The Grade 6’s at Pinewood Elementary in Cranbrook have been diving deep into water this spring – and climate and sustainability, and energy and waste – all things beyond recycling. One highlight of Patty Kolesnichenko and Barb Belisle’s students was the Climate Change Solutions Board Game.
Before playing the game, the class had an intro climate lesson. We looked first at what climate is and how the greenhouse effect works. While one student embodied the Earth and dressed up in layers and layers of blankets, the whole class got to see how easily the atmosphere heats up as human-caused sources of greenhouse gases increase. We talked about natural and human-caused sources of carbon dioxide, before exploring natural and human-caused carbon dioxide sinks.
During a second climate lesson, we pulled out the Climate Change Solutions board game. In small groups, they looked at real world solutions that have been researched and tested all across the globe. The goal of lowering the global temperature before time runs out, not only got them thinking outside the box, but they were comparing and evaluating the effectiveness of different strategies.
One big take away, was that the most effective action we can take in reducing carbon emissions is to reduce (or eliminate!) food waste. Who would have thought this simple individual action could have a greater impact than so many other solutions – even those of community, provincial, national, and international scales!