SERIES: Climate Activism

S4-S6 / Adult

Multiple Sessions

Climate Solutions: Technology, Policy and Personal Action

The final challenge is not about finding one magic climate solution. It is about combining actions that work at different levels, prioritising with evidence and communicating choices to people who can act. You will map solutions, compare impact and feasibility, examine the individual-versus-system debate, profile a real audience and build a climate strategy that […]

Climate Solutions: Technology, Policy and Personal Action

Your Mission

Build a climate-solutions strategy that is evidence-based, fair, realistic and designed for a real audience.

This capstone brings the series together. You will prioritise solutions, examine individual and system change, design for a specific audience and create a focused strategy that connects science, activism, business, energy and justice.

The Shape of This Challenge

Discover

✏️ ️ Notice & explain

Explore

️ Investigate & test

Create

✏️ Make & communicate

Reflect

️ Think & apply

Discover

Map the solution landscape and use evidence to decide what deserves priority.

Step 1

Build the Solutions Landscape

✏️ Map + sort · 10–12 mins

We are learning to recognise that climate solutions work through different systems and levels of action.

Climate action is not one list of personal lifestyle tips. Solutions can change technology, infrastructure, markets, rules, finance, behaviour and culture.

Your Task

Write at least nine climate solutions on separate notes or cards.
Sort them under Technology & infrastructure, Policy & markets and People & behaviour.
Move any solution that belongs in more than one category into the overlap.
Star the three solutions you think could have the greatest impact and write why.

I can categorise climate solutions and explain why many depend on more than one type of change.

→ This gives you the solution landscape for your final strategy.

Problem SolvingSystems ThinkingCritical Thinking

Step 2

Impact Is Not the Same as Visibility

Rank with evidence · 10–15 mins

We are learning to compare climate solutions using evidence about likely impact and feasibility.

The climate actions people hear about most are not always the actions with the biggest system impact.

Your Task

Choose six solutions from your map.
Score each from 1–5 for potential impact and feasibility in your chosen context.
Mark which scores are based on evidence and which are still guesses.
Find evidence to revise at least two of the guesses.

I can compare several climate solutions using both impact and feasibility.

→ This helps you prioritise rather than produce an unrealistic wish list.

ResearchData LiteracyProblem Solving

Explore

Test the logic of change and understand the audience whose decisions or behaviour matter.

Step 3

Individual Action or System Change?

️ Choose your route · 10–15 mins

We are learning to evaluate the relationship between personal behaviour and structural change.

The debate is often framed as either individuals must change or governments and companies must change. Real transitions usually involve interaction between both.

Your Task

Write the strongest argument you can for individual action.
Write the strongest argument you can for system-level action.
Complete one of the routes below.
Write your own position in no more than three sentences.

⚡ Quick Track

Choose one example — transport, food, home energy or consumption — and show how an individual choice is enabled or constrained by systems around it.

Dig Deeper

Research one policy or infrastructure change that altered individual behaviour at scale. Explain the mechanism linking system change and personal choices, and identify one limitation.

I can give a balanced evidence-based position on the relationship between individual and system change.

→ This becomes the change logic behind your final solution strategy.

Critical ThinkingEthical ReasoningCommunication

Step 4

Know the Audience Before You Make the Message

️ Audience design · 10–12 mins

We are learning to design climate communication around a real audience rather than around what the creator wants to say.

Facts matter, but people also respond to relevance, trust, identity, cost, convenience and who is delivering the message.

Your Task

Choose a specific audience that is currently disengaged, doubtful or simply busy.
Write three things they care about that are not ‘climate change’.
Identify one likely barrier to engagement and one trusted messenger or source.
Rewrite a generic message such as ‘Take climate action now’ so it connects to that audience’s priorities without hiding the evidence.

I can adapt a climate message to a named audience without becoming manipulative or misleading.

→ This gives you the communication strategy for your final piece.

CommunicationEmpathyMedia Literacy

Create & Share

Synthesize the whole series into a practical strategy and a communication piece with a real purpose.

Step 5

Create a Climate Solutions Strategy

✏️ Synthesise · Create · 35–50 mins

We are learning to combine evidence from across the series into a focused climate-solutions strategy.

Your final challenge should show that you can connect science, activism, business, energy and justice rather than treating them as separate topics.

Your Task

Choose a context: your school, workplace, town, sector or another clearly defined setting.
Select three mutually supporting actions from at least two different solution categories.
Explain who has to act, what would change and how you would judge progress.
Include one fairness or justice consideration.
Create a communication piece for the audience you profiled in Step 4.

Solutions Strategy

2 pages · 450–600 words

⏱ 40–50 mins

Set out three linked actions, responsible actors, evidence, progress measures and one justice consideration.

Decision-Maker Pitch

6 slides · maximum 30 words per slide

⏱ 40–45 mins

Pitch a focused strategy to a school leader, employer, council, funder or community board.

Public Campaign Piece

2 minutes final runtime + 100-word rationale

⏱ 35–45 mins

Create an audience-specific climate communication piece, then explain why you chose that message and format.

I can produce a focused, evidence-based climate strategy and communicate it to a specific audience.

→ This is the capstone output for the Climate Activism series.

Problem SolvingCommunicationLeadershipCreativity

Step 6

Reflect, Apply, Look Forward

️ Final reflection · 8–10 mins

We are learning to evaluate how my thinking developed across the Climate Activism series.

The aim is not to leave with one perfect answer. It is to be better able to judge evidence, trade-offs, strategy and fairness when climate decisions appear in real life.

Your Task

Use the three reflection prompts below.
Name one idea from an earlier challenge that directly changed your final strategy.
Choose one part of the strategy you could test, share or discuss with a real person.

Reflect

Which challenge in the series most changed your thinking, and why?

Apply

What is one realistic climate decision you could now contribute to more confidently?

Look Forward

Which knowledge, technology or policy development would make you revisit your strategy in the future?

I can explain how my climate thinking has become more evidence-based, strategic and practical.

→ Series complete: you now have a portfolio piece that connects climate understanding with real-world decision-making.

ReflectionLeadershipSelf-Management

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TOOLKIT

Choose Your Tools

Use the tools available to you. The quality of the thinking matters more than the software.

Evidence

Use material from earlier challenges plus credible climate-solution sources. Distinguish estimated impact from popularity or visibility.

Audience planning

Use a simple audience profile: what they care about, what may block engagement and what evidence is likely to matter.

Create and share

Use the format most likely to reach your chosen audience: short video, slides, one-page brief, social campaign concept or audio.

Educator / Parent Notes

Age, Stage and Prior Learning: Designed as the advanced capstone for S4–S6 learners and adults. It works best after at least some of the earlier Climate Activism challenges, but can stand alone with additional scaffolding.

Before You Start: Encourage learners to use earlier work rather than restarting research from zero. Keep the strategy focused on a defined context so the final output remains specific and assessable.

How to Open This: Ask: “If you could fund only three climate actions in your community, how would you decide which three?” Push learners to name criteria rather than favourite ideas.

Scheduling: Steps 1–4 need around 45 minutes. Step 5 needs 35–50 minutes, so this challenge may be better across multiple sessions if learners are completing a polished capstone.

If a Pupil Gets Stuck: Provide a shortlist of six solutions and one pre-defined audience. Reduce the final strategy to two linked actions while retaining evidence and a measure of progress.

For Fast Finishers: Ask learners to add a simple theory of change or identify one dependency that could cause the strategy to fail.

Marking Guidance: Look for synthesis across topics, defensible prioritisation, clear responsible actors, measures of progress, audience awareness, justice/fairness and acknowledgement of trade-offs. Reward specificity over breadth.

Climate Solutions: Technology, Policy and Personal Action

Climate Solutions: Technology, Policy and Personal Action

Discover

Build the Solutions Landscape

Impact Is Not the Same as Visibility

Explore

Individual Action or System Change?

Know the Audience Before You Make the Message

Create & Share

Create a Climate Solutions Strategy

Reflect, Apply, Look Forward

Show What You Have Learned

Evidence

Audience planning

Create and share

Show What You Have Learned

Evidence

Audience planning

Create and share

TOOLKIT

Evidence

Audience planning

Create and share

Educator / Parent Notes

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