Module 5: CLIMATE ACTION (SDG13) _PO

Objectives

With this tool, students are expected to:

- Define what climate change is

- Understand the urgency of taking action to combat climate change and its impacts

- Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related disasters

- Understand the need for the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on climate change

- Explore, reflect upon and follow up ideas in real life that stress out the urgency of taking immediate action against climate change

- Raise innovative ideas and non-traditional solutions regarding SDG13

- Cooperate and share tasks with other students to strengthen resilience to climate change

- Show resistance and endurance towards the struggle for climate justice

- Respond positively towards achieving SDG13

- Get inspired by different examples of good practices regarding SDG13

- Share openly their opinions and beliefs in class

- Get empowered for future actions

Activity details

Material:

Projector, whiteboard, markers, digital technology (computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones), notebooks, worksheets

Duration:

4 hours

Group size:

20 - 24 students (age: 13 – 15 years old)

Activity 1

(90 min):

Starter:

Warm-Up:

Ask students to engage in a free write for five minutes in response to the term “climate change ”. Teacher encourages them to activate prior knowledge and to explore questions that they have in a nonthreatening, non-evaluative way. They can write:

what they know,
what they think they know,
what they’ve heard,
what they’re confused or unsure about, or
what they want to know.

Main lesson:

1. Students share their writing with their partner. After they have heard each other’s writings, they work together to write a collaborative summary in which they combine their ideas.

2. Class discussion: Students discuss:

What did they know?
What did they learn from their peers?
What was it like to engage in this process?
What questions do they have?
Were there disagreements?

3. Students watch the Patrimonito's World Heritage Adventures in Australia at the Great Barrier Reef (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITpHgTh66tY). Patrimonito and the young Australians witness that climate change and pollution are threatening the ecosystem. Together, they take action to raise awareness among their peers and decrease pollution.

4. Teacher gives every student a copy of appendix 1 and invites students to move around the classroom and join up with someone who can respond in a positive way to one of the items in the handout.

3. Teacher asks them to write the name of the person into the space on the sheet and ask questions of their partner so as to encourage sharing of detail of their experiences and/or feelings.

Teacher lets the group know that they can only have one positive response from any one person. They must move on to other people to fill in other lines on the handout.

Teacher encourages them to complete as much of the handout as possible in the time available but without rushing so they benefit from listening to each other’s stories.

5. Teacher leads the group in discussion and reflection on stories they have encountered and writes the group’s questions about climate change on the flip chart or board.

Discussion questions:

• Did you learn anything from anybody that really surprised you?

• Did you find you had experiences in common with others?

• What were those experiences?

• What feelings were commonly expressed?

• Did you argue? About what?

• What has the activity shown that we know about climate change?

• What has it shown that we don't know or are uncertain about?

• What questions have it raised in your mind?

Plenary:

Students quickly summarize their collective feelings about climate change.

Activity 2:

(45 min)

Starter:

Students watch the video “The turning point” by Steve Cutts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7LDk4D3Q3U). Teacher ask them to point out the urgency of taking action to combat climate change and its impacts that the producer wishes to project.

Main lesson:

Working in pairs, students examine different articles and report back to the class, through class presentations. To prepare, they take notes on and discuss the following questions:

• How has global climate change affected the local climate and geography of the region discussed in your article?
• How have these changes affected the people?
• How have the people tried to adapt to climate change’s effects?

Plenary:

After students have presented what they learned from their article, teacher

encourages them to make connections between the various articles by posing the 1. following prompts, either in writing or verbally:

What do you know now about climate change that you didn’t know before?

Activity 3:

(135 min) [Computer Lab – Interdisciplinary lesson – Geography]

Starter:

1. Teacher shows a map made by the Italian artist Laura Canali (appendix 2) illustrating current and future climate threats to livelihoods, ecosystems, and human well-being and asks students to interpret it and share their thoughts.

(Laura Canali’s principal inspiration for the maps, entitled Visualising A Warming World, were the World Bank’s Turn Down The Heat reports. Documented and published in November 2012 and in June 2013 the reports detail the potential destructive effects of unmitigated global warming. It illustrates current impacts from climate change, including heat waves, droughts, flooding and desertification around the globe. It also shows floods in Pakistan, India, China, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Nigeria, as well as heat waves in the United States, Europe and Australia. Canali’s map also notes future droughts appearing in Brazil and the United States, and deserts expanding from their current dimensions into peripheral areas.)

2. Teacher shows a second Canali-designed global map (appendix 3) and ask the student to draw outcomes by highlighting:

How warming is likely to have impacts in the Mediterranean region?
Which are the key threats?

Main lesson:

1. Class research: Students study the impact of climate change in the Mediterranean region.

Students research the effects of climate change in Cyprus collecting data through maps, graphs and reading the following articles:

http://www.ec.gov.cy/environment/environment.nsf/All/1F2ED18A1C2E7651C225802B001B84FD/$file/%CE%9F%CE%B9%20%CE%BA%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AD%CF%82%20%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B3%CE%AD%CF%82%20%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CE%BD%20%CE%9A%CF%8D%CF%80%CF%81%CE%BF.pdf

http://hikersbay.com/climate-conditions/republiccyprus/northcyprus/climate-conditions-in-northern-cyprus.html?lang=en

2. Students present the results of their research in class by answering the following questions:

What are the impacts of climate change in Cyprus and generally the Mediterranean region?
How urgent is it to take action to combat climate change and its impacts?
How will we strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related disasters?
How important is it to implement the UN Framework Convention on climate change?
Which solutions do you suggest in order to eliminate or prevent the effects?

https://www.greenamerica.org/climate-change-100-reasons-hope/top-10-solutions-reverse-climate-change

https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/27781/CCAFS%20CCSL%20booklet%20final.pdf?sequence=6

https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/12/09/nature-based-solutions-matter/

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/climate-change/

https://www.greenfacts.org/en/desertification/l-2/6-prevention-desertification.htm

Plenary:

Class discussion: Students discuss the importance of implementation of the UN Framework Convention on climate change in the local community.

Tips for the teacher

One of the possible solutions that the students could suggest to combat climate change and eliminate emissions, would be the utilization of solar energy as Cyprus as Cyprus has an average of 2700 to 3500 hours sunlight per year.

Students suggest possible ways to utilize solar energy such as solar farms, rooftop solar and electric cars.

The school owns an electrical car which can be used for this purpose. Students can examine the school electric car (or any other possible sustainable machine that the schools can be provided) learning the way its functions and comparing its advantages and disadvantages.

Students can suggest possible solutions to eliminate the disadvantages and then present the results of their research at school, school’s social media and local community.

Debriefing

Students publish the results of their research and their possible solutions on Eco club’s school website

Follow-up/Inspiration for the future

How are results presented?

Students present the results of their research at school.

Information in social media, school’s web page.

Further actions:

Students cooperate with the “Youth for Climate Cyprus”. They share the results of their research, promote the campaign of the organization for informing the local society and participate in their tree planting initiative.

The school organises movie screenings of the documentary “Samsara” (2011) and the film “Noah” by Darren Aronovsky to raise awareness of climate change.