Our Climate is Changing
Climate change is a very important issue and will remain so until at least the
end of this century. All New Zealanders should be aware of
climate change and know some actions they can take to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. Teachers may want to provide opportunities
for students to access information that will enable them
to debate issues and make informed decisions, and to take
responsibility through personal and/or group actions for
addressing environmental issues. Refer to Guidelines for
Environmental Education in New Zealand Schools, Ministry
of Education, 1999.
Learning about climate change
Select from the activities below
- Print the photographs
featured in this booklet.
Distribute photographs for group
discussions on climate change. What does it mean? What is causing it?
Ask a representative from each group to report back to
the class on their group's
understandings.
- Use the 'Greenhouse in a Jar' activity to simulate how greenhouse gases cause global warming and
how the increased heat is causing our climate to change.
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
act like the glass in a greenhouse. They allow sunlight
to pass through to Earth's surface. When sunlight hits
Earth it heats the surface. As heat rises, some of it
is trapped
by the greenhouse gases. Without the greenhouse gases
creating
what is called the natural greenhouse effect, the
atmosphere and climate on Earth would be too cold to
sustain life.
- Find an old tree stump or slice
of wood (maybe a hardwood coffee table) with clear growth
rings.
Ask students to observe the wood and consider the story
that can be told by the rings.
Tree rings and coral rings
can tell us about climate history. Tree rings show
how much a tree
has grown each year, with each ring representing one
year. In warmer, wetter years the tree will grow more
so the ring
for that year will be wider than the ring for a colder
year. By studying the rings, scientists can learn more
about the
changes in weather over the tree's lifetime. A similar
study can be done with coral rings. In the past 50
years, scientists
have noticed that the growth rings in corals have been
getting wider. This could be a sign that global warming
and the enhanced
greenhouse effect is really happening.
- Have students plan a debate looking
at an issue (related to the use of solar panels,
wind farms, packaging, transport) from different perspectives.
Students
could take on the role of farmers, car manufacturers,
local iwi, or debate from a personal perspective.
- Ask students to research and clarify
the meaning of greenhouse gases, emissions, carbon cycle,
carbon sinks, Kyoto Protocol. Information is available
in the booklets Climate Change 1 (PDF 1.31MB) and Climate Change 2 (PDF 1.32MB).
Booklets: For hard copies of booklets (including this one), please email info@climatechange.govt.nz.
Cross-Curricula Environmental Education Activities
See for yourself
- Visit local areas that have been
affected by floods, droughts, erosion caused by heavy rain.
Interview people who have
been affected.
- Interview elderly people in the community. Find out
if they have noticed any changes in the climate
during their lifetime.
- Interview people who have been affected by extreme
weather events and how it made them feel.
- Visit your local city or regional council and
ask them what they're doing to help communities
adapt to climate change as many have programmes
in
place to
cope with a changing climate.
- Read and dicuss news articles on climate change relating to floods, droughts, and other extreme weather events. Check out the websites www.nzherald.co.nz (search under 'climate change') and www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change.
Take personal or group action
- Play the web-based interactive
activity Play it Cool and find
out how the
Brown family are keeping the planet cool (or not).
- Brainstorm ways the students/class/school
are helping to keep the planet cool. Have students develop
a list of actions they could take to reduce
greenhouse
gas emissions. Set some personal/class/school challenges.
Action ideas
Personal
Conduct an energy audit to calculate
how energy efficient you are (see Climate Change 2 (PDF 1.32MB),
page 6).
Set
some personal goals to become more energy wise.
Check out the Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Authority's website for ideas on saving energy.
As a Class/School
- Walk, bike, skate, bus or carpool.
Promote a 'Walking School Bus' in your school. It is a
fun and social way to keep fit and get to school safely
with
adult
supervision. Each 'bus' walks along a set route with at least one adult
'driver' picking up children at designated stops and walking
them to school. The scheme
eases traffic congestion around the school grounds as well as providing
children with a safe and environmentally friendly journey
to and from school. To obtain a resource kit, contact the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
- Challenge students/staff to bring
a school lunch with minimum wrapping.
- Enlist the caretakers support to compost food waste.
- Plant more trees in your school grounds (and/or join
with local revegetation groups) to create more carbon
sinks.
Find out about local groups on the New Zealand Ecological
Restoration Network.
- Design, construct and test a solar-powered device.
- Design an energy efficient house or community.
- Organise a school-wide art/poster/video/power point
presentation competition to show an aspect
of climate change.
- Write a letter to the Climate Change
teams at the Ministry for the Environment or a local newspaper to let them know
what you are
doing to reduce greenhouse gases in your
school.
Curriculum Links
Science
Students can:
- Justify their personal involvement
in a school or class-initiated local environmental project
(Planet Earth and Beyond
- L3)
- Research a national environmental issue and explain
the need for responsible and cooperative guardianship
of
New Zealand's environment (Planet Earth and
Beyond - L5)
- Investigate the impact of some well-known technological innovation
on people and/or the local environment (Nature of Science and its
Relationship
to
Technology - L3)
Social Studies
Students will understand:
- How different groups view and
use places and the environment (Place and Environment -
L3)
- How and why people manage resources (Resources
and Economic Activities - L3)
- How and why people view and use resources differently
and the consequences of this (Resources and
Economic Activities - L4)
Technology
Students can:
- Describe and identify the positive
and negative effects of some instances of technologies
on people's lives and
the environment
(Technology
and Society -
L3)
- Explore and discuss the impacts over
time on the local and wider environments and society
of some
specific
technology (Technology
and Society - L4)
Mathematics
Students can:
- Develop the characteristics
of logical and systematic thinking and apply these in
a range of contexts
(Mathematical Processes)
- Perform measuring tasks, using a range
of units and scales (Measurement
- L3)
- Interpret and use information about
rates presented in a variety
of ways (Measurement
- L5/6).
Essential Skills
Students can develop skills in communication
(expressing views and ideas, thinking critically and arguing
a case), numeracy (collating and organising data,
responding to information presented in graphs, tables and percentages),
information (retrieval, interpretation and presentation),
and problem-solving (when looking
at an issue from a variety of perspectives).
Useful websites for information and activities on climate change
Published in February 2005 by the NZ Climate Change Office, Ministry for the
Environment
PO Box 10-362, Wellington, New Zealand
ISBN: 0-478-25900-X
ME number: 586
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