Climate Futures lessons help students adapt to our changing world

Today’s students will inherit a very different planet. Climate change is reshaping our environment, our economies, and our society. Young people have the power to inspire change, help us course correct and adopt new, more sustainable ways of living.

It is important to help learners understand climate change and its impact on communities and habitats, how they can prepare for future jobs, and to build skills like problem-solving and critical thinking that will help young people find solutions to the problems climate change creates. To help educators teach this important topic in a constructive, empathetic and supportive way, we’ve partnered with the climate experts at the Met Office, the national meteorological service for the UK, and the digital creators from Pathway Studios to create Climate Futures, a new set of lessons and worlds for students age 8-16.

As learners make their way through these immersive lessons, they can explore the effects of climate change on economies, ecosystems, and communities through meaningful stories based on real-world events. They’ll build empathy for people and ecosystems impacted by climate change, understand the issues at hand, learn key vocabulary, and discover solutions to the challenges we all face.

Students start off in the present and travel through time by moving through portals into different possible futures affected by today’s actions. They’ll travel to a farm to see how food makes its way from the field to the table and visit a logging camp deep in the forest to learn about the impact of different modes of transportation on the environment. Students will see first-hand how climate change is impacting people’s lives and livelihoods. Each lesson includes a collaborative build challenge where students develop solutions that will help the local community adapt to climate change.

Climate Futures takes your students through a series of lessons designed by Welsh educators Kellie Williams and Barri Mock. Each lesson focuses on a different set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)and offers students an opportunity to build a collaborative solution in the following areas:

1. Climate Futures – The Forest: Experience how a forest might change over 100 years and understand the impact of deforestation, then build a sustainable tree farm.
2. Climate Futures – The Farm: Trace an agricultural supply chain—from planting wheat to putting bread on the table—to understand food production and its impact on climate change.

There are important decisions to be made when it comes to fighting climate change. These lessons can help you equip your students with the information, empathy, and hope they’ll need to help protect our future on the planet.

Find all three Climate Futures lessons here and explore our Climate & Sustainability Subject Kit for more learning content. If you have a Bedrock Edition player at home, you can also download the world free from the Minecraft Marketplace.