Environmental Issues and Sustainability — Year 6 Lesson Plan
National Curriculum: Geography KS2 — understand the process of change in environments and human activity; identify the significance of places and environments; understand how environments change; consider the impact of human activities on the world
Overview
Pupils investigate key environmental challenges facing the planet — deforestation, plastic pollution, and climate change — and explore what sustainability means in practice. They examine the causes and consequences of these issues at local, national and global scales, evaluate responses from governments, businesses and individuals, and develop their own informed views on how to protect the natural environment for future generations.
Learning Objectives
- Explain what sustainability means and why it matters for the future of the planet.
- Describe the causes and consequences of deforestation, plastic pollution and climate change.
- Compare responses to environmental challenges at different scales — individual, local, national and global.
- Evaluate actions that individuals and governments can take to address environmental issues.
Key Vocabulary
Suggested Lesson Structure
Show a split-screen image: one side showing a healthy coral reef; the other showing bleached coral. One side showing the Amazon rainforest from above; the other showing cleared land. Ask: what has changed? Why? Who is responsible? Establish: these are among the most serious environmental challenges of our time. We are the first generation to grow up knowing about them — and potentially the last that can do something meaningful about them.
Three focus issues: (1) Deforestation — causes (cattle ranching, palm oil, logging, mining), consequences (loss of biodiversity, contribution to climate change, displacement of indigenous peoples), locations (Amazon, Borneo, Congo Basin). (2) Plastic pollution — single-use plastics, ocean gyres, microplastics entering the food chain. (3) Climate change — enhanced greenhouse effect, rising temperatures, extreme weather, sea level rise, impacts on agriculture and communities. Introduce sustainability: the idea that we need to meet today's needs without making it impossible for future generations to meet theirs. Examples of responses: Paris Agreement, renewable energy growth, plastic bans, rewilding schemes.
Groups each take one environmental issue and complete a cause-and-effect diagram: what causes it? What are the consequences (for people, animals, the environment)? What are current responses? They present their issue to the class in two minutes, using the diagram as a visual aid.
Pupils write a letter to their local MP outlining one environmental issue they feel strongly about. They must explain the problem using geographical evidence, suggest one action the government should take, and explain why they believe this matters. Encourage use of geographical vocabulary and persuasive language.
Exit ticket: each pupil writes one thing they can do, one thing their school could do, and one thing the government should do about an environmental issue. Share a selection. End with a discussion: is individual action enough, or does meaningful change require government and business involvement? There is no single right answer — the point is to reason carefully.
Common Misconceptions
- Pupils sometimes feel that individual actions are pointless given the scale of global problems — emphasise that collective individual action does matter, and that it also drives political and corporate change.
- Thinking climate change and weather are the same thing — climate is the long-term pattern; weather is day-to-day. A cold winter does not disprove climate change.
Prior Knowledge
Pupils should already be able to:
- Understanding of the water cycle, weather and climate from earlier geography.
- Awareness of deforestation and rainforests from the Year 5 rainforest unit.
- Knowledge of trade and economic geography from earlier Year 6 work.
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