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BCSEA Climate Change Showdown
FREE Environmental Education Workshop delivered to your
students
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Climate Change Showdown Pre-Workshop
Preparation for Teachers:
Logistics: BCSEA wants you to make the most of our time in
class. To help the program run efficiently:
1. If you have differently-abled students in your class,
please advise their aide ASAP about the workshop so any
necessary changes to the CCS Program can be done. If desired,
have the aide contact project leader directly. We want the
program to be inclusive to everyone, and will do our best
to accommodate different needs.
2. Please pre-organize your class into 3 equal groups (about
10 students in each). The students will work in these groups
to move a playing piece around the Climate Change Game by
answering questions correctly. The desks can be arranged
so students can work at clusters of desks, or it can be
played spread out on the floor.
3. The Climate Change Show is an entertaining and educational
video produced by Science North that we play for the students.
Please have a TV and VHS/DVD player functional and ready
for use.
4. We need to measure the effectiveness of this program
in reducing students' greenhouse gas emissions in order
to secure funding in the future. To do this, we have the
students complete a short pre-survey on their current actions
before we conduct the workshop and then four weeks later
have them do the post-survey.
To help with this, please print the
pre-survey and have the students complete the survey
BEFORE we arrive in your class. Students check (honestly!)
all the boxes that apply.
Program Introduction: If possible, spending a bit of time
with your class beforehand to introduce the concept of climate
change will go a long way to enhance students' participation
and learning during the actual CCS Program. This can be done
a few days before the scheduled program, or in the block immediately
before the program. If it is not possible to do a pre-program
introduction, these activities can also be done as post-program
actions.
There are numerous ways this introduction can be done, but
some suggestions include:
1. Graffiti Word Web: On large sheets of paper taped to
walls around the room, write words related to climate change
and greenhouse gas reduction on each sheet i.e. Energy;
Climate; Transportation; Environment; Fossil Fuels; Carpool;
Water; Reduce-Reuse-Recycle; Bicycling, etc. Get the students
to walk around the room, adding their own word(s) onto the
Word Web that they feel relate to the original word. After,
have a discussion on the relationships of these words.
2. Responsibility Portraits: As part of (possibly ongoing)
discussions on “social responsibility”, have
the students draw pictures about who and what they feel
a “responsibility” towards. This could be their
family, pets, schoolmates, community, etc. but point out
that responsibility also extends to the natural world: local
rivers or lakes students might swim in, parks where they
play, mountains for hiking and skiing, the air they breathe,
etc.
3. Blackout: In groups, get students to talk about a time
when the power went out. What were the negative experiences
of this incident? What were the positive experiences? What
did they do, and what couldn’t they do? Get the students
to act out a brief skit based on their experience. This
activity explores the students' relationships to energy
and electricity, and what happens when power is not available.
Of course there are many other possibilities; feel free to
be creative in how you introduce these concepts!
Climate Change Showdown Post-Workshop
Information for Teachers
Thank you for taking part in BCSEA’s Climate Change
Showdown program. Please remember to have the students take
part in the Showdown contest, and complete the post-program
survey on their greenhouse gas emission actions and mail them
back to us in the stamped, self-addressed envelope left with
you. Thanks!
Hopefully your students have learned something about climate
change and their responsibility towards our planet, and are
now eager “climate change superheroes” taking action
to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. However, sustainability
doesn’t have to stop here! If you want to continue educating
and exploring the issue of climate change with your class,
there are hundreds of ways for you to do this. Here, resources
and ideas to further the climate change education in your
class have been compiled. Ideas for continuing climate change
education in the class:
1. Have the students do a journal reflection on what they
have learned about climate change and how they see their
own role as a climate change hero. If necessary, supply
sentence starters for the journal reflection. For example,
“It is important to try and stop climate change because…”;
“As a climate change hero, I can help by…”;
“Something I’ve learned that I didn’t know
before about climate change is…”
2. Theme a research project around climate change. Students
can use websites and print resources to prepare an essay/poster/information
brochure/skit on the topic of climate change.
3. Organize a “climate change trade show,” where
students set up booths demonstrating a product (real or
imaginary), idea, or action that helps reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. Invite other classes, teachers, parents,
and friends to come visit the trade show. Suggestions: hydrogen
car; solar panels on houses; grow-your-own garden; reduce-
reuse-recycle; bike-riding club; vegetarian cookbook; low-flow
showerhead; eating by candlelight, etc.
4. Try out some of these Energy Detective Teacher Activities
(developed by Young Energy) with your class: “Cootie
Car Day” where one day every week one car in each family’s
household gets the cooties and cannot be used; hold a competition
in your class to see how many compact fluorescent light
bulbs each family can install; organize a walking school
bus with groups of parents to have kids escorted to and
from school on foot by a parent; have one field trip per
month that is walking distance from the school; get the
students to create signs reminding parents not to leave
their cars idling while waiting to pick them up after school;
create “turn off the light” switch covers in class
to be used in school and in students’ homes.
There are also numerous other organizations operating in
Vancouver and beyond that offer more extensive climate change
programs. These include:
1. GVRD
K-12 Education Program
The GVRD offers free teacher workshops on sustainability,
including curriculum resources and teaching strategies (we’ve
left you some more info on these.) One great tool they have
is a class set of the “Sustainability Suitcase,”
a free, interactive electronic learning tool that explores
home energy and water-use choices. To book a suitcase, phone
604-432-6200.
2. Sierra
Club of Canada, BC Chapter
Even if you can’t book the SCBC education team to come
into your school, check out their “Action Challenges”
online at this site. Great ideas for projects students can
undertake.
3. Wild
BC
Amazing resource. This Lower Mainland group offers teacher
activities, free workshops, resources and links related
to climate change.
4. Destination Conservation
DC’s climate change challenge is a web-based environmental
education site with fun games, tips, info, and more.
5. Sea to Sky Outdoor
School
Residential outdoor environmental programs based out of
Howe Sound.
6. BC
Hydro Power Smart
BC Hydro provides a free two-part education workshop that
encourages
students to become energy detectives.
7. FORED BC
Climate Change Education Resource Action Kits for Grades
K-12. Includes lesson plans, activities, posters and other
resources. Contact the BC Teachers Federation at 604-871-2283
to order.
8. Pembina Green
Learning
Check out this comprehensive website which hosts curriculum
based energy and environment education materials online
that engage students to affect change in authentic and practical
ways; and supports teachers through participatory workshops.
The Internet has seemingly LIMITLESS websites related to
climate change. Some worthwhile sites have been listed
here, for use in research projects, to prepare other lesson
plans, or for general information.
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