Climate Action in Sports: Physical Education Lesson
Lesson Plan
1 hourGrades6, 7, 8Health
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Written by Diandra Jones
About this lesson
In this lesson, students use teamwork, strategy, agility, and speed to reinforce lessons on how to reduce waste and fight climate change.
Step 1 - Inquire: Students learn how to use the 3 R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle to reduce their carbon footprint and work together to fight climate change.
Step 2 - Investigate: Students play a game to learn how long it takes for different types of waste to decompose.
Step 3 - Inspire: Students test their knowledge of the 3 R’s and decomposition timelines in a game of speed, agility, and teamwork.
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Positives
- This lesson aligns with Hawai‘i’s Nā Hopena A'o HĀ-BREATH Framework.
- The Investigate and Inspire section activities can be completed on different days. Additionally, this lesson could be spread out into a week-long Climate Action Sports Challenge.
- Students collaborate and work together in order to be successful.
- Students utilize various skills, including academic skills, SEL skills (communication, listening), and kinesthetic skills (agility, speed, passing, shooting, teamwork, spatial awareness).
- Students work on physical fitness and enjoy cardiovascular exercise while reinforcing basic climate action concepts.
- Physical activity helps kinesthetic learners to learn and retain climate action information more effectively.
Additional Prerequisites
- Teacher will need to assemble the following materials for the games:
- 4 sets of colored flags or jerseys for different teams
- Scarves or foam noodles for the 3 R’s Tag game
- 4 balls that could be used for soccer
- 4 basketballs or bouncy balls
- 4 soccer goals or 4 pairs of cones
- Signs labeled 0-12 months, 1-100 years, 450-1000 years, millions of years-never
- Signs labeled “true” and “false”
- Teacher should print one infographic sheet for each team before the lesson.
- Teacher should be aware of difficult cultural approaches to sportsmanship and participation.
Differentiation
- If class sizes are small (under 20), students could be divided into two or three teams, instead of four.
- To encourage sportsmanship or teamwork, teacher can award sportsmanship or teamwork points each game to the team that demonstrates those skills.
- Instead of playing soccer for the Waste No Time! Game, students could pass a frisbee and follow the rules of ultimate frisbee where students must freeze when they catch the frisbee and pass to their classmate. Teams can send three players out at a time instead of two players.
- Teacher can modify the games to feature different sports depending on the skill sets and interests of students (soccer, American football, basketball, rugby, ultimate frisbee, floor hockey, field hockey, water sports, etc.).
- Instead of dribbling the basketball, students could be allowed to run three steps with the ball, then pass.
- During the cool-down stretch review, students can come up with questions as teams to ask the other teams, instead of the teacher generating questions.
- Teacher can choose alternative awards for the winning team. The winning team can choose the warm-up for the next class, be dismissed to the locker room first, organize an obstacle course for teammates, or choose a walk/run outdoors, etc.
- As a possible extension, students can organize a campus clean-up, examine the school’s waste management, advocate for more effective waste management, or start a campus composting system.
- As a possible extension, students can teach the 3 R’s Tag game to elementary students or create their own P.E. games for elementary students to reinforce basic climate action steps.
From the scientist review
Students will learn about how to lessen carbon footprints and how to use exercise to fight climate change. They will discover how solid wastes—biodegradable and otherwise—are produced, how long various types of solid wastes might take to break down in a landfill, and the fundamentals of waste management. The lesson's materials have been examined, and they met our standards for scientific credibility.
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About the teacher writer
Diandra Jones
Teacher
Diandra Jones is an educator, interdisciplinary artist, and author with 23 years of teaching experience. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education and English Literature from Loyola University Chicago and a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago. Since beginning her teaching career in 2003, Diandra has taught Dance, English, Visual and Performing Arts, and Physical Education to students in grades 6–12 and adult learners across the United States, West Africa, and the Caribbean. She is also the author of Irma Was Here, inspired by her experience surviving the eye of Hurricane Irma in the British Virgin Islands in 2017. Through her work as an educator, artist, and writer, Diandra empowers learners of all ages to explore creativity, resilience, and the power of storytelling across disciplines.
Reviews
Emmanual Collins
I like the interactivity of this lesson! I'm sure the students will be engaged! 😊😊
3 years ago
