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The documentary Home is a visually striking and thought provoking film. I found it both beautiful and unsettling as it captures the incredible diversity of our planet while also highlighting the severe damage caused by human activity. The aerial views and storytelling make the environmental message very powerful and I think pupils would be both engaged and challenged by it. What stood out to me most was the clear link between our everyday choices and their impact on climate change, deforestation and overconsumption.
In introducing these ideas to pupils I would use short age appropriate clips from Home and the other videos in the module as discussion starters. For younger classes I would focus on simple positive actions like taking care of nature, reducing waste or noticing changes in our local environment. Activities such as drawing, poster making and group projects would allow pupils to express their understanding creatively. For older students I would incorporate data collection such as using a weather station and discussions around climate change in the news to make the topic real and relevant. My goal would be to help pupils see that their actions can make a genuine difference in caring for the Earth.
Activity 3 offers an engaging mix of visual learning and interactive exploration. The Paxi video explains greenhouse gases in a clear child-friendly way, making a complex concept accessible and sparking curiosity. Its mix of animation and simple language appeals to a wide range of learners and provides a strong foundation for classroom discussion.
The temperature prediction tool adds a valuable hands-on element. Pupils can explore how different human actions may influence future climate outcomes, encouraging critical thinking and helping them make connections between choices and consequences. The children enjoy sharing their findings through posters which could be displayed on the Green School Committee notice board.
The TEAL tool is another fantastic way for children to explore human impacts on climate change. This could be used in small groups on iPads to promote collaboration.
Children could then use their findings to brainstorm initiatives for our school and local community putting their learning into action, for example reducing energy use, improving recycling or planting more greenery around the school grounds.
Hello Karl, I really like your idea of having a weather blog as I think this is something the children would really enjoy. It also made me think about having a weather Podcast where the children could share their findings and include interesting weather facts all while promoting their oral language development.
Activities 1 “Is it Weather or Climate?” and 2 “Weather Detectives” offer an engaging way for pupils to understand the difference between short-term weather events and long-term climate patterns. I would start with Activity 1 as a whole-class interactive quiz encouraging pupils to justify their choices and discuss why an example fits into one category or the other. This promotes scientific language, reasoning skills and collaborative discussion.
In Activity 2, pupils would work as weather investigators recording daily measurements such as temperature, rainfall and wind speed. Using STEM skills they could design and test simple tools, select suitable measurement sites and produce graphs to track changes over time. This hands-on process naturally integrates science, maths and engineering while also encouraging teamwork and problem-solving.
To extend learning we could set up a permanent school weather station, compare results with national reports and share findings on the school website linking local observations to global patterns.