimensions of important issues and events unfolding in our world today.
Stage 3 – 6 | Cross KLA | Units of Work, Activities | Learning for a Sustainable Future
Cool Australia – Primary & secondary climate change education resources
Stages 1 – 5 | Integrated Inquiry Australian Curriculum aligned lesson plans | Cool Australia
Climate Change Resources via Scootle Scootle is a national digital learning repository which provides Australian teachers with access to more than 20,000 digital learning items, provided by a wide array of contributors and aligned to core areas of the Australian Curriculum. All Australian educators, from pre-service teachers through to principals, have access to Scootle.
Stages 1 to 5 | Cross KLA | Units of work, information, student activity | Education Services Australia
Interactive computer activities
Your climate superpowers Every person has unique skills and talents (superpowers!) they can use to help face the challenges of climate change. This website can help you explore your Climate Superpowers, make them even stronger, and use them at home, in your community and beyond. University of Melbourne
Mt Resiliance an augmented reality experience which allows you to see how we can prepare our towns for the weather we’re likely to see on a warmer planet. To visit, you’ll need a smartphone or a tablet.
Your Ecological footprint – how much land area does it take to support your lifestyle? Take this quiz and discover your biggest areas of resource consumption, and learn how you can tread more lightly on the planet.
Deep Time Walk experience a walking audio history of the living Earth
Climate Action Adventure web app is designed as an adventure game and digital campus with its own cinema, library and art gallery to inform and educate young people on the challenges facing different parts of planet earth, Southern Cross University.
Film resources
Films, festivals and documentaries – Regenerating Australia, Environmental Film Festival Australia, Documentary Australia Foundation, Happen Films, Stay Tuned for the Planet
ABC Education
- Fight for Planet A, Big Weather and how to survive it,
- Indigenous cultural burning, Global impacts of a warmer climate, Increasing threat of megafires Suitable for upper primary and secondary (some content may be inappropriate for younger students).
- How hot is your school?
- War on waste
- BTN, Understanding climate change
Interviews and podcasts
- Climate Conversations: Conversations (live and recordings available) with 100 visionary Australians taking effective action on climate change.
Stage 4 – 6 |Science, Geography, Design and Tech, Agriculture | Information | Powerhouse Museum
Climate psychology resources
- A Climate of Change is a wellbeing focused program supporting teachers and educators to help young people navigate the emotional impacts of climate change. The six lesson program includes videos, prompts, posters and educator scripts to spark discussion, Adapt NSW.
- From eco-anxiety to climate hope, 6-lesson Geography resource for Years 7-10, Cool.org and Blue Minds
- Climate emotions in the classroom, Practical tips for teachers, resource focuses on building the capacity of educators to recognise, understand, and respond to difficult climate emotions in constructive, empowering ways, Orygen & STTOP
- Psychology for a Safe Climate: A NFP that aims to contribute to a psychological understanding and support within the community, helping people face the difficult climate reality. View Publications section: Staying Engaged in the Climate and Bushfire Crisis, Lets Speak About Climate Change, Stories about Climate Change.
- Raising children to thrive in a climate changed world – Information sheet about the skills and capacities that children will need to keep working to restore a safe climate, and a guide for parents to respond to the current crisis of climate change.
Information | Australian Psychological Society - Australian Psychological Society: Coping with Climate Change Distress, Climate Change Empowerment Handbook, Talking with Children about the Environment
- Climate Resilience Toolkit: Arts based activities for changing climates
- UNICEF: Blog tips How to talk to your children about the Australia’s bushfire emergency
- ABC All in the Mind Radio National: Climate Change Anxiety (Audio, 29mins)
- Positive action: Science and psychology to support young Australians with climate distress Webinar recording of a Matilda Centre online panel discussion to explore the mental health impacts of climate change, arm young people with practical coping strategies
- Learning to live with Climate Change, From Anxiety to Transformation, Blanche Verlie, Routledge ebook, 2022
Youth mental health support services
- headspace: Youth Mental Health Foundation
- Kids Helpline: Free, private, confidential phone and online counselling service for people aged 5 – 25 yrs
- Be you, a national education initiative to support child and youth mental health supported by Beyond Blue
- National Emergency Management Agency
Online wellbeing resources
Cooling schools
School Microclimates Report, University of Western Sydney & Macquarie University
Cooling the Schools: Action based research project
Stage 3 teaching resource NPWS
Cooling the Schools, planting native trees on school grounds creating cooler, greener, more inviting spaces for learning and play, nominated to take part in the Sydney and Illawarra Regional project with Greening Australia
50C Climate Heat and Resilience, Yr 9 – 10 Interdisciplinary project, Powerhouse Museum
Schools Weather and Air Quality: Empowering urban weather research with schools, UNSW.
Disaster resilience
Disaster resilience education hub, education for young people about natural hazards and keeping communities safe, includes educator resources, school initiatives and case studies, National Emergency Management Agency
How schools prepare for emergencies, NSW Department of Education
Preparing for emergencies together, resources for schools and parents from the NSW State Emergency Services
Birdies tree, storybooks, videos and information to help young children going through natural disasters, Childrens Health Queensland (Early Years)
Bushfires in NSW, teaching resource NPWS
Project Firestorm, Curriculum unit for Geography, ‘Factors that Shape Places: Bushfire Hazards’, Stage 3, Fire & Rescue NSW
Designing coastal changes with primary students, case study in Byron Bay
Vocational Skills
Girls on Fire program explore volunteer and job pathways in the fire & emergency services sector
NSW Skills for Net Zero work based training, guiding NSW tertiary students to a net zero career pathway
- Switched on Schools: Australian Youth Climate Coalition provides a range of programs to ignite students interest in climate justice. Through a unique peer-to-peer approach, high school students develop their understanding of sustainability and build skills in change-making. Climate Justice Summits and Student Leadership Programs.
Stage 4 – 6 | Australian Youth Climate Coalition - Striking voices, research project with young people (10-23 years old) involved in climate justice activism
- New Possibilities Project, exploring the significance of young peoples climate action and the implications of democracy
- Climate Fresk, volunteer facilitated workshops
- Youthtopia peer learning platform for young changemakers
- Climate Outreach: Recommendations for engaging young people with climate change campaigns.
- SEED Mob Indigenous youth climate network
- School Strike for Climate
- Australian Parents for Climate Action
- 10 Communication Tips to Change the Climate Story, Erika Van Schellebeck for Environmental Education NSW.
- A Toolkit for Climate Storytelling, strategies for content creators, Planet Media.
AAEE, ASTA and AGTA released a joint Climate Change Education Position Paper. This call to action outlines five key steps to integrate explicit, mandatory climate change education across the K-12 currciculum, empowering students with the skills and hope to tackle environmental challenges.
NSW Department of Education, Net Zero Road Map 2018-2030, 2022
Climate Change Education Network, Collective of academics, educators and allied researchers creating climate change
Youth for Climate Country, mapping young people’s complex climate change understandings, by collecting and sharing community knowledge through story
Guideline for Excellence, Educating for Climate Action and Justice, North American Association for Environmental Education
Climate change education in schools in communities why and how, AAEE Learning Circle webinar recording with Dr Peta White 2025.
The Global Partnership for Education have released a climate resilience toolkit for policy makers, Educators at the heart of greening education. This policy toolkit supports education stakeholders to consider the policies that help teachers deliver continuous, equitable, quality education for all learners despite intensifying climate change and environmental degradation.
Monitoring and Evaluation Climate Communication & Education Project, Digital Library, UoSS Canada.
Western Australia Government: Making Hope Practical, Legislative Assembly Report of the inquiry into the response of Western Australian schools
to climate change, 2022.