How did Climate Change affect people in the Stone Age?

These resources will help pupils learn about the dramatic climatic changes that happened during the Stone Age and how these literally changed the landscape of Britain. The interactive presentation titled ‘Climate Change and Doggerland’ was created by pupils from The Hall Primary School, Leicestershire. The based it on information from the other two climate change interactives shown here and additional information from this Interactive Prehistory Timeline.

Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) Climate Change

Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) Climate Change

Climate Change and Doggerland

Teaching ideas

Use the resources with your pupils to help them find out more about Stone Age Climate Change. Some include quiz elements to help your pupils test their knowledge. Having worked through the resources you could ask pupils to:

  • Look at this map to see how flooding caused by rising sea levels might affect Britain between 2030 to 2100 – that’s in the next 9 to 80 years, so throughout your lifetime. How might people living in those areas have to adapt to cope with these changes?
  • Think about the challenges Stone Age people might have faced when living with the effects of climate change such as flooding caused by rising sea levels and changing temperatures during the Ice Age. How might the changes they had to make be similar or different from the changes people in Britain today might have to make to cope with these changes?

There are also other co-created pupil prehistory resources available as the following Teaching Activities:

  • Houses

    What were houses like in the Stone Age?

  • Tools

    What type of tools did people use in the Stone Age?

Learning aims and outcomes

  • Learn how the coastline of Britain was altered by climatic changes throughout the Stone Age
  • Assess the different types of archaeological evidence from the Stone Age
  • Understand how knowledge of the past comes from a range of sources
  • Recall facts you’ve learned to answer the quiz questions.
  • Provide reasoning to justify your answers

Prior knowledge

No prior knowledge is required, but pupils might find it helpful to also look at our Stone Age to Iron Age timeline.

Extended learning and useful links