Students’ age range: 12-14
Topic: Views on Climate Change
Description: Engage: Students will select a paper from a black purse bag. The paper will have a number and information on climate change whether a supporting or opposing viewpoint. 24 students will select a number from the bag. 12 for and 12 against climate change. The remaining ten students will be judges. The students will be given the criteria for the debate.
Explore: Students will read the information on their cards and then will decide if they are supporting or opposing. The teacher would have the designated areas for support and opposition setup while the students read their cards. The two groups will then be further divided into 8 groups. Four groups supporting climate change and four groups in opposition. Groups will have 3 members:
Group 1: 1, 2 and 3
Group 2: 4, 5 and 6
Group 3: 7, 8 and 9
Group 4: 10, 11 and 12
The group will have 20 minutes to discuss their points and group members can exchange or swap their information as they see fit.
Explain: The students will then debate their points in front of the panel of judges (the remaining students). There will be two judges for each debate along with the teacher. Each student will present their case and some of the unoccupied students will ask students on the panel some questions.
Elaborate: The unoccupied students in the audience will ask the students on the panel questions based on what was presented. Asking them to provide further clarification to certain points.