Gilded Age and Climate Change
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Provided by: MIT Climate Action Through Education|Published on: January 18, 2025
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
9101112AP
Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this lesson, students will connect the events in the Industrial Revolution, Gilded Age, and Progressive Era to climate change and the impacts we experience today.
- Students will read about the Great Peshtigo Fire, write an informative piece about innovations throughout the Industrial and Agricultural revolutions that led to the Gilded Age, giving the wealthy inordinate amounts of power, view different climate scenarios with the En-ROADS simulator, and role play as stakeholders trying to come to an agreement about mitigation strategies.
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences, History
Authors: Michael Kozuch
Region: United States, WI - Lake Michigan & Fox/Wolf Watershed (CESA 6, 7, 8)
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The linked Bonus Episode of the TILclimate features the story of students in Boise, Idaho making changes to the standards despite their age, and can be empowering for students.
- The lesson also includes suggestions for adapting it to be place-based.
Prerequisites
- Note that in the video on slide 17 of the Industrialization, Gilded Age, and the Roots of Climate Change slides, the word "bastard" is said twice at the very end of the video at about 1:50.
- Teachers should read the Teacher Background Info section to understand the suggestions for fitting this lesson into the curriculum.
- Teachers should also watch and read the guides for using En-ROADS to help students and answer questions.
- In the U.S. History version of the En-ROADS Student Assignment, the Guide to the En-ROADS Control Panel and the introductory video to En-ROADS link to the same video. Teachers may want to delete one of these links to ensure students don't spend time re-watching the 11-minute video.
- Students will need to register to use the carbon footprint calculator.
- Students and teachers will need to request access to resources linked in the Progressive Era Paper/Project.
- Students doing the creative option for the Progressive Era Paper/Project may need a tutorial for using Google Sites.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Each of the TILclimate episodes linked in the lesson plans includes Educator Guides that teachers can use to extend the related topics of fossil fuels and individual actions.
- If students have not written an informative paper or have not written one in a while, they may need more guidance, structure, and support than the directions included in the Progressive Era Paper/Project. Consider breaking the project into small steps and multiple due dates. For example, students can have a day or two to write their thesis statement, several days to gather and cite sources, a few days for the outline, etc.
- Some students may find it difficult to read the pictures of the pages for the Great Peshtigo Fire reading. For these students, teachers may want to do the reading aloud as a class or convert the pages to a Google Doc. Once converted, teachers will need to change the font size and fix a few formatting issues.
Each link in this resource has been vetted and redirects to scientifically factual information, including the deck slides. Please note that it appears this resource was created in 2020, and as such, is missing up-to-date information regarding the climate crisis.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
