Techno Fix or Frankenstein Future?
Teachers Notes Will technology provide the solutions to climate change or is technology the problem? This module examines the role of technology in providing solutions to climate change that not only reduce the problem but also helps maintain a high quality of life. The aim of this module to is to present positive solutions to climate change that not only reduce carbon emissions but also have a positive influence on quality of life. This is approached from the individual to the big picture. Climate Change Learning Outcomes – by the end of this module students should be able to: • Describe how technology could help prevent climate change. • List personal technology choices they can make to reduce climate change. • Explain how technological solutions can be implemented. • Categorise the impacts of solutions. Language Support In many of the activities you will find language support (LS) referred to. These are there to help you and your students structure language learning and make some of the tasks more manageable.
1. Techno Future What technology will the future bring? This activity looks at several quotes from young people talking about the future and the technology they would like. It looks at some of the ideas and technology that might help reduce greenhouse gases whilst maintaining a high quality of life. The activity uses quotes from young people to marry the idea that addressing climate change can also fit with a modern lifestyle. The activity uses a survey to get students opinions and then verbal report to present the results. You could try asking students what governments and NGOs currently promote as solutions to climate change and see if there are any differences with the quotes. You could use the survey results in other ways too. For example, present the results in a poster format with quotes and data displayed as graphs. You could also use the survey results to produce a class manifesto for preventing climate change. 2. Zero Carbon Housing Climate change starts to get personal when we talk about peoples personal lives. The home is a good place to start. This activity examines some solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the home. You could start this activity by asking your students how they can reduce carbon emissions from their home. List their ideas and keep them for later. After matching the boxes to titles, compare the list your students generated with the ideas below…are there any new ones? Extension Activity You could use this activity to encourage students to develop slogans, campaign ideas and even adverts promote more sustainable lifestyles.
3. Mobile Addicts? Task 1 Mobile phones have become an essential tool of the modern teenager. Ask your students to work in pairs and create a list of the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones. You could ask them to report back using compare and contrast sentences (see LS4). Mobile phones are a good example of the impact of our consumerist society. Most mobile phones are built to last 10 years but are replaced every 18 months. Although companies are starting to realise the impact of mobile phones many are not recycled. Some companies are now offering to take back old mobile phones and some are starting to design phones that can be taken apart and made into new ones.
The EU now has ‘take back’ laws from some electrical goods. This means that companies have to take back their product after the consumer has finished with it. This is encouraging companies to design products that can easily be disassembled and remade into a new product, thus creating less waste. Task 2 Now ask students, still in pairs, to read the article and discuss the questions given. Ask students to devise a short 15-20 word message promoting solutions to mobile phone waste in the form of an SMS text message. You could encourage students to send the SMS text message to their friends if they want to. 4. Cool New Ideas! The aim of this activity is to inspire students with solutions and ideas that are new and innovative. They are also ideas that could enable us to maintain a high quality of life whilst preventing climate change…a better idea than giving things up? The activity basic letter writing activity is based around ideas for a cleaner (and more fun) environment. 5. Purchasing Power In this activity students are presented with a range of information about carbon emissions and purchasing. It makes a link between the way we consume and our carbon emissions. The data shows, for example, that price of electrical appliances are falling; this would encourage more people to buy. At the same time electrical appliances are getting more efficient. But, carbon emissions in Europe have generally increased. 6. Reflecting on Climate Change This final activity is to enable you and your students to reflect on what you have learnt. There are two ways you could do this. Option 1 Ask student to work in pairs and fill out the table below. Now ask students to share their ideas in a group. The unanswered questions that students might have could be the beginnings of a new research project for students to undertake. Connections
Reflections
Questions
What connections can you make among what you’ve learned, your lifestyle, your family, school, community, or other regions?
Reflect on your learning, understandings, and discoveries. "Write about one thing you did not know before starting this module."
What questions do you still have, or what new questions have been raised?
Option 2 Use the same methodology as above. This activity could be used at the very start of the module to start students thinking, and then reviewed at the end to see if students want to change their ideas and/or add new ones. The table below allows students to reflect on actions that need to be taken at three different levels – we’ve kept it simple in this example but you could add other spheres of influence such as families, businesses and NGOs. The final column is important. It is asking, if an action is to be successful what are the key factors that influence success?
Issue – brainstorm climate change issues here
What can I do?
What can the school do?
What can the government do?
What are the success factors?
Vocabulary Revision Vocabulary activity – do you remember? Prepare a transparency of the sheet of words below. Tell the students that they are going to be shown a sheet of words on the screen for only 10 seconds and they have to try and remember as many as possible. Show the OHT. After 10 seconds remove the OHT and ask students to shout out any words they can remember and write them up on the board. Show the OHT, check what is missing. Divide the class into two groups and give each group a group name related to climate change. Print off the sheet below and cut up the words so that each one is on a separate piece of paper. Carry out the word guessing activity giving one point to each correct guess.
Gadgets
Compromising
Overwhelmed
Photovoltaic
Surplus
Gutters
Double-glazed
Insulation
Irrespective of
Footprint
Allotments
Sizeable
Chunk
Subscribe
Essential
Incentives
Upgrade
Chuck in the bin
Toxic
Recycling
Burning question
Handset
Get stuck
Wi-fi
Transmitters
Rechargers
Embedded
Renewable
Offshore
Recreation
Household appliances
Efficiency
In conjunction with
Services
Per capita