Bring the World Climate Simulation into Your Classroom

The World Climate Simulation is a fun, easy-to-use, interactive simulation that places participants in the role of international delegates at the United Nations who are charged with negotiating a global agreement to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. World Climate has been covered in media outlets including Science magazine and the Washington Post.

Research about the learning impact of World Climate shows that it is an effective way to motivate science-informed climate action across diverse ages, cultural identities, and even political orientations.

Registering Your Event

All of the following resources are free to use and we kindly ask that you take a minute to register your event before running World Climate in your community. This is important for helping us track adoption of the resource and learn how we can better support educators.

Resources

Visit Climate Interactive's website to access their comprehensive World Climate Facilitator Materials and Resources. Additional facilitator resources including recorded training webinars and tutorials can be found on their World Climate Training Plan page.

We recommend that to get started you consider the following questions:

  • How much time will be available? Will you run the activity over multiple sessions or one?
  • How many participants do you expect? The three region version of the game is suitable for smaller groups (6-18 people), while the six region version suits larger groups of 18 or more.
  • Will participants be assigned their role and briefing statements before the simulation, or the day of? Make a plan for how you wish to distribute participants and give them plenty of time to review their assignments.

As previously mentioned, all resources can be found on Climate Interactive's website. Below we have organized resources into categories you might find helpful in your preparations. 

    • Facilitator Guide – This should be your first stop once you’ve decided to run World Climate. This short guide will get you fully oriented to the simulation with information on the basic logistics (how much time is required to run the activity, what materials you’ll need, how to set up the room etc.) as well facilitator tips, add-ons and support resources.
    • Facilitator Script – To make facilitating the simulation as easy as possible, we’ve included a slide-by-slide script you can follow.

  • Digital Materials

    You will want to have the following two resources cued up on your classroom projector before the start of the simulation. You will want to make sure that your room for the event has WiFi access ahead of time, although it is possible to save a copy of the simulation to run it offline.

    1. Simulation Slide Deck – This slide deck has all of the visuals and facilitation support you will need to run World Climate, including presenter notes which match those in the Facilitator Script and embedded Facilitator Support Videos (Negotiations and C-ROADS, Science Overview, Key Decisions, Bathtub Analogy, Solutions) that you can either play directly for students during the simulation, or use to support your own original presentation.
    2. C-ROADS Climate Policy Simulator– This scientifically rigorous, award-winning policy simulator is used to evaluate the impacts of participants’ key decisions at the end of each round of negotiations. Note: the simulator runs best on Chrome web browsers. You can also download a desktop version of C-ROADS.

    Physical Materials

    You will want to have the following three sets of materials printed and ready to hand out before the start of the simulation. If you are running a World Climate event with a group of 18 people or more, we recommend using the 6 Region Version of World Climate. The 3 Region Version of World Climate works best for small groups.

    1. Briefing Statements
      • 6 Region Briefing Statements – Download these briefing statements if you are running the 6-Region Version of World Climate. In this version, the negotiating parties are the United States, European Union, Other Developed Nations, China, India and Other Developing Nations. This download also includes briefing statements for the optional negotiating parties: US Cities & States, Climate Activists & the Fossil Fuel Industry.

      • 3 Region Briefing Statements – Download these Briefing Statements if you are running the 3-Region Version of World Climate. In this version, the negotiating parties are the Developed Nations (United States, European Union, etc.), Developing A Nations (rapidly developing nations like China & Brazil) and Developing B Nations (the least developed nations). This download also includes briefing statements for the optional negotiating parties: US Cities & States, Climate Activists & the Fossil Fuel Industry.

    2. Table Cards
      These pre-made table cards can be printed and put around the room to give each negotiating party a home base.
      • 6 Region Table Cards – Standard: United States, European Union, Other Developed Nations, China, India, Other Developing Nations & Optional: US Cities & States, Climate Activists & the Fossil Fuel Industry.

      • 3 Region Table Cards – Standard: Developed Nations, Developing A Nations, Developing B Nations & Optional: US Cities & States, Climate Activists & the Fossil Fuel Industry.

    3. Pledge Submission Form
      This is the Form​ that each negotiating region submits at the end of each round of negotiations. When delegates share their decisions at each negotiation round, you or a volunteer can capture proposals either on a blackboard chart or in an excel sheet that mirrors the input section of the simulation model.

Are you a TRIO Professional?

Through partnership with the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) and funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Geo-Interactive and iStronG projects have brought the World Climate Simulation to TRIO programs across the US. The World Climate experience is highly customizable to your program, your instructor's background, and your students' needs. Whether your instructors have a science or arts background, the facilitator materials and freely available student materials bring the scientific rigor, so that you can focus on facilitating an impactful experience at your program.

While your program supports students in essential skills for navigating college, World Climate allows students to apply these skills in a mock international negotiations setting. Students are asked to publicly present policy and budget proposals that meet time restraints, challenge peers’ proposals and negotiate deals, and advocate for pledges and budgets that suit regional and global climate goals.

The World Climate Simulation supports many TRIO objectives by developing participants’: