Weather and climate: Where science and geography coincide

Where do your students encounter science in their geography lessons and specifically in weather & climate topics? Probably in far more places than you imagine – including photosynthesis and the carbon cycle, atmospheric pressure, orbital motion, ocean acidification and many others. Could appropriate choice of context and examples in science lessons (and assessment questions) both help students appreciate the relevance of classroom science to their environment, community and careers and strengthen their understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes they encounter in geography? Ultimately this could lead to the avoidance of some of the widespread misconceptions about climate change that we’ve encountered in our survey of the climate literacy of school leavers. This builds on the articles which will be published in Classroom Physics in June 2025 and in corresponding publications for geography teachers. We will start by asking participants to suggest topics/ terms from the physics, biology or chemistry curriculum that they think appear in geography and then compare that to our list, subsequently going into more detail about some of these (with pretty pictures, and/ or interesting data where appropriate). We will finish by providing some examples of places where teachers can find classroom materials (and further reading) to enable them to make use of the ideas presented in the session, including, for example, questions on Isaac Physics as well as MetLink.