Geog HoD • SLT (T&L) • GIS Advocate • Shared Ed • Esri UC Mainstage presenter 2019 • Edtech50 UK Award 2021 • RGS OS Award 2022 • GA Excellence in Geog Leadership 2024 • PQH • Journal & textbook author • Public speaker •
Climate change is one of the most important topics we teach our pupils about. But there is a tension at the heart of our ethical responsibilities as teachers regarding this topic: we have an ethical imperative to teach our pupils about the urgency and scale of the threats we face. But we also have, in a context of growing ecoanxiety, an ethical responsibility towards the mental health of our young people. So how do we teach the urgency whilst not tipping our pupils into despair? We do so by teaching for agency. I've been exploring how to address this in a large GIS citizen science project involving 10 schools in Craigavon Area Learning Community (CALC). Hundreds of young geographers are using GIS to collect data about tree coverage and health in the streets where they live (trees can play a vital role in moderating urban heat island temperatures). This huge data set will then be analysed by our pupils and we want them to be able to present it to the local council, to amplify the young people's voices and enable them to be the citizens of today, not just tomorrow. By giving our pupils agency in this way, we are enabling them to see that, though the challenges are huge, there are steps we can - and must - take. Find out more about this exciting programme in this promo video. https://lnkd.in/edDX7DNZ
Principal Consultant at Paul Ganderton Consulting
7moFascinating. I'll be delving into this. Stand by for questions! I do agree that we need to tread the careful line between eco-optimism and doomsterism, neither of which really work on the developing brain. However, the idea that they can actually do something (unlike our generation that knows what to do but refuses to do it) could be quite powerful.