Climate Careers: Ethics & Decision-Making Lesson
Lesson Plan
1 hour 30 minutesGrades9, 10, 11, 12English Language Arts
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Written by Yen-Yen Chiu
About this lesson
In this lesson, students step into climate-related careers and explore ethical dilemmas using five decision-making frameworks. Students balance competing priorities in real-life scenarios through a debate and advocate for specific climate solutions in a memo.
Inquire: Students discuss local climate scenarios to identify difficult trade-offs and values involved in environmental decisions
Investigate: Students apply five ethical frameworks to climate career dilemmas and develop claims based on different priorities and impacts.
Inspire: Students defend ethical positions in a structured debate and synthesize their reasoning into a memo recommendation.
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Suggestions
- This lesson is aligned with New York State Standards but can easily be adapted to Common Core Standards and any local context.
- The Investigate and Inspire sections can be done on separate days.
- In the Investigate section, teachers can choose several options for discussing the six ethical dilemmas: student groups of 2-3 discuss all six or a selected number, students discuss 2-3 and complete the remaining ones as homework, or teachers model one dilemma for whole class learning before students complete them in small groups.
- For the Investigate activity, each group can be assigned roles aligned to Speaking and Listening standards:
- Facilitator: Ensure everyone speaks
- Evidence finder: Asks for reasoning
- Challenger: Asks questions
- Summarizer: Concisely restates group thinking
- Depending on time, the Climate Commission debate in the Inspire section can be extended or have several rounds on other scenarios. Alternatively, teachers can host a Climate Commission on any of the scenarios at any point outside of the lesson.
- For a deeper dive into climate ethics, the following resources are good starting points:
- Teachers can invite local professionals to share their climate-based decision-making process.
- This lesson can be taught in a public speaking class or debate club.
- Teachers can assign this Regents-style prompt as a short-answer practice assignment: Evaluate the most ethical solution to a climate-related dilemma. Use evidence from the scenarios and class discussion. Address at least one counterargument.
Prerequisites
- Teachers should preview six ethical dilemma scenarios and determine whether students will evaluate all six, a portion of them, or be assigned specific scenarios.
- Teachers should establish clear norms for discussion and debate prior to the lesson.
- If teaching outside of New York, teachers can replace locations and wording with local names and places.
- For the Inspire section memo writing, teachers can provide a list of local organizations for students to address their memo to.
Differentiation
- Teachers can model one scenario by discussing and completing the chart for an ethical dilemma in the Investigate section before student groups complete the remaining scenarios.
- Different groups can complete a different number of ethical dilemmas.
- Students can engage in this Disastrous Decision-Making role-play activity by working in groups of three and acting as a mayor, social advisor, or science advisor for a city experiencing a flood. This is a good activity for experiential learners, connecting social vulnerability and data.
- Students can research career pathways and climate connections, hearing from people in the professional field. Two examples include
- Students can research current local policies or climate action plans using their local government website. For example, students can investigate their community’s or state’s heat response plan, coastal or waterway resiliency projects, agricultural sustainability, etc.
- Students can choose any of the scenarios to conduct further research. For example, these resources are a good place to start regarding geoengineering:
From the scientist review
This lesson applies ethics to climate decision making, tasking students with analyzing climate and environmental solutions through the lens of several ethical frameworks. Throughout the lesson document and slideshow, numerous high-quality sources are linked. This lesson explores real-world ethical dilemmas faced by scientists and policymakers focused on climate action. This lesson is recommended for teaching.
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About the teacher writer
Yen-Yen Chiu
Director of Education
Yen-Yen Chiu, Ed.D., is SubjectToClimate's Director of Education. She holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of San Diego, and taught public school for 22 years specializing in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Music for grades 6–12, including Advanced Placement. She is credentialed in English, Mathematics, and Introductory Music, with extensive experience designing interdisciplinary curricula that foster student choice, meaningful assessment, and authentic learning.
