This session introduces an open (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) climate distance mapping assignment designed to help students connect climate change to places, systems, and near-future conditions relevant to their lives. Drawing on the concept of psychological distance, we examine why students may understand climate change but struggle to situate it in their own contexts.
Participants will learn how assignment design can reduce abstraction without pressuring students toward personal or potentially traumatic disclosure. The session demonstrates how structured choice allows students to engage at varying levels of personal proximity while still making meaningful, place-based and life-path connections.
Educators, instructors, and those teaching late high school and introductory college courses may find this session most useful.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Explain how psychological distance influences students’ perceptions of climate change.
- Identify why students may struggle to connect climate change to their own lives.
- Model assignment design that reduces abstraction without requiring personal disclosure for students.
