Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
Students explore two recently developed youth-centered environmental programs and teach each other about them by sharing their takeaways and personal connections.
In this 7-day unit by high school English teacher Sarah Outterson-Murphy, students analyze AI’s capabilities, reflect on its flaws, and develop their own arguments about the pros and cons of AI at school.
Through small-group activities, students learn about and discuss acts of solidarity and mutual support that can sustain us in difficult times.
The lesson supports students in discussing possible responses to the experience of feeling “sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, or guilty” about the climate crisis.
In honor of the brave ones who have left behind everything they know, for an uncertain search of a chance to survive and, ultimately, thrive, I invite you to think of this: In times of crisis and desperation, how can one find joy?
Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote? Students learn about the debate to lower - or raise - the age, and consider the pros and cons.
Young people sued the state of Montana seeking climate justice - and won! Students learn about the new ruling and what it means going forward.
This lesson includes two readings on the issue of sweatshops and child labor abroad, each with questions for class discussion.
Educators often say that books can teach us so much. What lessons can young people learn from fiction about how to cope with climate change? Here are seven lessons that can be adapted for different age groups, using quotes from climate fiction.
An expanded guide of fiction to engage your students in an imaginative exploration of the climate crisis (updated July 2023).