About Unit 8

💭 Essential Question: How can local and global actions address environmental challenges?

Unit 8: Environmental Geography explores climate change as a global environmental challenge and examines how people and places experience and respond to it differently. Students begin by investigating the human causes of climate change and analyzing its effects on people, communities, and ecosystems around the world. They then compare how individuals, groups, and governments respond to climate change at local, regional, national, and global scales. Students build on this understanding by researching climate challenges in different regions, evaluating the credibility and strength of evidence, and examining how geography, technology, and other strategies shape possible responses. Finally, students explore the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and evaluate which goals could help address climate challenges around the world. Throughout the unit, students develop the disciplinary skill of evaluating evidence, learning to determine whether sources are credible, select evidence that is relevant and specific, and use evidence to support conclusions about environmental challenges and possible responses.