When looking at the issue definition (particularly getting background information and investigation) portion of the Essential Elements, the content and activities in this module immediately harkened back to an activity from Project Learning Tree that I've done with 8th graders and seniors alike, which involves graphing carbon dioxide concentrations data from Mauna Loa, Hawaii. It's a great activity for data collection that also brings in math with the graphing.

Additionally with the Essential Elements - synthesis and conclusions, one of the strongest pieces of evidence that humans are the primary drivers of global climate change is the evidence of 'carbon fingerprinting,' which was part of the content of this module. I only learned about this when I was well into my undergrad coursework for my environmental studies major, however, I think it's critical to expose students to this evidence early on and have them delve into it more in depth.

Lastly for Essential Elements, was the action projects which has such a high ceiling in terms of potential for students to get creative and become really passionate about learning about and conveying possible solutions to global climate change. Sometimes the problem can be so overwhelming, it can be hard to really focus the outcome of a particular action project. To alleviate some of this, I would introduce my students to 'Project Drawdown,' which has 100 ways (ranked in order of effectiveness) of how to deal with climate change. Having this as a foundation for all the action projects, would help to keep students on track without compromising engagement, drive, and creativity on the part of the students.

When looking at Supporting Practices, I was drawn to the classroom integration and local [in my case as well, regional] context. At my former school I was part of a group of teachers that took the entire 6th grade to Chincoteague Bay Field Station for an outdoor experiential learning field experience that had a focus on coastal ecosystems, sustainability, and climate change in regards to curriculum. This has consistently proven to be an invaluable experience for the 6th graders.