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This week's LIO focuses on the UN Climate Change Conference COP 29, which takes place from November 11th to 22nd and brings together world governments and other interested parties to assess progress in dealing with climate change.
Climate change is increasingly affecting human health, species distribution and the ability of the earth's ecosystems to sustain our economic, social and environmental needs. How we deal with the climate emergency is a crucial discussion that teachers and students should be actively engaged in. LSF and the Canadian Teachers' Federation, with support from the Ivey Foundation, launched a video competition to hear from students and educators from all across Canada about the importance of climate change education and the steps they are taking to make a difference in their schools and community.
LSF also invited high school students from across Canada to share their perspectives on climate change education. Students were asked: "If you had the opportunity to tell decision-makers one thing about your perspectives on climate change education, what would you say?" Hear what they had to say!
This week, we invite you to view the videos and explore some of the suggested activities with your students. Create your own video showing what you and your students are doing at school to tackle climate change. Share your videos with us at #LearningInsideOut.
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Activities
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Learn all about reducing your carbon footprint in this What is Carbon Footprint video. Discuss ways you can reduce your carbon footprint at school and at home
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Read Sandy’s Incredible Shrinking Footprint. Discuss how Sandy’s efforts affect others around the world. Create a carbon footprint poster or a collage of reused, recycled and natural materials like in the book representing a way you can shrink your footprint
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Have older students complete the carbon footprint worksheet to understand where emissions come from in their daily lives
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Have younger students trace their foot and draw their footprint-reducing solutions (example here)
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Start a Walking Wednesday Club at your school to promote healthy lifestyle choices and reduce car trips to school. Here are some fun ideas to help you implement your WW Club
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Get outdoors and play Racing for Resources students learn how they can make responsible choices with the natural resources
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| What did you think of Reducing your Carbon Footprint? | | | |
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Activities
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Watch What are you doing about Climate Change to become inspired by simple school activities that foster environment stewardship in the classroom
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Become acquainted with the concept of reusing and create your own reusable bags using old clothing items
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Reduce your carbon footprint by walking or riding a bike to school. Learn more about Getting There: Alternatives to the car (p.96 to 103); in this activity, students are provided with different travel scenarios and asked to determine the most appropriate mode of transportation based on environmental and health impacts
- Encourage students to participate in a walk- or bike-to-school day. Use carbon calculators to measure the emissions they could save by choosing alternative transportation between their home and school
- At least once a week, make a commitment with family to walk, bike, rollerblade, or skateboard to nearby locations instead of driving
- Write letters to your principal, city councillor, or member of parliament about a transportation issue that the students would like to see change. Some examples include requesting more bike racks so that more students can bike to school or creating a carpool lane at the school drop-off zone. Encourage students to request things that will get more students walking or biking to school: more sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly intersections, and a walking school-bus program
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Words with Strings has students collaborate on climate solutions.This activity teaches students that we must work together to take action on climate change
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Protecting My Arctic Home allows students to explore how climate change is impacting life, culture and traditions in the North
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| What did you think of What Are You Doing About Climate Change? | | | |
Activities
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Learn more about the Climate Emergency and the Youth Led Global Climate Strikes and how it has become a worldwide movement
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Create an anti-idling campaign at your school and make students and parents aware of your school's no-idling zone
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Get outside and play Climate Balloons to learn how the North American lifestyle contributes to climate change and threatens the survival of those living in the developing world
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Try your hand at Climate Change Dodgeball, a great introduction activity before a climate change discussion
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Need more ideas and inspiration to take action on climate change; the Climate Leadership Toolkit offers ways to involve the whole school community in climate leadership around consumerism, waste reduction and energy consumption
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View Nature Connections a video about Indigenous Peoples' connection to their land and place. After viewing, have students reflect about climate change and how personal connections to places can shape our sense of stewardship
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| What did you think of Climate Change Strikes, Leadership and Campaigns? | | | |
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Activities
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Get outside and teach students about renewable resources by building working models. Students can learn how to build a wind turbine, solar oven, hydroelectric generator and a biogas generator. The hands-on learning resource allows students to be self-directed in their learning and model making
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Have students investigate buildings or homes in their area that are "off the grid." Using the Off the Grid lesson plan students learn and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non-renewable energy sources
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Have students design an eco-friendly home as a class. The concept of the lesson plan is to design an eco-friendly home and calculate what it would cost and which way would be the most cost efficient. As a class, map the first floor of one of the homes designed on the gym floor or outdoors, design an obstacle-course styled activity based on doing household movements for classmates to promote exercise
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Complete the You Are What You Wear lesson plan to calculate the distance your clothes have travelled. Have students calculate the distance of the clothes they are wearing
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| What did you think of Renewable Energy, Eco Design and Sustainable Fashion? | | | |
| What did you think of Eco Clubs and Single Use Plastic? | | | |
About Learning Inside Out
Above you will find a selection of activities, broken down by various grade levels. These guides will be released weekly and archived on our Learning Inside Out page, so you can always access the full catalogue.
All activities have been modified from resources on our R4R database, simplified and adapted for both outdoor learning in the school yard or at-home as needed. The activity descriptions should contain all the information and links that you need!
We want this guide to work for you, so your feedback is invaluable to us.
Use the feedback button at the bottom of this Guide, or email us at info@LSF-LST.ca. We would also love to see photos of students engaging in the activities, please e-mail us any pictures or videos you have!
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Let us know how this helped your learning and teaching from home or at school indoors and (hopefully) outdoors and what you'd like to see more of by filling out our brief feedback form! | | |
Follow us on social media for continued weekly highlights & other exciting opportunities through the school year! | |
Please share widely with any parents and teachers in your life! | |
Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is a Canadian charity with over 25 years of experience working within the education system. Our Resources for Rethinking (R4R) database is an award-winning collection of resources that are peer-reviewed by certified teachers and connected to curriculum in all provinces and territories. R4R is recommended on many Ministry of Education websites. | | | | |
