Callum Woolman
It’s a bright sunny day, quite warm actually; it’s playtime without coats. All of which is taken away from us the following week with temperature ten degrees cooler. I am asked why is this happening most days and it allows me to introduce the topic of climate which then leads to the conversation about climate change. The natural curiosity and inquisitive mind of a child is the perfect time to let them know their actions can make the world of a difference for their futures.
Throughout the science programme of study there is opportunity for pupils to learn about this, but upon closer inspection it typically comes under the ‘Living Things and Their Habitats’ topic. This suggests a creative approach is needed in order to make effective links with other subjects. Earth Day was approaching and we thought this could be an amazing opportunity for the children, from Nursery to Year 6, to take their time to appreciate the world they live in. This provided the children with ample opportunities to explore the current state of our planet and what we can do going forward.
I proposed this idea to the staff during our weekly meeting along with a wide range of resources found online. This ranged from the official Earth Day website to the Times Education Supplement where teachers submitted their tried and tested ideas. Teachers found time on the Thursday afternoon by replacing one of their science lessons in the week with an Earth Day activity and the opportunity was greatly welcomed.
We planted the seed of Earth Day through our school newsletter, building up the excitement, having a non-uniform day where they had to wear one piece of green – having a £1 donation to go towards our school’s ‘Green Fund’.
As the day was approaching children started to get excited, asking me, “Sir! It’s Earth Day tomorrow! What are we doing?” It was this excitement that enabled the children to think closely about our home planet, particularly with parents at home. It was the perfect time for the social constructivist approach to be embedded, especially with the wide range of group activities within the classrooms across the school.
Year 5 took a strong STEM approach within their Earth Day activity, working in groups to design a product which could provide a service without the use of fossil fuels. This ranged from a ‘Waterball Car’ (a car designed to run on rain water) to a ‘Charger Cycle’ (an electric bicycle designed to charge itself whilst riding).
The dialogic approach allowed pupils to bounce their ideas off each other, leading to conversations relating to science topics previously learnt, providing a rich method to retain their substantive knowledge.
Where Year 5 focused on global warming, Year 2 took a stance on recycling, creating their own recycled paper. This creativity inspired conversations about why it is important to recycle and how we can actually do it from our own home. This took a practical approach to provide an insight to how materials that we just pop into the recycling bin may ultimately take shape.
Year 4 took their Earth Day outside, exploring the inner-city environment on a ‘Pollution Patrol Walk’. This involved working in groups, identifying various pollutants through their senses and coming up with examples of how to combat them. Children first noticed the trees but upon further questioning, “Would you see this amount of trees in a park or forest?” they quickly realised that these trees provided little room for wildlife to thrive. Solutions for identified pollutants ranged from free electric cars for people who worked within the inner-city (based on conversations about the new Clean Air Zone charge in Birmingham) to electric-based aeroplanes.
Effective cross-curricular links were found within Year 3 and Year 6 where children conducted research, using secondary sources, about our home planet and relaying them through the medium of a mini-movie using iPads. Year 6 practiced their objectivity when conducting searches to map their own line graph of the changes in carbon emissions over the past forty years, painting a statistical picture of global warmth.
From discussions with children and staff, Earth Day was an effective method to promote the love of the environment, not only developing the children’s cultural capital but also their science capital. This was evident from children asking what they can do moving forward and, after discussions with our leadership team, the Geography Lead and I will be starting our school’s first Eco Council (based on the ‘Eco Schools’ framework) so our children can be at the forefront of making a positive, environmental difference.
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Callum Woolman is STEM Leader at St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary School, Birmingham and PhD Psychology student at the University of Derby (ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8712-5807).
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This article was first published in Summer 2021 in Vol 127 of the NAEE journal which is available free to members.