1. Describe how Earth's average temperature has changed over the past ~150 years and how to interpret that data visually.

2. Define and distinguish intragenerational vs. intergenerational climate equity.

3. Identify examples of climate inequity and the populations most affected.

4. Describe local climate action strategies that support systemic changes and benefit local communities.

I designed this activity for an online introductory undergraduate course called "Introduction to Climate Science" that I teach at a two-year college. The course is offered by the Earth Science Department at my college. I taught this activity with a class size of 30 students, but it is well-suited for class sizes of up to 40 or as few as 20 students and requires no laboratory equipment. The activity consists of a series of five sequential assignments that span multiple weeks near the end of a course, serving as a capstone that integrates scientific content with personal reflection and civic engagement. Students complete the assignments on their own, as the course was asynchronous and online. It could be adapted for in-person or hybrid formats with minimal modification by asking students to complete assignments outside of class as homework, with class time used for discussion of equity concepts and sharing of climate action findings. It could also be adapted for a college-level or high school science course of any type, as long as students are given background information about present and future predicted climate changes before doing this activity. It may be difficult to adapt this for use in smaller breakout or discussion sections run by graduate students at a larger lecture course at a four-year college or university, as it requires integration of social science topics into a science course. However, if graduate students have a background that would allow them to integrate these topics into science, then it may be possible.

Students should have basic familiarity with climate change science (greenhouse gases, global warming trends) before beginning. No special technical skills are required, though students will need internet access to use NASA's Climate Legacies Tool and to watch videos found on YouTube. (NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which is an agency of the United States government responsible for the space program, aeronautics research, and space exploration as well as earth science research.) Additionally, if students do not have a way to draw on a digital device (e.g., computer, iPad, iPhone) then they may need the ability to scan a Venn diagram that they may choose to draw (see Assignment 5 in the "Description and Teachign Materials" section below) so that they can upload it to our college's Learning Management System (Canvas). For this, they could use a scanner in their home or on-campus, or a phone scanner app that utilizes a phone's camera.

Instructor Preparation: Check links to all websites and online videos.

Assignment 1: Climate Stripes (20 to 40 minutes). This is the first assignment in the series of five assignments. Students begin this assignment in Week 9 of a 16-week-long semester, just after they have learned about Earth's changing temperature in a very graphical and numerical way through temperature anomaly graphs (e.g., graphs from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies). This assignment provides visualizations of the graphical and numerical representations of climate change that they were just exposed to by using images of "climate stripes" to represent Earth's temperature changes (see "Climate Stripes Assignment.docx" file for the assignment as well as an example of climate stripes). Students use NASA's Interactive Climate Legacies Tool to create climate stripes that reference their birth year, the "birth year" of our college (Fullerton College, 1913), and the birth years of their family members. This tool expresses temperature anomalies as colored "stripes", with blue colors representing cooler-than-average temperatures and the red colors representing warmer-than-average. The stripes are available from the years 1900 through 2020 based on temperature data and temperature projections based on climate models through the year 2100. Modeled temperature projections are based on the 2021 IPCC Report. (The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading international body of the United Nations that assessed climate change science by evaluating thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers and providing summaries to policymakers and the public as well as recommendation for mitigation and adaptation strategies.) For this assignment, students focus on climate data (1900 through 2020), but I do briefly explain that the projections mean (see "Climate Stripes Assignment.docx" file) and I cover climate projections later in the course.

Climate Stripes is an art project created in 2018 by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom to help visualize the warming of our planet over the past 150 years. Stripes are available for global temperature data as well as for different regions and cities around the world. Students begin this assignment by reading about climate stripes so that they are able to interpret their own stripes once they generate them. After reading this background information, students click on a web link to the Climate Legacies Tool website. Using the tool, students generate a personalized climate stripes timeline using their birth year, the founding year of their institution (Fullerton College, 1913), and birth years of up to six of their family members (see "Example NASA Climate Legacies Image.pdf" file). To do this on the Climate Legacies Tool website, students enter their Name and Birth Year under the "Your Timeline" heading on the right-hand side of the webpage. On the line below their Name and Birth Year, they enter "Fullerton College" in the Name box and "1913" for the Birth Year of Fullerton College. They then enter the names of up to six family members along with each of their birth years. They download their figure and interpret their climate stripes data. They begin their interpretation by reading an explanation that I provide of the different components generated by the figure, including the timeline (1900 through 2020), the meanings of the name designations for temperature anomalies on the graph (very high, high, intermediate, very low, and low), and how each person that they entered (themselves and their family members) as well as Fullerton College has a "climate stripes profile" (see "Climate Stripes Assignment.docx" file for further detail). Using the "climate stripes profiles," which begin at a person's birth and end when they are 80 years old, they can compare the temperature changes experienced by them compared to their older and/or younger family members as well as those relevant to their college's history. To end the assignment, students upload their figures to our Learning Management System (Canvas). They then respond to two questions comparing temperature changes across years and generations as part of a discussion post and respond to another student's post.

Climate Stripes Assignment.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 2.9MB Jun12 26)

Example NASA Climate Legacies Image.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 121kB Jun12 26)

Assignment 2: Climate Equity (Intra- and Intergenerational) (15 to 20 minutes). During the second-to-last week of class, students complete this assignment. This is seven weeks after the first assignment. Students begin this assignment by reading about climate equity and environmental justice before they watch a TED talk in which they will hear about the factors that contribute to many climate-exacerbated inequities (see "Climate Equity Assignment.docx" file). I provide them with definitions of intragenerational equity and intergenerational equity, and explain how older generations experienced a relatively stable climate throughout their lifetimes as well as systems and infrastructure that were relatively reliable as a result. I explain how younger generations are inheriting a changing climate system along with less stable systems and infrastructure. I ask them to refer back to Assignment 1 to help them visualize this by comparing temperatures experienced by an older person (60+ years old) compared to themselves. After this introduction, students watch an 11-minute-long TED talk How to Build an Equitable and Just Climate Future by environmental justice leader Peggy Shepard, who explains the disproportionate impacts of climate change on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and challenges us to build an equitable climate future for these communities. After they watch the video, students revisit their Climate Stripes figure to compare predicted future climate changes (specifically temperatures) that will be experienced across generations. They answer questions about intragenerational inequity and identify strategies for a more equitable climate future (intergenerational equity).

Climate Equity Assignment.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 3.5MB Oct28 26)

Assignment 3: Introduction to Climate Action (30 to 45 minutes). Students complete this assignment a few days after Assignment 2. They watch two short TED talks on climate action and then write a 50 to 100 word-long reflection on whether they found the talks to be an effective way to inspire climate action (see "Climate Action Assignment.docx" file). In the first video, How to Find Your Voice for Climate Action (10 minutes), actor and activist Fehinti Balogun links climate change to colonialism and systemic racism in a talk that's part spoken-word poem and part diagnosis of entrenched global problems. In his talk, he highlights how seeing these connections is a way to unlock collective solutions. In the second video, How Hip-Hop Can Make Climate Action Cool (10 minutes), social entrepreneur Samir Ibrahim suggests hip-hop can amplify social issues and inspire people to care about them and move them from talking about the problem to rapping about (and acting on) solutions. Hip-hop artists MyVerse and Kristen Warren perform as an inspiring opening act in this TED talk.

Climate Action Assignment.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 2.4MB Jun12 26)

Assignment 4: Local Climate Action (45 to 60 minutes). Students complete this assignment a few days after Assignment 3. For this assignment, students choose two videos from a curated set of seven Project Drawdown "Climate Heroes" videos focused on the greater Los Angeles area, which is where our college is located (see "Local Climate Action Assignment.docx" file). All the videos show a diverse set of people from southern California, USA, each taking local climate action in very different ways. Students see through these videos how local climate actions affect the community they live in, or nearby communities. Throughout these videos, Project Drawdown's Director of Storytelling and Engagement, Matt Scott "passes the mic" to different climate hero "change makers" in the greater Los Angeles area who are working on climate solutions and whose stories often go unheard. By watching these videos, students learn about climate action as well as green careers and potentially find inspiration for how they can use their talents and interests to take climate actions that focus on equity and justice. The stories also highlight positive stories of change. I provide students with a link to Drawdown's Neighborhood: Los Angeles YouTube Playlist, and they can select their two videos from there. Each video is less than eight minutes long. The videos are focused on building community resilience through food justice (7:43 minutes) and composting (7:49 minutes), transforming food and other green (organic) waste into soil (6:27 minutes), protecting coastal wetlands (7:21 minutes), sustainable aquaculture (8:34 minutes), and creating equitable plant-based food systems (6:45 minutes) and expanding them through education (7:16 minutes). After they watch the videos, students explain why they chose to watch the two videos that they did and how each video benefits the community, how what they watched is considered climate action, the skills and training required for climate action, and whether something similar could be done in their own community. They then write a 50 to 100 word-long reflection on whether they found the talks to be an effective way to inspire climate action.

Local Climate Action Assignment.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 2.4MB Jun12 26)

Assignment 5: (Y)Our Climate Legacy (45 to 60 minutes). Students complete this assignment a few days after Assignment 3. This last assignment asks students: What are you going to do about climate change? (see "(Y)Our Climate Legacy Assignment.docx" file) I ask students to use the information, scientific evidence, and knowledge presented in our course to support climate action in their lives, households, communities, and/or jobs and careers. To do this, students complete a two-part assignment. For the first part, I ask them to review their post and response to another student on the discussion board from Assignment 1. Then, they watch the 17-minute-long TED talk The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk About It by climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe to help them identify key points that they can use in talking to other people about climate change. After they watch the video, I ask them to write a personal script they could use to initiate a conversation about climate change and climate action with someone in their life, referencing course content. To create the script, I ask them to use resources or content from our course or from elsewhere. The guidelines that I give them for the script are that it should briefly describe what our class was about, explain why they think addressing climate change through climate action is important (and if they do not think it is important to take action, I ask them to explain why), list at least two climate action steps they plan to complete, and ask the person they are initiating the conversation with if they would like to support them by completing similar steps or finding other climate action pathways.

For the second part of this activity, they choose one of three options for climate action, which they complete and then submit. The first option is that they can complete climate leader Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's Climate Action Venn Diagram, which involves drawing a Venn diagram to map these questions: What are you good at? What is the work that needs doing? And what brings you joy? Where the answers intersect is where a person should put their climate action effort. They watch the 10-minute-long TED talk How to Find Joy in Climate Action to learn how to create this diagram. Their other two options are writing a letter to either their U.S., California, or local government representative or to the Associated Students of Fullerton College (which is the student governance group at my college). For the letter to a government representative, I ask students to explain to them the importance of addressing climate change for them, their family, and/or their community and describe two solutions or local initiatives that they want the representative to support and why. For the letter to the Associated Students of Fullerton College, I ask them to explain the importance of addressing climate change for them, their family, and/or their community and discuss climate or sustainability themes across their areas of study at their college. I also ask them to explain the importance of climate education and careers that promote climate solutions for Fullerton College and our local communities. Students are not required to send their letter, but if they ask for extra credit for sending it, then I ask for the response that they receive (which is often automated) and give them extra credit for that.

(Y)Our Climate Legacy Assignment.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 3.6MB Oct28 26)

For Assignment 1, a colorful visualization of global temperature anomalies is more engaging for students. They remark in Assignment 1 that this visualization makes more sense to them than the temperature anomaly graphs and other numerical data. If a student is color impaired, this assignment can be difficult because of the colors used on the climate stripe and I do not have a way to address this at present. I am working with people at my college who have more knowledge about how to adapt an assignment like this for a student that is color impaired.

I recommend timing Assignment 2 so that it is three weeks or fewer after Assignment 1.

The next two assignments — Assignment 3 and Assignment 4 — should be tied closely together, as they are very related.

During Assignment 3, it is clear that most students tend to think of climate action as only individual behavior changes (e.g., recycling materials they have used, riding their bike). I use this assignment to provide different ideas for climate action that go beyond individual behavior change and are more focused on systemic change. Additionally, the TED talks on climate action that they watch are by people of color, which I feel is representative of the demographics of the students at my college and, as a result, I expect it to be engaging.

In Assignment 4, by watching videos of local climate action, most students see that no special skills or training are required to take local climate action other than getting involved and learning a local system (e.g., growing food, composting) or getting involved with a local organization (e.g., Friends of Ballona Wetlands, Heal the Bay Aquarium). Students also see that taking action locally has real benefits for our local communities, which is another big take-away I want for my students. This could remove a major perceived barrier for students, which can encourage them to take local climate action. The videos also feature mostly young people and people of color, such that students can see that people like them can really make a difference by taking local climate action that will benefit their community, because this is very representative of the demographics of the students at my college.

1. Describe how Earth's average temperature has changed over the past ~150 years and how to interpret that data visually.

I assess this learning goal using student work from Question 2 on Assignment 1 (see "Climate Stripes Assignment.docx" file) for which students compare the annual average temperature in 2020 to the annual average in 1913 and also visually interpret data when they have to compare their climate stripes to a person born before them. I assess this learning goal again using students' responses to Question 1 on Assignment 2 (see "Climate Equity Assignment.docx" file) for which students are asked to review their climate stripes from Assignment 1 and then use predictions of future climate changes (the intermediate/middle climate scenario) for when they are 60 years old (in about 2050 or so) and compare to an older person in their family. For both of these questions on both assignments, I assess whether each student has accurately described temperature changes and interpreted visual data. I assign a grade based on the accuracy of their response.

2. Define and distinguish intragenerational vs. intergenerational climate equity.
3. Identify examples of climate inequity and the populations most affected.

I assess both of these learning goals using students' responses to Questions 2 and 3 on Assignment 2 (see "Climate Equity Assignment.docx") for which students are asked to describe examples of intragenerational equity and examples of intergenerational equity from the TED talk that they watched that they feel will promote a more equitable climate future. If the students use these terms or ideas accurately in their written response, then they earn full credit for the questions.

4. Describe local climate action strategies that support systemic changes and benefit local communities.

I use students' written responses in Assignment 3 (see "Climate Action Assignment.docx") for which they wrote 50 to 100 words about whether they found the two videos that they watched to be effective ways to inspire climate action. When I read the students' short reflections, I am looking to see that they discuss actions that support systemic changes in local communities (rather than a focus on only individual actions, e.g. riding the bus, using a reusable water bottle). If they are off-track in their perception of climate action as action that supports systemic changes in local communities, I respond with formative feedback. As long as students give a thoughtful response that includes examples from the video and meets with word limits, then they receive full credit.

I assess this learning goal again using Question C in Assignment 4 (see "Local Climate Action Assignment.docx") for which students explain how actions taken by "climate heroes" in the videos are considered climate actions and how they benefit local communities. When I read their responses, I am again looking to see that they discuss actions that support systemic changes and provide formative feedback if their responses are not focused on systemic changes that benefit local communities.

I assess this learning goal one last time using Question 3 in Assignment 5 (see "(Y)Our Climate Legacy Assignment.docx") for which students reflect on the climate action that they took. For this question, I directly ask them about systemic change in their local communities. I gave them formative feedback when I assessed this learning goal for Assignments 3 and 4, so I grade this question based on whether they described or discussed climate action strategies that support systemic changes that benefit local communities.

Global Temperature Data, 1880 - 2025. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NASA), Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

Interactive Climate Legacies Tool. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NASA).

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2021. Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, Sixth Assessment Report.

Peggy Shepard. 2022. How to Build an Equitable and Just Climate Future, TED Talk.

Fehinti Balogun. 2022. How to Find Your Voice for Climate Action. TED Countdown YouTube Creator Summit.

Samir Ibrahim, MyVerse, and Kristen Warren. 2022. How Hip-Hop Can Make Climate Action Cool. TED Countdown New York Session.

Project Drawdown. 2025. Drawdown's Neighborhood video series shares stories of Los Angeles-based climate heroes, Project Drawdown Neighborhood Series.

Project Drawdown. 2025. Drawdown's Neighborhood: Los Angeles YouTube Playlist.

Jamiah Hargins. 2026. Building Community Resilience Through Food Justice, Drawdown's Neighborhood: L.A., Project Drawdown.

Enjoli Ferrari. 2026. Composting for Community Resilience, Drawdown's Neighborhood: L.A., Project Drawdown.

Jessica Cain. 2026. From Green Waste to Green Futures, Drawdown's Neighborhood: L.A., Project Drawdown.

Ammy Rojas. 2026. Protecting Los Angeles's Last Coastal Wetlands, Drawdown's Neighborhood: L.A., Project Drawdown.

Laura Rink. 2026. Making Aquaculture More Sustainable, Drawdown's Neighborhood: L.A., Project Drawdown.

Maggie Baird. 2026. Creating an Equitable Plant-Based Food System, Drawdown's Neighborhood: L.A., Project Drawdown.

Parker Do. 2026. Expanding Plant-Based Food Systems Through Education, Drawdown's Neighborhood: L.A., Project Drawdown.

Katharine Hayhoe. 2018. The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk About It, TEDWomen.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. 2022. How to Find Joy in Climate Action, TED2022.