PASSIONATELY CURIOUS

If you've taught climate change in the classroom, you may have encountered the Stabilization Wedges game. Developed by Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative back in 2004, the basic idea is that cutting carbon emissions down to a safe level requires scaling up a bunch of strategies that already exist rather than waiting for one "silver bullet" solution. Each "wedge" represents one of those strategies deployed broadly enough to make a meaningful dent. In this original activity, students pick eight wedges to build a plausible path to stabilization. It's a good framework, and the game format (where participants actually choose and defend a proposal) makes the tradeoffs feel real in a way that a lecture usually doesn't.

As we were getting ready to roll this out in our earth science classes, it became clear that the original game was designed with 2004 data and a 50-year window, so some of it is starting to feel dated. After a little searching, we discovered that a research team at Imperial College London recently put out an updated version called Climate Wedges, grounded in a new peer-reviewed Science paper. It's got 36 strategies, a 30-year timeline, and an interactive web tool that lets you build your own decarbonization pathway. It's a solid update - current, well-sourced, and designed with educators in mind - and we were excited to put this in front of our students.

The 36 different climate stabilization wedges in this activity’s cards represent a powerful idea: There is no single “silver bullet” solution to climate change, but rather many different strategies that can, in combination with one another, each reduce a portion of global carbon emissions. The wedges span five major sectors:

This activity can look daunting on first glance (it certainly was when we were putting it together) so I find that it's helpful to have a quick overview of what the general flow looks like before diving into the specifics

1. Organize climate wedge cards onto the parking lot pages
2. Familiarize with the resources and key climate wedge details by using the parking lot descriptions to answer a set of scavenger hunt style questions
3. Select 20 cards from the 36 different climate wedge strategies to represent a proposed solution to keep warming below +1.5°C by 2100. Place these cards on the game board.
4. Use the climatewedges.com interactive tool to create a graph of the predicted future greenhouse gas emissions and resulting warming predictions based on the interactions between the 20 proposed "climate wedge" changes
5. Flip over the 20 cards on the game board to reveal the scope and drawbacks of the selected wedges and reflect on the feasibility of these changes through a series of analysis questions

There are 4 different resources that students need to utilize as they work through this activity. They are outlined here with editable files included at the bottom of this post

For the students:
Place all of the wedge cards in their appropriate box on the “parking lot” sheets. Each wedge highlights not only how the strategy reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also the real-world challenges and enormous scale required for meaningful impact.

There is an overwhelming amount of information involved with 36 different climate wedge strategies. In an effort to get students to start interacting with the descriptions in the parking lot, the activity starts with a little scavenger hunt of sorts were students are given 10 questions that they need to locate answers for the in parking lot. To help make this more manageable, I highlight that questions are organized by wedge category and the color scheme makes it easier to narrow the search :)

Climate wedges are a simple, transparent way to build and debate decarbonisation pathways: you decide which plan to build and compare different choices.

Wedges are a standard unit of climate action. Think of them as building blocks, all the same size, which you stack together to move the emissions curve down. Each wedge delivers the same effect, cutting 30 billion tonnes of carbon over the next 30 years. A total of 20 wedges can hit our goal of limiting climate change to +1.5 °C. 

There are 36 strategies, each able to deliver one (or more!) wedge of mitigation. You can pick and choose between them, building a total of 20 that you believe is most realistic, safest, cheapest, or whatever criteria matter to you. Note that some strategies allow you to repeat the same wedge more than once. You must include at least one wedge from each color category (power, land, industry, transport, and buildings).

Once you have all 20 selections made, go to  ClimateWedges.com  and transfer your selected wedges to the online tool. 

Here is an example of the result after transferring the 20 wedges selected by the students in the image above. As you can see, because of the interactions with some of the solutions (like EVs that require more clean electricity) the predicted warming with these changes is +1.68°C by 2050 and +1.52°C by 2100

After seeing the results of their selected climate wedges, Part 3 of this activity guides students in analyzing the feasibility of their solution by focusing on the scope and drawbacks of their chosen strategies.

Overall, we were really excited about this fresh take on the classic wedges game and thought it provided students with an opportunity to interact with these ideas at multiple different levels of depth. In future implementations of this activity, there are a few things that we would like to try...

• Provide a little more scaffolding for struggling students to make things less overwhelming. 36 strategies all at once can be a lot so perhaps starting the activity with a 'would you rather' style activity. It would be easy to pick two random wedges that student have to select 1. This could then be extended to pick 3 of 5 as a way to build up to the ultimate goal
• Extend this to a two-day activity for honors-level students and have them write up a report to describe and defend their proposal in the face of the listed drawbacks for their selected strategies
• As an extension, use these materials to have students do a deeper dive into 1 or 2 different strategies. Here is an example of a first draft of an activity like this.

There are quite a few materials to prep to make this activity more hands-on and tactile. Each of the files are posted below as editable google docs/slides and pdfs

This resource follows the general format of the original Carbon Stabilization Wedges Game by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (https://cmi.princeton.edu/resources/stabilization-wedges/) and greatly leverages the amazing wedge updates by Nathan Johnson and Iain Staffell as a part of their peer-reviewed paper in Science and interactive online tool (https://www.climatewedges.com/index.html). Most of the credit for this activity goes to these two groups.

This specific activity as printed cards, student worksheets, and parking lot descriptions was a collaboration with my colleague Kevin Burns and the rest of our Minnetonka High School earth science team. There were so many details in putting this together that it was definitely a team effort :)

​When a laser beam is aimed at a thin strand of hair, the hair acts as an obstacle that splits the light into two coherent wave sources. Light diffracts around both edges of the hair and interferes with itself, creating a pattern of bright and dark fringes on a wall or screen.

This pattern is mathematically identical to the famous double-slit experiment.

By measuring:

• The distance from the hair to the screen
• The spacing between adjacent bright fringes
• The wavelength of the laser

students can apply the diffraction formula to calculate the thickness of the hair.

Suddenly, wave interference is no longer just a diagram in a textbook — it becomes a hands-on investigation.

Ultimately, you can do this with any laser and hair but I designed a 3D printed mounting apparatus that made this so much easier than my shaky hands trying to hold a laser steady on a strand of hair.

​The 3D printed mounting system was created specifically with classroom use in mind:

• A hands-free laser mount keeps the beam stable and continuously on
• An interlocking hair window ensures alignment is maintained when repositioning
• A sliding adjustment allows easy fine-tuning after the hair is taped in place

These small details make setup quick and reduce frustration for students.

3. Attach the laser mount to the “hair window.” Slide the two components back and forth as needed until the laser beam is centered on and clearly striking the hair.

4. Place the assembled apparatus on a table and aim it toward a flat wall or screen. Adjust the alignment until a clear diffraction pattern appears on the wall. The pattern should appear as a horizontal series of bright spots (fringes).

5. Measure:

• The distance from the hair to the wall (screen)
• The distance between adjacent bright fringes in the diffraction pattern

6. Using the known wavelength of the laser and your measurements, calculate the thickness of the hair.

1. It Uses Inexpensive Materials
Laser pointers are cheap and easy to find, and the rest of the setup is simply a 3D printed mount and a strand of hair. This makes it accessible for classrooms with limited lab budgets.

2. It’s Highly Visual
The bright fringe pattern projected on the wall immediately captures student attention. Students can clearly see constructive and destructive interference in real time.

3. It Connects Theory to Real Measurements
Rather than just observing a phenomenon, students gather data, perform calculations, and compare their results to typical hair thickness values. This reinforces experimental design, precision, and error analysis.

4. It Encourages Inquiry
Students can test different hairs, change distances, and explore how fringe spacing changes.

One of the things that makes this craft perfect for a make and take is that the materials come to a little over a $0.25 a piece which is pretty good for a light up necklace that works!

The following are some links to the required materials that we purchase each year

A big reason that this craft is possible and safe (button batteries are generally not a good idea around kids for swallowing dangers) is the 3D printed battery/bulb holder.

The character could really be anything as long as there are eyes space a little over 0.5" apart. I have a couple of options that could be printed and cut or cut out using a Cricut Machine.

Step 5: Add Design with Cutout Eyes
The LEDs are spaced out so that the battery holder can be taped to the back of a piece of card stock and designed as eyes for a ghost or other character from the files above

The data in this lab is collected by tracking the lowest visible color when the toothpick probe is inserted in the mystery box. The example below doesn't match any of the mystery landforms and instead depicts the elevation data of a gently sloping hole in landscape with the lowest elevation in the middle and highest elevation at each of the corners

The key to this lab is the 3D printed landforms so that all students have the same set ups that they are investigating. The original idea of this activity comes from a popular shoebox variant but I wanted to see if I could make a more repeatable (and easier to store) package for our 5 classrooms worth of earth science. All of the models are posted for free download or printed kits to purchase at the link below.

This set includes 4 different landforms labeled 1-4 and printed in the colors shown as well as black covers with a 5x5 grid of holes. These landscapes have been carefully designed so that each of the 25 holes will result in an "elevation" measurement that hits right in the middle of one of the colors so there shouldn't be any ambiguity.

​The two halves are held together using 4mm x 2mm magnets but could be glued with superglue if you want to make the mystery more permanent. ;) In all, each package fits into a 6 cm cube so it's easy to store when not being used.

In my classes, I have lab space for 7 different groups so I make two sets of 4 and they swapped with other groups when they finished each map until they saw all 4 mysteries. With more sets, groups could be smaller and there would be less waiting if there wasn't the right color available when needed.

The toothpick itself needs to be colored in 1 cm bands as shown. I found that sharpies worked well to color the toothpick without adding layers to impact clearance in the holes.

After doing this a once, I realized how tedious it was going to be so I made a quick set of jigs to make this process a little easier :) I even made a 3D printed toothpick in case I couldn't find any wood ones when needed.

To use the jig, just tape the "wings" to a table with the toothpick access hanging off the edge. With this set up, you can rotate the toothpick with one hand and hold the marker with your other. As you can see, there is one jig for the red/pink, yellow, and blue, and another jig for the orange and green. When both are used on the same toothpick, all 5 colors should be perfectly positioned. This jig is also included in the 3D printed kit and files.

After blindly mapping the mystery landforms with basic elevation data, students are asked to compare their unknown map to a collection of 4 virtual landforms

Below is an example of one of the virtual files that they can manipulate and explore. The 4 files included are labeled A, B, C, and D so as to not confuse between their matches that are numbered

The document below is a simple student-facing lab worksheet introducing and demonstrating the procedure for this activity.

Inspired by the work of the Patterns Approach to Physics, I wanted to start my IB Physics classes with a short exposure to different types of mathematical models that they will see. Due to time constraints, I use nPlot to model the fit directly rather than having students linearize the data, but these same examples could be used either way.

The following sections outline the data collection process with sample data for each of the 5 mini-labs. After modeling the process using "Lab A" as a whole class. Groups of 4-5 were able to finish the remaining 4 labs in around 30 minutes.

For this lab, I had students use nPlot to "discover" the different types of mathematical models without any linearizing required but it would be very easy to modify the experience to fit with a linearizing workflow as well.

​Record the time it takes for a toy car to travel a certain distance

​Without adding or removing any playdough, create 5 different playdough “snakes” and measure the length and diameter for each. (hint: you will want at least one cylinder that has a diameter longer than the length as part of your five)

​Determine the number of pennies that fit into different sized circles

Measure the width and height of different paragraphs

​Find the mass of the different boxes of paperclips