Post date: Jun 24, 2016 4:58:17 PM
I agree 100% with Ota that discussing human impacts on the environment is very important in elementary school, and climate change is very important! There are many examples of human impacts that are more appropriate for elementary students because they are more tangible (air pollution from exhaust, solar panels to reduce the amount of fuel we need to buy, composting in the school garden to cut down on waste, etc…). Climate change is intentionally placed later in middle and high school because it is very abstract and very complex. Think about all the background knowledge you need to decide if an object is a source or a sink of carbon (photosynthesis, respiration, combustion, etc...). Your students are fully capable of memorizing whether or not an object is a source or a sink, but that is not the purpose of NGSS.
Climate change is the single largest problem that our children will face, in my opinion. But I do believe that the best way to teach the solutions to climate change is to wait to teach about the causes and effects of climate change until it is developmentally appropriate to do it (i.e., not teach it in elementary school).