This is a lesson plan for kids centered around the Anthropocene. It is best geared towards students in 4th-6th grade. It is made to function as a standalone workshop, but could also be incorporated into existing lessons or curriculum. While I have included a script and timeline for clarity, all activities are flexible. Enjoy!

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Goals: Students should come away from this lesson with a basic understanding of what a geological epoch is and how it comes to be named, a sense of what the Anthropocene is and why it is a contentious issue, and skills to begin thinking critically about the sciences.

*Asterisks indicate an opportunity for student responses.

Pt 1: Welcome/ Opening Activity: Discovery vs Invention

Hello! Welcome! Today we’re going to be learning about the Anthropocene, a new word that is leading to a lot of interesting conversations. To start off, let’s go around and say our names, our pronouns (that’s whatever you want people to call you when they’re not using your name, like I might say my name is Talia and I use she and her pronouns, so when someone tells a story about me they’ll say “she went to the mall.” Someone else might want to be called he or him, or they or them, or whatever feels comfortable to them), and what your favorite thing to do outside is.

10min Activity

Great! Nice to meet all of you. A lot of the things we’re going to be talking about today are about science. Two things scientists do a lot of are discovering, and inventing. What do you think it means to discover something?* What do you think it means to invent something?*

Now I’m going to pass out cards with different things that have been either invented or discovered by scientists. Your job is to work with your partner to decide if the card you have was an invention or a discovery. There are no wrong answers, and it’s okay if you and your partner don’t agree.

(Pass out index cards, each with concepts varying in how concrete/abstract they are: specific species, the computer, 2+2=4)

10min activity, 5 min discussion

Did anyone disagree with their partner? What did you discuss? 

This should function as a time to begin to grapple with scientific knowledge as something that is produced versus scientific knowledge as something which exists independent of society, and which we uncover through inquiry. This conversation will provide background for the controversy of the Anthropocene by introducing students to how scientists influence what we come to see as truth.

Pt 2: What is an epoch?

Does anyone know what a geologist does?*

A geologist is a type of scientist that studies the Earth; they might study rocks, earthquakes, or even volcanoes. By doing this kind of work, they’re able to tell us really important information about how our planet got to be the way it is today, and where it might be going.

How old do you think the Earth is?*

The Earth is four and a half billion years old! With Earth having such a long history, it’s helpful to break it down into smaller chunks. Geologists have decided to break the history of the Earth down into what they call “Eras.” If you think of the history of the Earth as a year, eras are kind of like months (except that they’re not all the same length). Shorter than eras are periods, which you can think of like a week, and even shorter than that are epochs, which are kind of like days.

In front of you, you each have seven cards, each with a different epoch. Your job is to work in pairs to guess what order the epochs go in. Look at the Pleistocene and Pliocene cards. Those are the same because those epochs were really similar, so some geologists lump them together into what they call the Plio-Pleistocene. You can guess which one comes first or put them next to each other. Any questions?* If you’re not sure just make your best guess! At the end, we’ll all come together and figure out what order they actually go in.

5min Activity, circulate asking probing questions

Alright, those all look great! What are some of the differences you noticed between the cards?* Why did your group put your cards in the order that you did (take comments from each group)?* Reveal the actual order of the geological epochs. Was anything surprising?*

Which card looks the most different from all the others?* What is different about it?* The holocene started only 12,000 years ago. That might sound like a lot, but if the history of the Earth was a year the holocene would be only a minute and a half. The holocene is known as the “Age of Man,” but some people wonder if that title makes sense because some humans existed before it began. Not everyone agrees on how to divide up “geological time,” or the history of the world. 

Pt 3: What is the Anthropocene?

Right now is a really exciting time, because people are figuring out if we should consider adding a new epoch to our timeline. It’s a complicated problem because it would change how we understand geological time, kind of like squishing another day into the week without making it any longer. Some geologists, and some people who study other things like anthropologists who study groups of people, have the idea for a new epoch called the Anthropocene.

Who knows what the prefix “anthropo” means?*

Athropo means relating to humans. So the idea of the Anthropocene is that humans are the thing having the biggest impact on the Earth and its landscapes right now. 

What are some ways you see humans changing how the Earth looks?* What other ways do humans change the Earth?*

When defining an epoch geologists rely on stratigraphy. That means they look at rocks and fossils and based on what they’re made out of, figure out when there was a big shift in Earth’s history. The layers of rock associated with every epoch are different, and that’s how geologists are able to tell them apart. One of the big questions of the Anthropocene is if there will be this kind of change, and it’s really hard right now. Usually, geologists are looking way into the past, and their strategies are really good for that, but looking at what is going on now is a new challenge for the field.

Even if scientists all agree that we’re currently living in the Anthropocene, they would have to decide when it started. Now, we’re going to break into four groups. Each group will be assigned one option that is being considered for the start of the Anthropocene. Look at the graphs and facts presented to you, and then we’ll come back together and you all will say why you think your group’s event should be considered the start.

Begin passing out Anthropocene start date worksheets, explaining each option as it is distributed.

Some people argue that it was when humans started doing agriculture, around 11000 bc, because they were changing their environment (planting and harvesting, and interacting with animals in new ways). We’ll call this option the “origin of farming.”

Another idea is that it began when Europeans arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, which created global trade networks that changed how our planet looks today. We’ll call this option “European arrival.”

Others think it should be the industrial revolution, because that’s when fossil fuels, like gas and coal, began being used a lot more when countries started building factories in the 1800s. We’ll call this option “industrial revolution.”

Some think the start of the Anthropocene should be tied to bomb testing that took place in the 1950s because you can trace the chemicals it left behind easily and it had a big impact on the environment. We’ll call this option “nuclear weapon detonation.”

Reconvene. Each group presents why they think their’s should be considered the start. Take a class vote and discuss the results.

Pt 4: Goodbye/Closing Activity

I hope you enjoyed this workshop. To close out, we’re going to each go around and say your name again, whether you think we are living in the Anthropocene, when you think it started, and one question you still have.

Close.