Greenhouse Gases: Making Change
It is important to celebrate with children and young people how communities all around the world are contributing to tackling climate change and finding ways of reducing their carbon footprint. Use this session to share local and wider examples of how people are changing their habits. Learners could be tasked with interviewing somebody they know such as a family member who owns or works in an organisation. The learners could also interview different members of the school community such as the school chef or the head teacher.
This is recommended as session five of the Key Stage Two Greenhouse Gases Unit, exploring responses to climate change.
Preparation
Green Skills
- Environmental Stewardship
Step by step
Quick Starter Activity
Watch this 3-minute clip from Sir David Attenborough: ‘Act now on climate change or it will be too late’ (BBC News):
Read out this quote from Sir David Attenborough:
“We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that. Surely, we all have a responsibility to care for our Blue Planet. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us.”
Ask the learners to discuss how it makes them feel and who they think Sir David Attenborough is talking about.
You could then follow up by sharing this 1-minute video, ‘Do we live in a selfish world?’ from the Dirt Is Good Project:
Main Activity Suggestions
Suggestion 1 (Indoor/Outdoor)
WWT: Climate Champions. These activities can be used to review the causes and effects of climate change that have been covered in previous sessions, as well as exploring nature-related solutions and introduces the role wetlands can play in helping to prevent climate change.
Suggestion 2 (Outdoor)
Learning Through Landscapes: Solar Kettle. This activity supports learners to investigate the renewable energy source of solar power and understand how it can be harnessed.
Suggestion 3 (Indoor)
Natural History Museum: What can you do to help the planet: an illustrated guide. The resource contains general background information on topics related to climate change and biodiversity loss. These are raw resources that have been designed to be edited and added to and used in a variety of ways, in order to best fit the needs of individual key stages, classes and students.
Top Tips
Use information sheets such as this one from the Royal Geographical Society 'More power from the sun' as guided reading activities to celebrate the different ways people are working to reduce carbon footprints and explore solutions that have been and are being developed.
Curriculum links
- Developing confidence and responsibility
- Making the most of their abilities
- Preparing to play an active role as citizens
- Developing good relationships and respecting the differences between people