Skills you learn from Environmental Science (Year 11)

Environmental Science builds evidence and data literacy, systems thinking across scales, modelling and prediction, decision-making under uncertainty, fieldwork, and communicating findings. This lesson plan will help you to show Year 11 students the skills Environmental Science builds and where they're already building them.

This lesson is designed to be delivered in 30 minutes as a teacher-led classroom activity.

Environmental Science isn't taught at GCSE, so this lesson is best hosted in a Biology, Chemistry, or Geography class - the subjects most likely to attract students drawn to Environmental Science. The lesson assumes no Environmental Science subject expertise from the host teacher.

This activity supports the following frameworks:

  • Gatsby Benchmark 4

This activity is suitable for Year 11 and features careers linked to the following subjects:

  • Environmental Science

This is one of three lesson plans designed for Year 11 teachers introducing students to Environmental Science:

These lesson plans will help you show students how Environmental Science connects to their future careers - whether or not they go on to study it at A-Level.

We recommend using this lesson plan at the end of the autumn term. By this point Year 11 students are starting to weigh post-16 options. Because Environmental Science isn't a GCSE, the question isn't "what skills have I built from studying Environmental Science?" but "do I already build Environmental Science-style skills in my other subjects, and do I want to deepen them?" Answering that helps students decide whether A-Level Environmental Science is a natural next step, or whether they're better off building those skills through other routes.

Learning objectives

  • Students will name the core skills that Environmental Science builds.
  • Students will recognise which of their existing subjects build the same skills.
  • Students will consider what this tells them about whether A-Level Environmental Science fits their post-16 plans.

Before the lesson

  • You will need a computer connected to the internet and a classroom screen.
  • Open the What can you do with Environmental Science? page and have it ready on the screen.
  • Review the Skills that Environmental Science builds section. For each of the skills, think of an example from your own subject (or a closely related one) of when students built that skill.

During the lesson

1. Where do skills come from? (5 mins)

  • Ask students to recall a recent piece of work in your subject - a required practical, a data analysis task, a piece of fieldwork, an extended written response.
  • Ask them what skills that piece of work asked them to use.
  • Write the suggestions on the board.

2. Skills that Environmental Science builds (15 mins)

  • Bring up the What can you do with Environmental Science? page on the classroom screen.
  • Review the contents of the page with students so that they understand what it covers.
  • Scroll to the Skills that Environmental Science builds section and work through each of the six skills in turn.
    • For each skill, ask students which of their existing subjects builds it, and where they've used it recently.
    • Share your own teaching examples to anchor the discussion if students are stuck.

3. So what does that tell you about Environmental Science? (10 mins)

  • Ask students to reflect on the overlap between Environmental Science's skills and the skills their current subjects build.
  • Prompt them with questions:
    • Do these skills appeal to you - work where evidence, modelling, fieldwork, and judgement under uncertainty matter?
    • Are you already building them in subjects you enjoy?
    • Would you want to deepen them through A-Level Environmental Science specifically, or through other subjects?
  • Close by reminding students that choosing a good set of post-16 subjects isn't only about which ones they enjoy - it's about which ones compound the skills they want to take into work or further study.

After the lesson