8 Exciting Lesson Ideas to Teach Students About SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Achieving affordable and clean energy for all is the focus of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7). This goal highlights the critical need for renewable energy sources to combat climate change and ensure a sustainable future. For educators, SDG 7 offers an excellent opportunity to engage your students with energy conservation, innovation, and sustainability.

In this post, you’ll find 8 interactive, digital lesson ideas designed to introduce your students to SDG 7, helping them understand the importance of clean energy.

Let’s dive in!

💡 The digital SDG 7 activities are created with BookWidgets, a content creation and evaluation tool for teachers. You can make a free copy of the lessons below to your BookWidgets account, or you can navigate to this BookWidgets group folder where you can find them all together. This allows you to duplicate the activities, make changes (language, instructions, settings) when needed, and share it with your students. This way, you will also receive the results and be able to provide student feedback.

Make sure to check out more SDG resources below, and stay tuned as we release a new blog post with ready-to-use SDG lessons every month!

What is SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy?

SDG 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, is one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. This includes increasing renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency, and ensuring people worldwide have access to modern energy services, especially in underserved regions.

Why should teachers include this in their lessons?

• Promotes environmental awareness: Teaching SDG 7 helps your students understand the critical link between energy production and climate change, encouraging responsibility for a sustainable future.
• Fosters critical thinking: Let your students explore global energy challenges like access, efficiency, and sustainability, prompting innovative solutions.
• Encourages innovation: Learning about renewable energy sources sparks creativity in developing new technologies and efficient energy systems.
• Supports global equity: SDG 7 raises awareness of energy inequality, showing your students how access to clean energy improves health, education, and economic opportunities globally.
• Cross-Curricular connections: SDG 7 ties into multiple subjects like science, geography, and social studies, allowing teachers to integrate it across the curriculum.
• Builds climate resilience:Understanding the impact of clean energy on climate change empowers students to take action in mitigating environmental degradation.

Check out this checklist with all the themes and goals set for SDG 7.

8 Free and Interactive Lesson Plans to Teach SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy

1. Cut Your Energy Cost - Planner Widget

This Planner Widget is a perfect fit for high school students. It focuses on Sustainable Development Goal #7 by teaching your students practical tips to reduce energy costs at home and school through an interactive Planner widget. This activity helps students understand energy efficiency and gives them strategies for implementing these concepts in their everyday lives, especially during holidays.

2. Chilly the Polar Bear’s Cool Adventure - Split Worksheet

This story from Naratopia is explicitly designed for your students to help them understand the importance of climate change and sustainability, all through the eyes of Chilly, the polar bear, and his friends. The characters in this story face the challenges brought on by a warming environment, and they take action to fight back in creative ways. As students read through the adventure, they will learn about renewable energy, resource conservation, and why protecting our planet is essential.

Throughout the story, Chilly and his friends, like Terry the tortoise, explore the changing world around them. They encounter issues like melting ice, rising temperatures, and the dangers of pollution, but they don’t just sit back and worry—they take action! Whether using windmills for clean energy, conserving water, or planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide, the characters in this story show how small actions can make a big difference in addressing climate change.

After reading the story, students will be asked to reflect on what they’ve learned through a series of questions. These will include multiple-choice questions, ranking tasks, and true-or-false statements based on the characters’ actions. This will help students better understand how simple, sustainable practices can help reduce climate change’s effects and encourage renewable energy use.

This story is tailored for middle school students, particularly those in grades 6-8.

3. The Climate Game

The Climate Game, created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment), is an interactive online tool designed to educate players about climate change and the global efforts to reduce energy consumption, lower emissions, and promote sustainable practices. In the game, players are tasked with mitigating climate impact by adopting energy-efficient technologies, reducing fossil fuel reliance, and transitioning to renewable energy sources. Each choice made during the game affects the global climate, providing players with an understanding of the real-world consequences of energy consumption and unsustainable practices.

This game best suits middle and high school students, typically in grades 6 through 12. However, it can be a valuable resource for learners of all ages interested in exploring climate change and sustainable solutions. It’s particularly valuable for introducing your students to the complexities of global energy systems, climate policies, and the connections between energy use, economics, and the environment.

4. Can 100% renewable energy power the world? - Video Quiz

In this educational video from Ted-ed your students watch a video about the challenges and possibilities surrounding the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The video explains how much of the world still depends on fossil fuels, the potential of renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power, and the scientific and technological challenges in making renewable energy more accessible and affordable. Students will learn about energy consumption rates, the environmental impact of fossil fuels, and the potential of renewable resources to meet the world’s energy demands.

The exercise consists of true or false questions, short answer questions, and word ranking questions based on the video’s content. This helps your students reinforce their understanding of key concepts, such as the depletion of fossil fuels, the efficiency of renewable energy technologies, and the logistical and technological challenges of transitioning to renewables. By answering the questions, students can test their comprehension of the video and further explore the complexities of energy consumption and renewable energy solutions.

This video quiz is for middle and high school students, particularly those in grades 7 to 10. The video and the exercise offer a foundation for understanding energy issues and environmental sustainability, making it relevant for your students.

5. SDG 7 Definitions - Flashcards

Flashcards are a valuable exercise for middle school students, typically around Grade 8. Your students are developing their critical thinking skills at this grade level, and flashcards help reinforce key concepts and definitions concisely and engagingly. For topics like renewable energy and SDG 7, flashcards can simplify complex ideas into manageable pieces of information, making it easier for your students to grasp essential concepts. Visual aids on the cards, such as images of solar panels or wind turbines, help your students better connect terms to real-world applications, enhancing their learning experience.

6. Different Kinds of Renewable Energy - Pair matching

This pair-matching exercise is designed for primary school students. The activity aims to help your students understand different types of renewable energy resources by matching them with visual representations. It aligns with topics on sustainability and renewable energy sources, central to SDG 7, which is affordable and clean energy.

For this activity, students will be given names and descriptions of various renewable energy resources, such as solar, wind, and geothermal, and they will need to pair these with corresponding images that represent each resource. This exercise encourages your students to visually identify and connect the concept with real-world applications. It’s a great way to reinforce learning more interactively and engagingly.

7. SDG 7 Definitions - Crossword

In this crossword exercise, your students must fill in the definitions of the key terms they have previously learned. It is an excellent follow-up activity to the pair-matching and flash card exercises. These earlier activities introduced essential concepts, and the crossword will help reinforce those ideas engagingly and interactively, offering a fun opportunity for students to test and solidify their understanding.

8. SDG 7 - Jigsaw puzzle

Using a jigsaw puzzle to teach SDG 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, is ideal for lower-grade students. Puzzles provide hands-on interaction and visual learning, making it easier for young learners to understand renewable energy concepts. As they piece the puzzle together, students reinforce key ideas in a fun and collaborative way, building a strong foundation in sustainability. At the end of the exercise, they are asked to identify the renewable energy sources they saw, reinforcing their learning and encouraging discussion. This approach is an enjoyable and effective way to introduce global energy concepts in an accessible format.

More ready-to-use SDG lesson plans and resources

Reminder: This is part seven of a blog post about teaching your students the SDGs. I will post a new blog about the next SDG in line every month. Go check out earlier blog posts on the SDGs:

• 8 Engaging Lesson Plans to Teach “SDG 1: No Poverty” to Your Students
• 8 Creative Ways to Teach “SDG 2: Zero Hunger” to Your Students
• 8 Free Lesson Plans to Teach “SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being”
• Bringing SDG 4 into the classroom: 8 lesson ideas for quality education
• 8 free lesson plans on SDG 5 gender equality for all grade level students
• 8 Free Digital Lessons for Teaching SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

And if you can’t wait this long for all the other posts, I already created 1 lesson for each SDG in this digital group work planner activity. Here’s the blog post about teaching the SDGs and you can find all the separate SDG activities in this BookWidgets group folder in case you want to duplicate the activities and make some changes.

Wrap up

Teaching SDG 7 in your classroom helps students understand the urgent need for clean, sustainable energy solutions that can power a greener future. Through interactive lesson plans and hands-on activities, students will explore global energy challenges and consider innovative ways to contribute to a more sustainable world.

All the activities are fully customizable with BookWidgets. You can easily duplicate the activities, modify them to fit your students’ needs, and track their progress. Want more lesson ideas and activities? Stay tuned for the next blog post in our series on teaching the SDGs.

Remember, all the featured SDG lesson plans are designed with BookWidgets. You can duplicate the SDG lesson plans from this group, adapt them, and share them with your students. You can also create lessons on this topic or any other topic from scratch. Want to learn more about creating engaging lesson activities with BookWidgets?

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