Bridging pages

Prepare materials showing different issues that we need to be aware of, e.g. Potential research bias/agenda due to funding source/ organisational links Different focus depending on media source e.g. tabloid newspaper, serious newspaper, report.Information changes over time as a result of emerging research/developing ideasInfluence that framing can have, i.e. that the way things are presented can potentially guide thinking.
Give each small group a set of materials that focuses on one of the above issues. Ask each group to study their materials to see what they notice.
Whole group – report back what they have noticed.
Plenary discuss the need to be alert and to evaluate sources.

Organise an action in the community:

  1. Identifying the needs: Students make micro-interviews asking people a) whether they know about issues related to life below water b) what they think about it c) if they know of possible measures taken at a local and/or international level to solve existing problems. They could ask
    • a) in the school (e.g. housekeeper, director, teachers or other students…, adding questions on measures taken regarding life below water in the school (e.g. where does the sewage water go, how are micro-pollutants treated in the chemistry lab, etc.)
    • b) local politicians, adding questions on how they manage this issue
    • c) on the street on life under water in the area and/or worldwide and
    • d) some experts on life under water in the area and/or worldwide.


    The aim would be to identify what points the public needs more information about.
  2. Choosing a measure relating to the needs: After having shared an overview of what knowledge people in the community have and don’t have, in groups students think of possible ways to enhance people’s attentiveness to the issues related to life under water. They present them to the rest of the group and the class chooses a set of measures that could realistically be implemented by the class (e.g. organise a conference or film for the school and the community, write to the politicians with possible measures they could take, make a radio broadcast or a poster exhibition, have a stand in a market, etc.)
  3. The class implements the measure.

At the end of the process, discuss what worked well and what didn’t, what everybody has learnt and how collective action works.

Walking the talk: ask learners to develop their ideas for combating climate change into practical projects to resolve an issue (or adding new value) in their locality. Climate change related local issues are identified by students using the Investigation, Vision, Action, Change (IVAC) approach.

Waste management in the school restaurant: ask learners to document specific behaviours which contribute to climate change and discuss actions to be taken to change attitudes and behaviours of fellow students.

Case study method

From a selection of resources:
In groups, students:

  1. study issues related to bluefin tuna cases
  2. Imagine innovations (technological, social, economic, etc.) to preserve this species.
  3. Present the results obtained and ideas for preservation in the form of an exhibition e.g. using posters, photos, maps

Whole group: Decide on an issue to do with sustainability e.g. use of plastic, trophy hunting, over fishing, waste

Small groups: Brainstorm at least 15 ways that this could be taught to a given age range

Whole group: Share and discuss ideas and approaches

Note how creative we become after the first five ‘usual ideas’ have been suggested!

Role-play method

Form four groups of students. Each group has a selection of people:

  1. Representatives of an environmental NGO
  2. Representatives of political authorities (State or regional)
  3. Representatives of a fishermen’s association
  4. Representatives of consumers
  5. Representatives of the scientific world (biologists, geographers, historians)
  6. Observer.

Activities

  1. Everyone prepares the arguments to defend their interests in particular area of sea.
  2. Role-play a meeting between the representative from each group.
  3. Observer summarise main arguments and points made from their group meeting
  4. In plenary make a list of arguments and points made by each set of representatives
  5. In plenary discuss ways of finding a sustainable compromise between the various stakeholders.

In groups, students allocate as many of these roles as possible, (starting from the top):

This makes up the governing body of a local educational institution.
Government policy is to take the institution out of local authority control and make it a ‘free’ school, meaning you are able to decide for yourselves its future direction.

Task A

Group: Discuss what should be the focus/vision from your perspective. Try to win the others around to your idea
Facilitator: Listen and take notes. Decide who makes the most compelling argument/who ‘wins’

Task B

Facilitator: stage another discussion.
This time try to find a focus/vision that can satisfy all members of the group.
A win-win?
Plenary reflect on the different experiences.

Photo-language and creative writing method: Learners imagine and then learn about different stakeholder perspectives on marine biodiversity.

  1. A set of pictures representing various aspects of life below water (including human and non-human ones such as fish) are spread on a table. Each learner picks one picture that touches him/her.
  2. Learners explain why they have chosen their picture, and what link they can make with life under water.
  3. Each learner then writes a very short story as if he/she was the aspect represented on the picture attempting to make its perspective regarding life under water explicit (eg. “As a fish, I particularly appreciate in …/As a commercial fisherman I…”).
  4. Each learner adds one sentence regarding what a sustainability issue (e.g. climate change) could mean for them (eg. “As a coral reef I fear not being able to adapt to rising water temperatures”)
  5. The different stories are read aloud in front of the whole group, and different sets of underlying values are made explicit. A discussion is held on which aspects are in favour or not of sustainable management of the common good “life below water”.
  6. The discussion can then be related to texts presenting “real” perspectives on the issue of various stakeholders/scientific knowledge on life below water, including all these aspects.

Reflect on the power flows as it currently exists in North/South relations in terms of access to resources, economic and commercial relations, responsibilities for present climate change damage, unequal effects on populations and countries, migration and conflict related to climate change, etc. and consider what values it seems to represent. Then, in a group, reflect on how power flows need to change in order to implement climate mitigation strategies and discuss what values this change seems to represent.

Act as if your life was depending on life under water through the method of “image theatre”.

  1. A ‘photograph’ of a scene in which various submarine animals and plants as well as humans is created by a group of learners. The scene represents a situation where there is overexploitation of natural resources by big fisheries which impact on the traditional fisherfolk and their families, as well as the animals and plants represented. Only those acting know what the scene is, they stay in place without moving and the rest of the group has to find out what the situation is about.
  2. A student not involved goes to one of the people acting (anyone except the big fishery representative) and asks him/her how they feel being in this situation.
  3. The student then takes the place of that person in the picture, reformulates how his/her predecessor felt and acts it.
  4. The process can be repeated a few times with other stakeholders, before asking the big fishery representative how he/she feels.

A second image can then be set up with a more sustainable situation, and the process can start again.