Project kits

19 December 2022

SAGE: Solutions Against the Greenhouse Effect

Global warming, a result of climate change, is a phenomenon that is recognised by scientists. Unfortunately, it is disputed by some in the media and on the internet via social networks without any scientific basis.

It’s essential to implement actions to raise awareness about this problem among young people. It is necessary that they understand that global warming is mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions related to human activities.

One of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions is transportation, travel to school and work, to access different services or hobbies etc., and transporting goods.

Therefore, this kit will help you to implement a project in two parts:

• The first part will consist of analysing the greenhouse effect phenomenon and observing its effects. This kit will show you how to collaborate in doing experiments, and producing statistics of the temperature and rainfall in different countries over many years.

• The second part will provide activities to find solutions on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in particular caused by transportation.

Pedagogical Objectives

Develop the knowledge and competences of our pupils in the scientific, technological, IT, and language fields.
We chose the very engaging and current topic of global warming. Scientific knowledge in physics, chemistry, and biology about the greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases are evaluated. For the specific competences in science, many experiments and measurements can be done. IT skills are developed and applications for mobile devices can be created. Mathematics skills can also be improved with the statistical studies of weather station data.

Introduction of partners

Groups of students describe different parts of their school. Partners have to find the correct location of these parts of the school on a map.

Tip: use Learning apps (Matching pairs on image)

Each student creates a game to let the partners guess their name and what they look like.
Tip: use Learning apps (Matching pairs, The Millionaire game, Crossword, Horse race etc.)

Students create a logo for the project and post it in the TwinSpace Materials folder. The TwinSpace forum is used for commenting on these logos. A logo contest is organised. Students can vote for their favourite logo from another school but not for a logo from their school. Teachers will then select the project logo from the top-voted logos from each school.
Tip: use Framaform to create a form for voting.

Orientation

Before the activities begin, students' knowledge on the topic is evaluated with quizzes on specific vocabulary.
Tip: use Framaform to create a form for evaluating.

Scientists who are specialised in the topic (meteorologists, climatologists, etc.) are asked to come to one of the schools or hold a videoconference or audio conference for the students from all the schools. Students from all schools prepare questions in advance on a TwinSpace forum or on a collaborative document. Questions are sent to the scientists before the meeting so that they can prepare and adapt their answers. During the meeting, students ask the questions they prepared and the scientists answer. A recording of the meeting or videoconference is shared with all the partners on TwinSpace. Games or quizzes based on the scientist’s answers can be prepared by students.
Tip: use Framapad for a collaborative document.

Communication

Each school prepares an experiment protocol on the greenhouse effect and shares it on TwinSpace. The partners can implement the experiments in their own school and comment on the results. The experiments can be either on biology, chemistry, or physics, for example:

creating a bottle garden,
measuring the speed of increasing temperature of heated air compared to heated CO2,
modelling arctic and Antarctic ice and observing melting.

Tip: use the TwinSpace forum for discussing results.

Students prepare video tutorials that can help partners on specific skills, for example electronics. Arduino sensors can then be used by all partners to measure physical quantities in a real greenhouse such as temperature, humidity, CO2 rate etc.

You can organise a hackathon to let students look for a challenge that their local communities are facing concerning the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions caused by transportation and encourage them to solve this challenge.

Each student adds sticky notes (virtually or physically) on as many challenges as they can in a limited time. All challenges must be a question starting with ‘How would we…?’. The students provide a short explanation of the challenge if needed. The challenges must not be too broad or too specific.
All sticky notes are gathered. Students place three stickers on the questions they prefer. Three stickers can be placed on the same note or divided between many notes. Students are allowed to vote for their own challenges.
Ignore the questions with no vote or only one vote.
Each student gets inspiration from the internet by looking for similar problems. Each student presents three examples that can be linked to the chosen challenge.
Each student must find as many solutions as possible to the issue in a limited time. Quantity is needed, not quality. One solution per sticky note. Everybody should understand the solution without explanation.
All solutions are gathered. Every student places six stickers on their preferred solutions. Six stickers can be placed on the same note or divided between many notes. Students are allowed to vote for their own solutions.
The solutions with no vote or only one vote are ignored. A two-axis diagram is used to determine the best solution. The vertical axis is Impact and the horizontal axis is Effort. Each solution note is placed in the centre of the diagram. On ‘More or less impact?’, the students say ‘higher’ or ‘lower’. Then on ‘More or less effort?’, the students answer ‘to the left’ or ‘to the right’. Once all sticky notes with the solutions are on the diagram, the best one is the one on the upper left corner meaning that it will have the most impact with the lowest effort.
Try to implement this solution in your local community.

Tip: use Miro for an online whiteboard

Collaboration

A virtuous circle activity can be organised to make students observe the evolution of climate change. Each school collects meteorological data (temperature, rainfall, wind speed) from the closest professional weather stations over the longest period of time (50 years for example). The school sends the data to another school, which is responsible for making diagrams out of this data. The second school sends these diagrams to a third one, which is responsible for creating infographics with an analysis of the diagrams.
Tip: use Genial.ly or Canva for infographics.

Groups of students from all schools collaborate on the same document to create a survey on physical activity habits and food consumption habits. Students from each school (including students who are not taking part in the project) are then surveyed. The results can be analysed and commented on together in the TwinSpace forum.
Tip: use Framaform to create the survey.

Students collaborate and exchange ideas and technical tips to create apps for smartphones to calculate greenhouse gas emissions during transportation, and food energy and amount of physical activity needed for using this energy.
Tip: use MIT App Inventor for creating apps.

Evaluation & Assessment

Students’ knowledge is evaluated at the end of the project with the same form as at the beginning of the project. The results are shown and compared to check whether students’ skills and knowledge increased.

The satisfaction level of students’ participation in each activity can be evaluated with a more qualitative survey at the end of the project or with the TwinSpace poll tool after each activity. Results are shown and analysed.
Tip: use Framaform to create a form.

Follow up

Documentation

For all activities, a special page is created in the TwinSpace with two common parts: objectives of the activity and clear instructions with a deadline. TwinBoards are used to show students’ work and productions. If needed, external tools, such as forms, etc. are embedded in the TwinSpace pages.

Dissemination:

All major steps of the project were published in local media (newspaper and TV). Coordinators prepare various presentations of the project in different national and international workshops. We prepared exhibitions at local fairs and shared the results of the project and increased knowledge about how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the local community.

Additional information

Age from:

12
Age to:

18
Difficulty:

Intermediate

Advanced
Education type:

School Education

SAGE: Solutions Against the Greenhouse Effect

Additional information

Topics

School subjects

Key competences