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Climate action through education Biology, Impact and Zoo, End of the World classes highlight environmental issues Caroline Petrikas, Photo and Graphics Editor and Lacy Green, Staff Writer
Biology, Impact and Zoo With project topics varying from microplastics to irresponsible dog breeding, the Upper School social impact course “Biology, Impact, and the Zoo,” teaches students to recognize prevalent problems within their communities and to devise solutions. While students are not limited to choosing from only environmental issues, many tackle problems related to climate change for their final project. Led by Biology teacher Brandi Finazzo, the class covers traditional biology content, but differs because students learn to apply knowledge and skills to a real world situation. “Over the course of a year, students build empathy by talking to people within the community and involved in their topics, develop a prototype or solution to their specific problem and ultimately compete in a ‘Shark Tank’ endeavor for funding to implement their solution,” Finazzo said. After locating their problem and devising a solution, students present their prototypes to Dallas community and business leaders, including a representative from the Dallas Zoo, who then judge the competition and select a project to fund and implement. The first quarter of the class covers the different intricate relationships that make up our hierarchy of life, Finazzo said. Then, students can understand when people affect one piece of this biological system, it affects everything else in that system. The social impact portion of the class begins in the first unit and continues throughout the year. After the introduction to these systems, students participate in a “changemakers” survey that reveals
the five largest contributors to climate change and inspires students to think about their individual impacts. According to CNN’s “Project Drawdown,” refrigeration chemicals are one of the leading causes of climate change, and curbing the chemical output from refrigerators would equate to removing 673 million cars from the roadway. “A lot of times in the past four years, the survey has provided a foundation for teams to pick their topic,” Finazzo said. “When they take the survey, it blows their mind because there are so many things that impact climate change.” When Barbara Lou ‘21 participated in the class in 2020, the survey inspired her group to develop a solution to refrigerator disposal. “After learning an overwhelming fact about improper fridge disposal during the brainstorming process, it opened my eyes on how much our daily actions impact climate change,” Lou said. Lou’s project, dubbed “The Cooler Earth,” devised a convenient solution for consumers: embedding QR codes on the back of new refrigerators that directed consumers to input their zip codes on a website. The website identified the nearest eco-friendly disposal locations for old refrigerators, Finazzo said. Lou’s project ultimately won the Shark Tank and then partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They are currently finalizing legal obligations with the EPA to implement their QR code. Lou’s final project successfully illustrated the class’ mission. “It taught me that much of our
individual choices as consumers play a part in impacting the climate, and that to capture the key to consumers’ empathy could create movements and transitions toward a more sustainable society,” Lou said. Finazzo loved seeing Lou’s and all of her students’ projects reflect what they had learned about climate change and taking action. “Seeing my students articulate their understanding and why their design is useful is a huge source of pride for me, because we’re not going to solve global warming in some small way, it’s going to be an accumulation of steps,” Finazzo said. “It’s exciting to watch them contribute to these small steps that can make a difference.”
End of the World If the Earth’s temperature continues to rise at the current rate, when will the world come to an end? That’s the question a group of seniors explored in the new semester science course, the End of the World. After being added to the course catalog last spring, the End of the World became a resource for students to explore how the world may one day come to an end, as well as to focus on the effects of climate change. The class was added to the curriculum with three main goals: - To help students see how their understanding of physics, chemistry, and biology can be integrated and applied to try to address the fundamental question: how might human civilization one day end? - To teach students tools in risk analysis — the art of making decisions given uncertain or incomplete information.
