Category: Blog

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New Resources: Climate and Biodiversity Stripes

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 2 December 2024

We’ve been delighted to work with Mastery Science to develop two new science teaching resources which are based on the climate and biodiversity stripes.

These visually striking images instantly convey information about changing global climate and biodiversity.

In the primary resource, students investigate the potential use of green walls to increase biodiversity on their school estate and adapt to climate change.

In the secondary resource, students prepare an (imaginary) submission for the Earthshot prize based on planting Kelp to mitigate climate change and increase biodiversity.

Blog Climate Change Curriculum Secondary Teaching

Climate Change in AQA GCSEs

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 19 November 2024

This week, the AQA exam board has published booklets for teachers of their Science, Geography, Maths, Religious Studies, Citizenship. Design and Technology and Psychology GCSE specifications, showing how the current specifications can be used to deliver the climate education that students are asking for and need to equip them with the green skills for the future workforce.

Building on the reports we published in 2023, the booklets exemplify how teachers can demonstrate to students that the skills and understanding that they are already being taught can be applied to the context of climate change, adaptation and mitigation, without increasing curriculum content or teaching load.

In science in particular, in work led by Natalie Vlachakis and supported by the RMetS, teachers are given ideas for how, through considerations of sequencing, to link learning across physics, biology and chemistry in order to deliver a cohesive and holistic climate education.

Extreme weather Snow

When will it snow?

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 15 November 2024

What are the requirements for snow?

There are three main requirements for snow, these are:

Moisture
There must be water vapour in the air for clouds to form. In the UK, surrounded as we are by sea, this is rarely a problem. As water warms up and cools down more slowly than land, the sea around us stays at a pretty constant temperature all year round and is a constant source of water vapour into the air above, through evaporation.
It can be ‘too cold for snow’ in the centre of large land masses, such as Eurasia, Antarctica or N. America, where the wind has not encountered liquid water from which water can easily evaporate. It’s really ‘too dry for snow’ – but it’s too dry because it is so cold that the rate of evaporation from the lakes and rivers, which may be frozen, is very, very slow.
Cloud
For clouds to form, the rate of evaporation must be lower than the rate of condensation. Evaporation and condensation are going on all the time, but the rate of evaporation falls as it gets colder. So, clouds can form when the air cools – there are several possible mechanisms for this

Where warmer air meets colder air at a front, causing it to rise. As the air rises, the air pressure falls and so the air cools (this is known as adiabatic cooling).
When air from somewhere colder than us (i.e. Arctic maritime of Polar Continental air masses) approaches the UK, is warmed from below as it travels over relatively warm land or sea which causes it to rise and cool. This is the most common source of snow in the UK.
When air is forced to rise over the coast, hills or mountains and, as it rises, cools. This mechanism can add to, or enhance, the formation of cloud by either of the other mechanisms above.
If the ground cools overnight, the air in contact with the ground can cool to the temperature at which cloud forms. This is fog and is not likely to produce rain or snow.

Temperature
It has to be cold enough for the cloud droplets to grow as snowflakes and to not melt as they fall through the atmosphere and down to the ground. To see whether this is the case, forecasters look at the 528dam (=5280m) line. This line shows where the vertical thickness of the bottom half of the atmosphere (by mass) is 5280m i.e. the vertical distance between the 1000mb height (somewhere near the ground) and the 500mb height (somewhere in the middle of the troposphere). As warm air is less dense than cold air, the smaller this distance, the colder the air is.

If we are north of the line (i.e. the thickness is less than 528dam) then any precipitation can fall as snow, and if we are south of the line (i.e. the thickness is greater than 528dam) then we get rain.

If you look at the surface pressure forecast charts on the Met Office website, then if you go more than 24 hours into the future the thickness lines are shown. The 528dam line is shown as a blue dashed line, and the thicker/ warmer 546dam line as a green dashed line.

Another way to find out is to look at the weather forecast charts (in the charts and data menu) at http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=nwdc;sess= and select ‘HGT 500-1000’ from the ‘select chart type’ menu If the 528dam line is South of where you are, and there is a forecast of precipitation, then that precipitation is likely to be snow.

It is also worth having a look at a cross section through the atmosphere for example at http://www.wetter3.de/ – select ‘Vertikalschnitte’ which gives a longtitude/ height cross section for 50N (move the pointer on the right side of the left hand map to change the latitude of the cross section). The air between the clouds and the ground has to be cold for snow to reach the ground.

Lesson Idea

Using the information above, can your students identify which countries/ regions should have a forecast of snow? At the basic level, they can just look and see where is inside the 528 line. More advanced students should try to predict where there will be precipitation.

Nullschool is a great resource for visualising air flow and air masses.

When do we get snow in the UK?

More information from the Met Office about Snow in the UK and forecasting snow.

A nice explanation of why we had such a different November in 2011 to the weather in November 2010 from the Met Office and a report on the 2010 snow and its impacts on the UK.

And an article from the BBC about what constitutes a white Christmas.

Snow inspired science teaching ideas from Science in School.

White Christmas – an article from MetMatters

Snow inspired geography teaching ideas from the GA.

How to make a snowflake, from the Institute of Physics

From Brilliant Maps; the probability of a white Christmas across Europe

Article Blog Science

Weather and Climate In Classroom Physics

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 17 October 2024

Weather and climate articles in the IoP’s magazine for teachers of physics – Classroom Physics.

September 2024 – getting the flight height right.

March 2024 – volcanoes and climate change

December 2023 – brinicles (sinking and floating)

June 2023 – stability in the atmosphere

March 2022 – Seasons themed edition

September 2021 – Sustainability themed edition.

Blog Climate Change Geography

New Resource – Climate Change in Azerbaijan

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 16 October 2024

COP29 will take place in Azerbaijan in November 2024.

Adapt these ideas to support your teaching in the weeks leading up to and during the conference to engage your students with the negotiations and where they are taking place.

The adaptable resource should let you pick ideas from a range which include climate zones, contour drawing, climate graphs, greenhouse gas emissions, map and graph skills in the context of Azerbaijan and climate justice.

Blog Curriculum

Curriculum Review

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 16 October 2024

Stakeholders* are currently being asked to submit responses to the ongoing curriculum review in England.

After discussions at various of our special interest groups and committees, the RMetS’ key points are highlighted below. We encourage our members and partner organisations to echo these in their own responses to the consultation.

* Children and young people • Parents and carers • Teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants and the wider education workforce • Senior leaders of schools, multi-academy trusts and colleges • Further and higher education providers • Sector organisations and unions • Arms’ Length Bodies • Expert organisations, voluntary and community organisations and charities • Researchers and education experts • Subject associations • Careers professionals • Awarding organisations • Employers and employer representative bodies • Local authorities • The wider public

All students should leave school with some climate literacy irrespective of their subject and qualification choices

The RMetS climate literacy survey, 2022 demonstrates that a large proportion of school leavers in England don’t remember having been taught about climate change (46%) in their GCSE years. In addition, students are calling for quality climate education, and employers identify a green skills gap in the UK workforce. The World Bank Group’s Education for Climate Action report (2024) stresses the importance of education as an instrument for increasing climate mitigation and adaptation.
UNESCO’s Greening Curriculum Guidance (2024) concludes “The world faces interconnected challenges, with the climate crisis looming as an existential threat. Addressing these challenges requires an education system that not only acknowledges these realities but actively prepares individuals to navigate them and innovate for a more sustainable future.”

Students should leave school with the ability to apply their knowledge, understanding and skills to the real world as it changes and develops as well as their personal situations and careers. Specifically, high quality climate education should allow students to develop climate literacy and green skills which students can apply to green careers and broader climate action in their personal and professional lives.

The curriculum should be flexible enough to adapt as understanding, technology, relevance and situation changes. Specifically, this relates to the state of the climate, climate impacts around the world and current issues relating to climate justice, politics, economics and communication as well as technological solutions to the climate crisis.

Climate education should make students concerned about climate change but hopeful, focussing on solutions and careers as laid out in the DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Education Strategy (2022), UNESCO’s Greening Curriculum Guidance (2024)

Students should be able to synthesise their learning in different topics and subjects. Specifically, students should be able to apply their learning in geography and the sciences to climate change and sustainability contexts and examples in all subjects, and apply their maths, data and statistical skills to climate contexts in all subjects.

Climate change is a multi-disciplinary problem, impacting on all lives and careers, that requires a multidiscipline approach to both solutions and learning. It should therefore not just be taught in self-contained units (or even a separate subject) but should be integrated, where appropriate, throughout the curriculum in all subjects, by making links between learning in different subjects to develop a climate education which is holistic, strengthens and progresses, broadens learning and is not repetitive. Geography, Physics, Chemistry and Biology are the subjects where core understanding can be developed, which can be the expected knowledge on which application of that knowledge in all other subjects can be based, where appropriate. Maths, data and statistical skills underpin high quality climate education.

Climate education in the curriculum report and Easy Wins for Climate change education in England

Teacher support and subject specific professional development is critical to develop both subject knowledge and subject pedagogy amongst the current and future teaching community. All teachers should be able to access training to improve their climate literacy as well as their understanding of how to appropriately deliver climate education in their teaching.

Many teachers don’t currently have the confidence to deliver climate education UCL survey of teachers in England
The RMetS quality control work with resource providers, publishers and exam boards has revealed widespread misconceptions and out of date materials in use.

Blog Geography Teaching

Free Online Weather and Climate CPD

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 9 October 2024

Join over 40,000 people who have taken our free, online award winning weather and climate CPD course designed specifically for secondary geography teachers and A level students, Come Rain or Shine, which starts again on 9th October.

This is an opportunity for anyone who has previously taken the course, or who has attended one of our in person weather and climate subject knowledge days, to access the resources again without cost.

The course is now spread over 5 weeks to maximise the free access period, and features updated and additional material.

The learning objectives for the course are:

Describe the weather features associated with depressions, anticyclones and the four main air masses which affect the UK.
Interpret a synoptic or weather chart, to provide details about wind speed and direction, precipitation and cloud cover.
Describe some of the physical processes which give rise to weather, such as convection, condensation, pressure gradients and the Coriolis force.
Investigate local weather conditions using readily available instruments.
Explain some of the processes which transfer energy through the Earth system, including the transient effects of volcanoes and changes in the Earth’s orbit, and how these processes relate to the Earth’s climate.
Apply an understanding of mid-latitude weather systems to the analysis of weather data and images.

The course focuses on UK weather (depressions, air masses, anticyclones) through a mix of videos, text, practical exercises and fieldwork, and also explores the wider global picture. It takes about 2 hours per week over 5 weeks.

Due to changes in the FutureLearn platform, participants only get free access to the resources for a few weeks. We therefore suggest that you only register yourself or your students for the course on the day you want to start accessing the materials.

Blog Geography Research

State of the UK Climate 2023 Poster

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 11 September 2024

Climate Change Teaching

Climate Change Quality Controlled Resources

Post author By Sylvia Knight
Post date 4 September 2024

The following resources have been assessed against the Quality Control framework , climate change content, and meet the criteria:

December 2024

SOS-UK Teach the Teacher presentation

September 2024

Twinkl Eco Adventurers scheme, Earth’s Climate & Cycles resources for EYFS – Year 6.

June 2024

AQA Climate Change and Sustainability in GCSE science

April 2024

Common Seas Education/ Plastic Clever schools secondary resources

March 2024

Engineering UK Tackling Climate Change

January 2024

Royal Meteorological Society with Dr Frost Learning

Secondary Maths Resources

December 2023

National Education Nature Park

What is the Anthropocene?

Climate change: making change

Climate change and mental health

Carbon cycle passport

Making change

Royal Meteorological Society with the Royal Geographical Society

Resources based on the 2021/ 2022 IPCC report for A level and GCSE geography

Royal Meteorological Society with the Young People’s Trust for the Environment

Heatwaves

Royal Meteorological Society with Mathematics Education Innovation (MEI)

Maths Climate Change Resources

Royal Meteorological Society

Climate change concept association tool

Carbon dioxide – seasonal cycles

Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide

Royal Meteorological Society/ National Education Nature Park

Agree or disagree

UK Climate

The great debate

Greenhouse effect bulldog

Met Office/ National Education Nature Park

Exploring climate change data

Interpreting climate change models

Climate change P4C activities

Emotion line graphs

Royal Geographical Society/ National Education Nature Park

What is the difference between weather and climate?

Why is our climate like this?

Can climate change?

What will climate be in the future?

Does it matter if climate changes?

Royal Society/ National Education Nature Park

What do you want to know about climate change?

Thoughtbox/ National Education Nature Park

Changing climates

Changing climate cause and effects

Be the change

Phet/ National Education Nature Park

Greenhouse effect

Eden Project/ National Education Nature Park

Climate response

WWT/ National Education Nature Park

Climate champions

UCAR/ National Education Nature Park

Project drawdown

The Quality Control framework was developed as part of the National Climate Education Action Plan and in partnership with other organisations.

Blog Climate Change Curriculum maths Schools Secondary Teaching

Climate Calculations Challenge

Post author By Eleanor Pinches
Post date 21 August 2024

Maths is at the centre of all things science, and climate change is no different. To understand climate change, scientists have measured many climatic and weather variables such as temperature, rainfall accumulations, pressure and atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. Mathematical skills allow us to explore these observations, finding trends and looking at the statistics. Maths allows us to create equations that allow us to work out what will happen in the future, be it the weather for the weekend or predicting the future climate in 50 years. Maths also helps us to unpick the social science of climate change.

Solving climate change needs brainy mathematicians!

Challenge:

As part of Maths Week Scotland we are challenging secondary students in Scotland to explore the broad topic of climate change and the many possible links it has to mathematics by writing their own maths problems and questions.

This challenge will be split into two sections: writing questions and peer reviewing questions from another group/class.

Part 1: Writing questions

The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) has recently released the Climate Change Concept Association Tool which brings together more than three hundred climate change concepts in an engaging illustration of how they are linked.

Climate change is linked to 3 main terms – causes, policy and impacts. We are going to focus on causes and impacts.

We suggest splitting the two topics into 2 days; writing questions for causes on Monday 23rd September and impacts on Tuesday 24th September. However, the competition will be live before Scottish Maths Week so you can deliver the question making sessions when it best suits your teaching pattern.

The questions must be linked to each of the topics associated with the ‘causes’ and ‘impacts’ of climate change. The questions should be set at National 4/ 5 level in terms of mathematical skills and style.

Click below to see an example question if the topic set was ‘climate action’.

There are 8 topics associated with CAUSES (Monday):

Climate justice
Science
Feedback loops
Greenhouse gas emissions
Land use change
Natural variability
Liability
Anthropogenic

There are 24 further topics associated IMPACTS (Tuesday).

However, we are going to focus on the 10 terms in bold for the questions:

Arctic/Antarctic
Anthropocene
Adaptation
Behavioural change
Climate zone shift
Climate justice (already done on Monday)
Communication
Ecosystems
Evidence
Extreme weather
Feedback loops (already done on Monday)
Global atmospheric circulation
Health
Hindcasts/projections
Individuals
Infrastructure
Impact assessment
Land use change (already done on Monday)
Migration(people)
Oceans
Permafrost
Regional climate change
Resource loss
Society
Social science
Soil heath
Small island developing states (SIDs)

We advise breaking the class into small groups (of no more than 3) and tasking each group with a couple of topics each. You will need to keep track of who worked on which questions, as there are prizes on offer – however, please don’t tell us the students’ names. For the terms that need more explanation, there is also a glossary on our website.

You can also contact education@rmets.org at any point up to and during the week – just include ‘Maths Week Scotland’ in the subject heading.

Some topics may be more challenging than others, for example creating a maths question around liability. You can use the Climate Change Concept Association Tool for this. Click on liability and it will give you further linked topics. Looking at the glossary term will give you some hints and tips to what the context for the climate could be. Encourage your students to do research into the topics, allowing them to explore and come up with creative questions (some resources: Climate websites). Please note that if the questions involve data, graphs or specific values the references should be included. Questions written should be original. Originality will be checked as part of the reviewing process.

All final questions must be written into the submission document (which can be accessed on the competition hub) and then this emailed to education@rmets.org by 11pm on Tuesday 24th September.

Please make use of the equation editor on PowerPoint if needed, or there are many online equation editors if you would prefer. Please make sure a teacher submits the questions on behalf of the class or a legal guardian if the competition is entered by a student who is home schooled. Entries must be made from Scottish Schools or students who are home schooled from an address in Scotland.

Part 2: Peer reviewing

You will then be given the opportunity to contribute to the reviewing process for the competition. You will score the questions written by another team/school against a number of criteria provided in the score card (which can be accessed on the competition hub). This peer reviewing process will be kept anonymous. Your peer review scores will then be combined with the expert review, undertaken by the RMetS education team and supported by Dr Frost Learning. The expert review will also include the plagiarism checks.

You will receive an email from education@rmets.org by the morning of Thursday 26th September with your assigned questions for reviewing. You will then have until Friday 4th October to complete the reviewing process. We suggest that either the whole class does all the questions and scores each question together, or similarly to the creating process, you split the class into smaller groups to focus on just a few of the questions.

The scores must then be filled in on the score card. Again, please make sure that the form is sent by a teacher or adult on behalf of the group or entrant. Return to education@rmets.org by 11pm Friday 4th October.

Prizes:

18 prizes are on offer – a £5 Amazon voucher per student for the best question written in each topic (up to £15 per group). We will contact you, the teacher/guardian, if one of your questions has won. It is then your responsibility to pass the prize on to the correct group of students who wrote the winning question.

In addition to this, each school/class which submits an entry for all 18 linked questions will be awarded with a certificate.

Future use of questions:

RMetS will add the winning questions from each topic and any other suitable questions to the bank of resources that exist on our education platform, MetLink (similar to the question provided as an example earlier in this document). The questions will be uploaded anonymously to the website, referencing that the questions were created through the Climate Calculations Challenge in collaboration Dr Frost Learning, and supported by Maths Week Scotland.

All documents for the Climate Calculations Challenge, including presentations slides and entry forms, can be found on the challenges page of the Maths Week Scotland website.

What are the requirements for snow?

Lesson Idea

When do we get snow in the UK?

December 2024

September 2024

June 2024

April 2024

March 2024

January 2024

December 2023

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