SUSTAINABLITY WITH CHILDREN.

Date: 10th April 2014.

Venue: Atlas  Primary School, Dar Es Salaam Tanzania.

Audience: Class 6 Students And Teachers.

Topic: Climate Change.

 

hello everyone, after i heard about the eco school kit competition i was so impressed and i though the best students to be in my school kit class would be primary school kids. So one morning i walked to a primary school near by called Atlas Primary School and asked to speak to the Head Master of the school. After a long discussion about Tunza Eco Generation and their school kit activity he was impressed and convinced that its a nice activity and he referred me to the academic mistress who a signed me a lesson with class six student on 10th April at 12 to 13 hours. I was so impressed with my achivement and so i contacted one of my friends whose so much involved in environmental awareness and asked him to join me on 10th.

 

10th April was a good day, its now raining heavily here so its hard to move around but thanks to the weather that day it did not rain so we could move around on foot with out getting wet. I arrived at the school at 11:30 had some time to familialize with the school and the teachers, at exactly 12 we were escorted to the class with the academic misterss and their we met  a very lovely and active class eagerly waiting for us. So we started by doing self introduction and explaing our eco generation school kit program.

 

Due  to the large number of students and limited  time i could not let each sudent introduce themselve as the ice breaking activity in the understanding climate change kit. So insted i grouped the class into four groups according to the season of the year and each group got to introduce themselves out loud and say the characteristc of their season. Indeed it was an icce breaking since the class become more alive and the method i used of letting them wok togerther in groups was effective. Immedietly after that i startded my presentation, unfortunatly due to limited resourses i could not project by presentation but i took my laptop and passed around the class while asking them what do they see on the picturers found on the slide notes and what season did each picture represent. After that i asked how good they felt see such beautiful places on how effects of climate change are going to destroy that beauty, right after that i went into defining climate and the difference between climate and weather, but before i  gave my definition i passed the question to the students they tried telling me about what the understsnd on the two concepts and then i procceded to telling them the answer. That is the sytem i used for each slide. I wanted to have a partipatory class, and a more fun one. After teaching about the atmospher and the greenhouse gases( GHG?s) the class got more interested to know how human activities can affect the atmospher and how sever can it be. So i told them about how agriculture, livestock keeping, deforestation, transport and biomass burning emmits gasses that destroy our environment and told them about water scarcity, hunger, drought, diseases such as malaria, rise of sea level, and many other effects. That  made my class go silence since every one was sad and scared and asking how soon are we going to face these effects. So i told them actualy most of the effects are already felt today and their sever and many more to come if no one takes action. Before we did mitigation and adoptation we had to do tha hands on activity( balancing cabon) since everyone looked scared i had to cheer them up by asking the to draw in there groups carbon boosters and busters. It was a successful one since they participated very well and each group got to present there drawing to the whole class. I also challanged them to the best drawing and explanations would get a prize.

 

Lastly i winded my session with the mitigation and adoptation of climate change effects, we talked about various actions an individual could  make to stop futher damage and what has our nation done so far, and what are the actions taken by international communities. So i had reserved one part of the hands on activity part which i thought would be more relevant after i taught about individual responsibilty. I asked them to prepare a hand fun with the pare they use to draw boosters and busters and told them thats one of individual action using a had fun does not require electricity and more over it sva energey when there is no much need of an electrical fun. That was my final teaching and i gave the facts sheets to the class teacher and some other materials and gifts to the students to encourage them to do more for the environment.

 

Feedback

1.      The seasonal challange (B) it was a nice way to interact with the class howevr i though if you have a big class its hard for each student to intoruce themselves using this seasonal challange. Instead i grouped the class into seasons of the year.

2.      Power piont presentation (A) it was very easy to understand it even to a person who is no familia with geografical facts. I used only few minutes to gothrough it and explained to to my partern abd the teachers and students loved the presentation

3.      Balancing carbon(A) a good activity that makes students feel there change makers since they can identify the negative things that destroy the environment and the positive things that people are requierd to to to save the environment.

4.      (A) very interactive since students got to answer alot of questios and participate in activty too.

5.      All activities were the best to me.

6.      The eco school kit is one of the best, it has a different teacthing style unlike the most common ones we have in our schools. Sinces its my first time to use the school kit i feel that its enough as it meets the requirements as a school kit.