Activities

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Person A: Talk about yourself to your partner. Person B: Now imagine you are Person A based on what you have heard and introduce yourself as if you are Person A. Now try the same in reverse. How did that feel? Listening to the other person speak as you? Speaking as the other person?

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Group activity. In your group, divide a piece of paper into 3 columns. Head one column ‘Understanding others’. In this column write words that help describe understanding others. Head the next column ‘sympathy for others’. Underneath, write words that help describe/define this. In the final column, write empathy. Write words that help describe/define empathy. What do you see as the difference between these three?

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Group activity. Students are shown a selection of pictures containing people in a range of different situations. Students discuss how they think each of the characters are feeling and why they think that.

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Students are shown different pictures relating to sustainability and asked to record their emotional responses. They then discuss in groups these responses – why they felt like that, how they recorded them, how they tend to react to things.

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Simulation /Role play: Provide a scenario explaining the current situation of an SD problem. Suggest a number of alternative solutions to the problem. Assign roles to the learners and ask them to collaborate following the jigsaw collaborative approach to examine each alternative through the different lenses of the different roles and reach a consensus on the most suitable solution.

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Debate: Provide a scenario explaining an existing current problem in your city. The solution will clearly affect the citizens in the future (in terms of economy and nature) and a decision needs to be taken by the city board members. Provide the two alternative solutions to the problem (e.g. road cuts through the park or road goes around the park). Ask the learners to explore how either solution can affect the lives of the citizens, as well as discuss the SD dimensions of each solution. Form groups according to the solution they support and set a debate on which solution should be followed.

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Using post it notes, students jot down ideas for things that might occur in the future with a suggested year and put it on the time line. Plenary discuss projections, why people made them and if they can be categorised into different types of predictions.

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Close your eyes and sit in silence – relax. Now listen for 10-15 minutes while someone asks you to imagine yourself in 30 years time but imagine it is a positive future. Tell the class/group that they should think of themselves as the age that they are today but the year is 20xx. Now, with a series of pre-planned statements and questions, take them through the process of waking up, asking details about what their bed is like, what they have for breakfast, the clothes they wear (and where they bought them). Ask them to think about the work they might be doing or the school they might be attending; what job might they hope to do? How do they travel? How do they talk to friends and connect with family? What are they planning to do that evening? Allow plenty of long pauses between each question so people have time to imagine the details and think about how it feels, sounds, tastes, smells. After a final long pause ask the group to open their eyes and share with their neighbour or small group, the things they imagined or envisioned. Give each pair/small group a sheet of flip-chart paper and marker pens and ask them to illustrate their ideas so they can share with the wider group. After sharing and now back in pairs/groups, think about the first steps that you will need to take in order to start the journey towards that positive future.

NB This can be a very emotional experience for some people. Be sensitive to the impact it can have and be sure that everyone has the support they need when they ‘come back’ to the present.

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Small group activity. Half of the groups write ‘Good things about the world as I see it’ the other ‘Concerns about the world as I see it’ in the middle of their sheets and then brainstorm and write on their sheets things that come to mind. Groups then swap sheets and see if they agree with comments made and if they have anything else to add. Plenary discuss the sorts of things that came up, feelings, commonalities, differences and to make the point that sometimes the things that people like are other people’s concerns. Take one example as a whole group and discuss how that came about.