Creative Inspiration
Local: The Walthamstow Garden Party is still on; this year you have to get more active in making your own fun. Artillery’s Same Sky programme offers lots of ideas to get creative and get outdoors.
National: This November a virtual Youth Climate Summit is taking place. Students can enter a competition to design a logo that will be used on all the event information. Deadline 15th July.
Students can also get active by encouraging their teachers to sign the school up to take part.
Summer Action:
Do you feel inspired by imaginative responses to difficult issues?
Who needs galleries?!
Write a poem, decorate a powerful quote or design a placard for your front window. Global Climate Strike provides downloadable graphics, fonts and templates for Just Recovery Art.
More resources on racism, anti-racism and climate justice
Following the previous episode we’ve been sent or discovered many more eye-opening, inspiring and heart felt resources on this subject.
A Parent’s Guide to Black Lives Matter has activities and tips including ‘How do I explain George Floyd to my children?’ and ‘A Guide to Allyship’. A concise summary of a difficult subject for any age.
Lesson plans for parents or teachers:
Global Dimensions specialise in bringing a global dimension to education. Search key words such as ‘racism’, ‘slavery’, ‘black history’ and ‘colonialism’ on the website to find resources such as Ending Slavery- an unfinished business (KS 4)
For young people and adults:
A 4 min film by We Are POCC features first and second generation immigrants discussing the impacts of climate change on their ancestral homes and the UK.
Have You Heard George’s Podcast? (approx. 25 min each) – a moving mix of storytelling, music, fact and fiction that delves into present day community, identity, race and inequality.
Connecting with… soil
Soil can easily be forgotten beneath our feet but it is vitally important. Soil 101 (2.5 min) by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation introduces why.
Worried about children playing in mud?
Mud, mud, glorious mud (2 min read) by Badger Forest School Bristol explains how harmless bacteria in soil can be good for us (children and adults).
Summer Action:
Perfect for a window herb garden – Make your own very mini compost heap in a 2 litre plastic bottle.
Already growing some veg? – Make some organic liquid fertiliser in a plastic bottle.
Have some outside space? – Make a simple DIY wormery and recycle your kitchen scraps.
The Wellcome Explorify site has lots of science focused activities. To discover more about soil check out ‘Bottoms Up’ about dung beetles (age 5-7) and ‘Tiny bits and pieces’ (ages 7-9). Free sign up to this site required.
Discover different types of soil in your garden and/or local park using Garden Organic Soil Sorting Activity sheets (lower KS-2). More information for adults to support this activity here.
Summer Challenge:
The Japanese art of shiny mud balls – hikaru dorodango – is a delightful combination of play and mindfulness. Follow this guide and see how spherical and polished you can make your ball.
Exploring… carbon
The carbon cycle is one of the essential cycles for life on earth. These animations for children and young people (and old people too) explain how it works and how it has been disrupted.
‘Wake Up, Freak Out’ explains terms like tipping point, albedo effect and feedback loops.
For children:
Nasa Climate Kids answers ‘Why is carbon important?
Discover the power of solar energy by making a solar oven using materials such as an old pizza box and tin foil.
Summer Goal:
Use the WWF Footprint Calculator to estimate your annual carbon emissions. Try doing it for before and during COVID-19 lockdown.
Does it change? Are there things you can do or not do to keep your carbon footprint lower in the future
For older students/ adults:
The phrase ‘net zero carbon’ is used a lot. This BBC bitesize article explains ‘What would carbon neutrality mean for the UK?’
Carbon capture and storage is one method proposed to enable the UK to reach net zero carbon by 2025. Watch this video (2 min) on The Hard Facts behind Carbon Capture and Storage.
Discuss the benefits of this technology. Can you think of any potential negative consequences that the film doesn’t talk about?