As educators we know that the way to teach about any subject, is approaching it from different angles and using different methods. Climate science can be fairly complicated and using visualizations and hands on examples can help make the the greenhouse or albedo effect, sea level rise (see recent blog entry), or any climate related phenomena much easier to understand. Multiple delivery methods are important, as are multiple methods of student expression. Our Grades 3-6 curriculum provide students with the opportunity to produce their own climate change message, whether through a movie, brochure or poster. In addition, the video and audio excerpts from our expeditions provide eyewitness to climate change in the Arctic. Today I have included a video recently produced from NASA that does a nice job of providing visualizations association with the science of climate change. It is short and to the point and does not have the gloom and doom feel of some recent videos, which instead of empowering youth to find solutions, can discourage them. Finally, I have included a song that a group of youth I have worked with at the Science Museum of Minnesota produced. They are young people looking for solutions and hoping to be a voice for the low income communities in which many of them live. Their song recently won the grand prize in a contest sponsored by Green For All . The song they produced is a perfect illustration of empowering students by providing them with a means to express themselves.
Find more music like this on Climate Change Youth
Teach Climate
March 10, 2010
By: Kristen Poppleton, Senior Director of Programs