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I agree that HOME would not be suitable for younger classes as it could cause quite a level of anxiety, but as you say, using clips to start discussions about consumerism and fast fashion etc. would be invaluable. We did some Concern debates in recent years and one of them was about this very idea – the children learned about where their clothing comes from/how it is made etc. and it raised awareness of the damage our throwaway culture is doing to our planet. As they say, knowledge is power, and by the end of the debate, the children felt empowered to make more informed decisions about what they were buying.
This is a great idea…as there’s no harm at all having gentle reminders for everyone to turn off lights when they leave the room and to unplug when things are not being used…amongst other things!
Marie, I think the idea linking temperature difference with countries around the world is a really great one. We have become a School of Sanctuary this year and we are always looking for ways to celebrate the cultures and countries that all of our students come from, so this would be very appropriate in our classes to compare and contrast various countries of origin : )
The PAXI video is a great stimulus to begin a lesson with as it presents the factors involved in Climate Change in a very child-friendly way. This video would be very useful to show children of all ages to prompt discussion about what they know and what they might like to find out as Climate Change is a topic that they hear a lot in the general media on a daily basis.
The TEAL tool is a great tool to use with older classes especially as they can watch the animations that show the changes in temperature/carbon emissions over time…which would link nicely with History/Geography as to what they think has helped to accelerate the changes in global temperatures in the more recent history, in particular. Learning from history and seeing the changes illustrated in such a visual way would then lead us to a discussion about the changes each of us could make to help reduce carbon emissions. This could then link with art/English/SPHE when we create posters/debates about the importance of everyone doing something to help with the current climate crisis. There are so many possibilities that could stem from using this video and TEAL tool.
Our school has let our Green Schools initiative slip in the last few years, unfortunately. Seeing the stimulating and incredibly informative resources that are now available, I feel that it is something that we could bring to our Student Council with a view to re-introducing it to the school again. Working together really can make a difference and it is vitally important that the children learn this and experience this for themselves.
I thought the resources were very good and were very child-friendly. Activity One where the children learn to differentiate between weather and climate is so important so that the they grasp the different concepts clearly. Starting with what they know and building upon that is the key to deepening understanding.
Exercise 2 – Weather Detectives was also a great resource. Building a meteorological station is a great idea for teamwork and is very inclusive, as children can be buddied up. I think that if the children will be going outside to read the temperature each day, there is an opportunity to include adding a rain gauge (again, discussion needed for the ideal location and reasons why!) and recording of daily rainfall, the use of an anemometer and weather vane for wind speed and direction and I even sometimes (depending on class) measure the cloud cover. Tracking the data for a number of weeks is a great idea, but repeating the activity in each term is great for highlighting different weather in different seasons.