The last two week we have spent our time looking at Climate Change and the best way to teach it.

Whilst many people try to deny the existence or the major issues surrounding Climate Change,  the evidence and the devastating effects are hugely prominent.

Due to the nature of this topic and the fact that it has such a large topic base, it is more appropriate to explore in depth with second level students rather than first level.

In our lecture, we looked at a brief introduction to teaching climate change and the main issues surrounding the topic itself and the issues that can occur when going to teach it. Our first workshop looked at further links with politics and policies. We looked in depth at how climate change affected people in certain case studies and what their governments could do to support them.

Our last workshop was a practical workshop with a range of science experiments we could use in a classroom to further consolidate the physical features of climate change. These activities were very beneficial to my understanding in both how to teach climate change and an insight into the physical factors.

For our directed study task, I watched a video explaining the effects on the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps and how we were causing them to melt. This shocked me as many of the things I learned are simple things that if we all banded together we could change. When I looked at my carbon footprint, it astounded me that it was so high. The main reason for this was due to my long daily commutes from Dumfries. Once I finish my course, then I can walk or cycle to work, but currently, it is too far from me.