Climate.
It’s a troublesome word, anxiety inducing for many. But in Beyond Recycling, we try our best to focus on solutions. After learning the mechanics of greenhouse gasses and dressing up someone as the warming earth, we shifted away from the causes climate change and spent a couple of days discussing solutions. “While many students already know about climate change by grade 6, they don’t yet have an understanding of solutions. The problem is large and they don’t know how to start thinking about solutions.” Shares Educator Ms Kim, “It’s my goal to slow down here and have them understand that A) a lot of positive things are already happening, and B) every action adds up. This is a multi-faceted problem, with many angles to approach solutions.”
The “Solutions Board Game” is one way Ms Kim brings solutions to the forefront. The grade 5/6s in Ms Spensley’s class at McKim Middle School got a chance to explore and test their understanding of many different at real world solutions that have been researched and tested all across the globe. Working as a team, they had to select the climate strategies that would keep global temperatures as low as possible before time ran out in 2025.
This engaging, interactive and fun game had them thinking outside the box, learning about many new solutions strategies and critically thinking about which ones would be more effective across different populations. Students really appreciated the positive spin on the climate discussion that is so prevalent in the world these days.
