Talking to kids about climate change
19th May 2008 by Alex Briggs
Stonesfield Primary School in my village in the UK recently celebrated Eco-week, a week of activities centred around environmental issues, ranging from recycling to greenhouse gases. When I heard about it, I approached the lead teacher in the campaign, Miss Eastwood about getting more information. On this site, we have podcasts, as well as articles that focus on government and business’ role in the battle against climate change. We also have research and studies looking at the consumers view on climate change issues.
As two of my children attend the school, I wanted to know what students think about climate change, and more importantly, what can they do about it!
At the end of the week, two of the classrooms gave a series of presentations on what they have learned and some of the changes they would make in their lives based on what they have learned. I went along, not really sure what to expect. I took my recorder along with me.
WOW! The understanding of both basic as well as complex climate change concepts that the children demonstrated was amazing.
Each of the groups in year 5-6 addressed a specific topic, such as CO2 emissions, recycling, water waste, etc.
The kids in year 3-4 talked about what Eco-week had meant to them, as well as some the things they had learned.
One of the fastest 90 minutes of my life passed, and the school day was over.
After listening to the recordings, it was clear that the content was definitely worth editing and uploading as an episode in our podcast series.
The students had worked really hard during the week, the teachers involved had organised a series of environmental charities and government agencies to provide first hand knowledge on the environment for the children. I felt like the result of their work, the classroom presentations, deserved a wider audience. After looking around, it was clear that there were other really good podcasts with children being the main stars, including 49 school podcasts available on this site
As we were finishing the editing, we contacted the office of David Cameron, our local member of Parliament and leader of the Conservative Party. Our hope was that his interest in climate change as well as new media (www.webcameron.org) would lead him to want to be a part of the Stonesfield School eco-week podcast.
After listening to the first edited version of the children talking about climate change, his office agreed. The result was a five minute interview, via telephone, with three of the children who gave presentations. Each of the three children’s parents agreed to have their names used on the podcast (none of the other children’s names are used in the podcast). Jak and Elena each asked Mr. Cameron a question about climate change. Then he asked Darcy from year 6 about the plans her family had to make their new home environmentally friendly.
The nervousness the three children felt was overcome by their excitement and pride in being able to talk to “someone really important.” While the children did write a few words to help them with their questions, they were not scripted and asked the questions they wanted to ask.
The school and the students are very proud of their work and very excited that their presentations are on “the internet”. Hope you enjoy listening to the children from Stonesfield School, please let us know what you think.
