Introduction

﻿Introduction

Why Climate Trap? This unit is called climate trap because we are trapped in a culture of misunderstanding about weather, climate and climate change. Climate Change is very topical in all modes of media. //The Melbourne Declaration on Education Goals for young Australians// [|(] [|Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training Youth Affairs, 2008] [|)] requires students to be global citizens and for them to be aware of environmental issues. The Melbourne Declaration notes the demands on education to produce informed citizens:

Complex environmental, social and economic pressures such as climate change that extend beyond national borders pose unprecedented challenges, requiring countries to work together in new ways. To meet these challenges, Australians must be able to engage with scientific concepts and principles, and approach problem-solving in new and creative ways  [| (Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training Youth Affairs, 2008, p 5)]  

Justification for the choice of topic. This topic was chosen as Middle Years (adolescence) students are aware of environmental issues and sustainability education has many links with other learning disciplines. Climate Change is an issue that adolescence are worried about and yet if they feel that they can take action they become less concerned and more engaged ( Australian Psychological Society, 2011 ).

The rich concept in this unit is the environment with the key concepts of Weather, Climate Change, Energy and Natural disasters (Murdoch & Hornsby, 2009). There are links between sustainability (or environmental education) and English and Mathematics and VELS demonstrates links with other disciplines.

Figure 1. Key concepts.