Topic/Title of activity:
Global footprints, global warming and flooding
Objective of activity:
- to revisit children’s global footprints
- to explore the causes and process of global warming
- to assess one possible consequence of global warming: flooding
in UK and Mozambique
- to return to an investigation of children’s lifestyles in light of the above: hopes and possibilities
Length of activity: 1hr, 30 minutes
Description of activity:
A short recap of the global footprint activity and children’s scores.
What did children get, what are the implications of this? A representation of these
scores at the front of the class in the form of two different size cardboard feet
(below 100; between 100 and 200) used relationally to a world map.
Focus is given to the issue of the greenhouse effect and global warming as
one consequence of a large global footprint. Brain storm the meaning of the concepts,
including drawing a simple diagram showing the greenhouse effect.
Carbon dioxide will emerge as a contributory factor - a clip from
‘climate change’ video 3 of the BBC’s the geography programme (4.20 - 12.10)
shows how scientists determine the increased level of CO2. The video needs
to be put in context before viewing and afterwards questions discussed/answered.
Where does CO2 come from? Class activity which uses drawings of the four main
sources of CO2 with a short caption below each describing the illustration
(factories, cars, burning wood, burning waste). The captions are covered over and
children quickly write down what they think each picture shows. One child can then
say what they think a picture is, followed by coming to the front of the class and revealing
what
the actual caption says.
Whilst explaining the four different sources of CO2
information can be included that will be required for a short quiz on oil/global warming
to follow (from Global Express, edition No.23). Children complete the true/false quiz in
pairs and questions are discussed/answered as a class.
Focus is given to the issue of rainfall/flooding as one possible consequence
of global warming. The water cycle is introduced using a kettle.
Whilst having the
kettle boiling and emitting steam children brain storm what happens
in the water cycle
and the result of a hotter element in the kettle/warmer global climate
(can be reinforced by drawing on the board).
Children are asked to describe any experiences they had in the floods last year
(experiences getting to school; stories from relatives in other parts of the country).
The idea that floods happen all over the world is introduced and specifically
the case of Mozambique. A brief description of Mozambique as a country is given
including photographs showing rural as well as urban areas.
Children, in groups of four, initially look at a first set of UK flood pictures
(taken from various daily newspapers) . Speech bubbles are filled in by the groups,
choosing what particular people out of the various images might say. The groups are
then presented with Mozambique flood pictures (from Global Express, edition 20) and
children see if they can transfer any of the speech bubbles to people in the pictures.
Groups discuss why they can and cannot do this followed by a whole class feedback session
A recap is made interactively with class in terms of the overall links that have been made:
large footprints contribute to global warming; global warming very possibly contributes to
flooding; last year flooding affected us directly here in the UK and people in Mozambique.
Adapted global footprint ‘score’ sheets are handed out. Instead of each category having a
score there is now a box for ‘one thing I would like to do’. To be filled in for homework
with parents.
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