Download Day 3 - Oxfam New Zealand

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Climate Chaos
Day 3 Morning session: Our contribution to climate change
Key focus: Understanding our contribution to climate change as
individuals and societies
Activity 1: The fossil fuel energy in our day
Time required: 45 minutes
You will need
• Writing paper, pencils and rulers
• Interactive whiteboard, computer and internet connection (optional)
Aim
To increase awareness that many of our daily activities release carbon dioxide and contribute to climate
change.
What to do
Recap on fossil fuels and how they contribute to climate change:
• Carbon is a key chemical component to all life, including plants and animals.
• Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas are made from plants and animals that died millions of years
ago. They contain carbon.
• When we burn fossil fuels, the carbon reacts with oxygen in the air to make carbon dioxide.
(If the class has previously studied respiration and photosynthesis, remind them that we breathe
out carbon dioxide and that plants use it for photosynthesis.)
• Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which helps to keep the Earth warm enough for life to exist.
However, since the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago, people have been burning more and more
fossil fuels and this is affecting the Earth’s climate.
If you have easy internet access, show the class the graph on the site Climate Choices –Children’s Voices
(you will need to scroll down the page to find it), which clearly shows how levels of carbon dioxide and
temperatures have risen together in the last 150 years.
http://www.climatechoices.org.uk/pages/cchange3.htm
You could also show the short PowerPoint presentation ‘How cars make carbon dioxide’ (at the bottom of
the page). http://www.climatechoices.org.uk/pages/cchange4.htm. Pupils could each read a sentence from
the presentation.
Ask the pupils to divide a sheet of paper in half. One the left-hand side, they should write a list of everything
they do on a normal day (getting up, having a shower or wash, eating breakfast, etc.). They might need two
pieces of paper to list everything! On the right-hand side they should write any of these activities that use
fossil fuel energy. Remind them that fossil fuels are used for petrol and diesel vehicles (including public
transport), as well as activities using gas or electricity. Pupils might like to work in pairs to do the second
half of the activity.
After they have completed their lists, ask for volunteers to share them. Did the rest of the class notice any
activities that use fossil fuels, which they had missed?
An alternative way of doing this would be to ask the volunteers to read out the list of things they do and ask
the rest of the class to put their hands up when an activity uses fossil fuel. Ask someone with their hand up
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to explain how the activity uses fossil fuel (e.g. a shower uses hot water which is heated by gas or
electricity).
Activity 2: The fossil fuel energy in our food and drink
Time needed: 1 hour 15 minutes
You will need
• Worksheet: ‘Life History of an Aluminium Can’ either projected onto a whiteboard or enough
copies for the pupils to look at, e.g. one between two (below).
• Breakfast cereal boxes – enough for one per group of 4 –5 children
• Large and small sheets of paper
• Pencils and coloured pencils
Aim
To increase awareness of the ‘hidden energy’ in all the material goods we use and consume.
What to do
Show the class the Life History of an Aluminium Can. Talk through the process that it shows.
1) Bauxite is a rock from which aluminium is made. It has to be dug up from the ground using big, oilpowered machines.
2) It is transported by fossil-fuel powered trucks to a processing plant.
3) Bauxite is made in to aluminium at the processing plant, which uses energy.
4) It is transported to the can factory (more fossil-fuel use).
5) At the can factory the aluminium is made in to cans, using machines powered by fossil-fuels.
6) The cans are transported to the food/drink factory (more fossil-fuel use).
7) The cans are filled on a conveyor belt using machines run by fossil-fuels.
8) The filled cans are transported to the shop (more fossil fuel use).
9) The cans are purchased and transported to your home.
10) The empty can is thrown away and collected by rubbish collectors (more fossil fuel use).
11) The can is disposed of in landfill or recycled. Both use energy but recycling is good as then the
aluminium is used again and less bauxite needs to be dug up (link to beginning, ask pupils if any of
them recycle at home).
Point out that this is just about the can – it does not include all the ingredients that go into the drink inside it,
or the inks that are used to print the pictures on the outside.
Ask the children to form groups of 4–5 and give each group a cereal box.
Ask them to write the name of their breakfast cereal in the middle of a sheet of paper and draft a flow-chart
showing all the processes that went into making that box of cereals. They should consider all the stages the
box itself has been through (from cutting down the trees, to reaching someone’s home) and the ingredients
that went into the cereal (e.g. wheat, sugar, raisins – they can look at the list of ingredients on the box) and
the journey they may have gone through before they got into the box. They should make a rough copy first
(it is likely to look quite messy!).
Then each child should choose two or three of the processes to illustrate (e.g. a combine harvester
harvesting the wheat; machines folding the boxes; filling the boxes on a conveyor belt, etc.) and draw a
picture of each process on a small piece of paper.
They should then cut out and sequence their pictures on a large piece of paper that has a picture of the box
of cereals in the middle. They should stick down their pictures and add arrows showing how the different
parts of the process connect.
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Lastly, they should write on in red felt tip all the places where fossil fuel energy was used.
Display all the flowcharts and, if time, ask the groups to explain theirs to the rest of the class.
The ‘Life History of an Aluminium Can’ worksheet is written by Gillian Symons and Prue Poulton, appearing in ‘Refure, reuse, recycle’ (1993) and is
reproduced with permission from Ecoactive (www.ecoactive.org.uk).
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Life History of an Aluminium Can
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Activity 3: Can we produce less carbon dioxide?
Time required: 30 minutes
You will need
• Flipchart paper
• Different coloured pens
Aim
To begin to consider ways in which carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced, thus reducing our
contribution to climate change.
What to do
Recap that:
• Burning fossil fuels is a key part of all our lives
• We will have to find ways of reducing our use of fossil fuels if we are to slow down climate change.
Ask the class to brainstorm all the ways they can think of that we could use less fossil fuel.
Use coloured pens to categorise the list into:
• Using less energy
• Using different sources of energy.
Then:
• Things which individuals can do
• Things those businesses or governments can do.
You may find that the brainstorm does not contain many ideas in one of the categories, in which case,
focus on that one and see if the children can think of some more ways.
Save the flipchart paper for future reference.
Day 3 Afternoon session: Climate–friendly lifestyles
Key focus: The connection between climate change and lifestyle
choices
Activity 1: Climate change quiz
Time required: 30 minutes
You will need
• Copies of the climate change quiz – either one per pupil, one per group or one for the whole class
(below)
• A copy of the answer sheet for yourself (below)
Aim
To further raise awareness about causes and effects of climate change.
What to do
Ask the children to do the quiz, either individually, in groups, or as a whole class.
Go through the answers together. Explain any that they do not understand.
• Which answers surprised them most?
• Has it given them more ideas of ways we could use less fossil fuels?
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Climate Chaos
Climate change quiz
1. Up to _____ of energy in homes is wasted by keeping equipment on standby. 3% / 13%
/ 23%
2. Recycling one aluminium can uses 50% less energy than making one can from bauxite
rock. True or false?
3. Energy-efficient light bulbs last 10 times longer than a standard bulb and use a third of
the electricity. True or false?
4. People are using much more energy than they used to. Energy use per person has
doubled since 1960. True or false?
5. Road travel makes up _____ of greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand. 14% / 24%
/ 44%
6. Bottled water uses around _____ times more energy than tap water (mainly for
packaging and transport). 20 / 100 / 300
7. Growing, processing, transporting and throwing away food makes up 20% of our
greenhouse gas emissions. True or false?
8. Plastic bags are made from fossil fuels. Every year, New Zealanders use _____ plastic
bags, which end up in landfill. 1 thousand (10,000) / 1 million (1,000,000) / 1 billion
(1,000,000,000)
9. Recycling plastic instead of sending it to landfill uses 70% less energy. True or false?
10. My personal lifestyle choices impact ______. Only me / other people in New Zealand /
other people around the world.
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Climate Chaos
Clime Change Quiz - ANSWERS
1. Up to 13% of energy in homes is wasted by keeping equipment on standby.
2. FALSE. Recycling one aluminium can uses (an incredible) 95% less energy than making
one can from bauxite rock.
(Before giving the answer, ask pupils of those that said false, how many thought recycling
saved MORE energy, and how many thought it saved LESS energy.)
3. TRUE. Energy-efficient light bulbs last 10 times longer than a standard bulb and use a
third of the electricity.
4. FALSE. Energy use per person has almost QUADRUPLED (increased 4 times) since
1960.
5. Road travel makes up 44% of greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand.
(It might be interesting to point out to pupils that this is nearly half of our emissions.)
6. Bottled water uses around 300 times more energy than tap water.
7. FALSE. Growing, processing, transporting and throwing away food makes up
approximately 65% of our greenhouse gas emissions.
8. Plastic bags are made from fossil fuels. Every year, New Zealanders use 1 billion plastic
bags, which end up in landfill.
9. TRUE. Recycling plastic instead of sending it to landfill uses 70% less energy.
10. My personal lifestyle choices impact other people around the world.
(Ask pupils to give examples of how their actions affect others with regard to climate
change.)
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Activity 2: My climate-friendly lifestyle
Time required: 40 minutes
You will need
• Writing paper and pencils
Aim
To begin to think about what life in the future might be like if we all use less fossil fuel.
What to do
Tell the class that the New Zealand government has made a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 from 1990 levels.
Ask the pupils to write a story describing what their daily lives would be like if they tried to halve their use of
fossil fuels, using as many of the ideas as possible from the brainstorming activity (from the morning
session). Ask them to think about what laws and rules might need to change to make this possible, and
how these would alter the way they lived their lives. Display the flipchart with the brainstorm to help them.
Ask for volunteers to read their stories aloud.
• How did they feel about living in this way?
• What were the good things about it?
• What were the things they would find most difficult?
Try to draw out the positives of using less fossil fuel energy (e.g. saving money by insulating your home
and wearing a jumper instead of turning up the heating; keeping fit and having fun cycling to places instead
of driving in a car; home-grown or locally grown vegetables tasting better and being healthier than
vegetables that have been flown from the other side of the world).
Activity 3: Needs and wants
Time required: 30 minutes
Aim
To raise awareness about what really makes people happy.
What to do
To follow on from the activity above, have a discussion or brainstorm (in groups or as a class) about what
people need for survival and then what the children think they need to make them happy. Draw out that,
once essential needs like shelter, food and safe drinking water are met, what human beings all need are
things like love and friendship, and open spaces/nature rather than ‘stuff’, and those don’t need to cost
money or contribute to climate change!
An alternative, extended version of this activity is titled ‘What do you need?’ and can be downloaded from
the Centre for Alternative Technology’s website http://learning.cat.org.uk/en/resources (scroll down almost
to end).
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Activity 4: Interview follow-up
Time required: 30 minutes
Aim
To follow up from the Day 2 activity ‘Has climate change affected people I know?’
What to do
If pupils carried out interviews based on the activity, ‘Has climate change affected people I know?’, time will
be needed to follow up from the interviews.
Ask for volunteers among the pupils who carried out interviews to feed back what they found out to the rest
of the class.
Then discuss as a class:
• Are there any patterns emerging?
• Did the older people feel that the climate was warmer, colder, wetter, drier, windier, or more
predictable when they were young?
• Did everybody say the same?
• How reliable was this evidence?
• Was anyone interviewed who grew up in a different country?
• If so, had the climate changed there?
• Had it changed in the same way or in a different way from New Zealand?
You could ask the pupils to write up what they had learnt from their interviews, or, if a standardised
interview was used, graphs could be produced of the results.
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