Introduction
This free education resource has been developed based on films submitted in 2021 to the British Council’s ‘Climate action – school video competition’.
This video in the Climate Connections series looks in detail at projects in three schools, which aim to solve local and global problems through active pupil engagement in environmental challenges. Using student videos mainly from Indonesia and one from Lebanon, the video gives a youth voice on projects in planting and water conservation. A common theme is the determination of school communities to act where they see problems.
The video is approximately 5.40 minutes, comes with a full set of teaching and student resources for a 60-minute ELT lesson themed on solving Environmental problems, and is in English graded at CEFR level B1.
The British Council’s Climate Connection is a global initiative, uniting people around the world to meet the climate challenge.
Learning outcomes
All learners will:
- use words related to the greenhouse effect
- discuss important ways to protect the planet
- write social media posts to encourage people to come to an event
Materials
The materials can be downloaded below in PDF format.
- Teacher guide
- Student pack
- Video transcript
- Video available on this page below
Procedure
Stage
5
Before watching
- Have learners look at the picture on their worksheet and ask them what they think the girl is dressed as (a plant). Then have them read the questions and discuss their ideas in pairs.
- Get feedback from the class and ask follow-up questions, e.g. Do you think plants are important at school? How can plants help the school environment?
- Note: Watch out for these terms: photosynthesis (n), greenhouse gasses (n), to ban (v)
10
While Watching – Activity A
- Tell learners they are going to watch a video about different students around the world that are working hard to make their schools greener.
- Elicit things they think the students might be doing, for example, planting trees or recycling plastic.
- Then play the video once, have learners read the three social media posts and tick the one they think best describes the video.
- Have learners compare their answers in pairs, before checking as a class.
Answer key: number 2 (International students are working hard to fight the climate crisis). - Extension activity: If time, have learners write their own tweets about the video.
10
While watching – Activity B
- Ask learners to read the sentences and explain there is a mistake in each one.
- Then watch the video again and have them correct the mistakes.
Answer key:
1. The School of Exploring is in INDONESIA
2. The Unhappy School is surrounded by CONCRETE.
3. In the school in the Philippines they can’t use SINGLE USE WATER BOTTLES.
4. In India they made a filter to help them CLEAN the water.
5. The school in India uses SOLAR power.
15
After watching – Speaking
- Draw learners’ attention to the different ways that schools can help protect the planet and explain any difficult vocabulary (e.g. Eco club or petition).
- Then, put them in pairs and have them order the ideas by how important they think they are - 1 being the most important and 8 being the least important.
- Monitor them while they do this and note down any examples of good language use, and anything which could be improved.
- Go round each pair and get them to tell the class which idea they think is the most important and why.
- Then as a whole class decide on the three most important actions and discuss how easy they would be to implement at their school and how popular they think they would be.
- Finally offer some feedback on language use.
20
Writing
- Tell learners to imagine they have their own eco club at school (if they don’t already have one) and that they are going to plan a fundraising event to raise money for it which they will share on social media.
- In small groups they should read the questions and make notes about their event using the boxes provided - when, where, who, what.
- They should then use their notes to write a short social media post to try and encourage people to come to the event and help them raise money.
- Inform students that a good social media post needs to be short and engaging, but must contain all of the relevant information about the event including what the money will eventually be spent on.
Optional CLIL project
Stage
20
Research
- As an extension from the writing activity, learners are going to plan an event in more detail to raise money for their eco club.
- Ask learners if they have ever been to a fundraising event.
- Brainstorm ideas for fun activities that could take place that they think people would pay for. Have them research the cost of some typical materials they might need to promote and host the event.
- Then, tell learners that they have to plan the event with a maximum budget of £200. The event should enable their eco club to raise funds but also promote sustainable actions at the same time.
20
Preparation
- In groups, learners decide the activities that will take place at the event. e.g. a local band, treasure hunt, photo booth etc. They must create a final shopping list and then calculate the cost using a British supermarket website such as tesco.com.
- Learners must also decide how the event will raise funds e.g. ticket sales and donations and what they will do with the money after.
30
Production
- Give learners time to create a presentation outlining how they will spend their money, how much they hope to raise and the environmental issue the eco-club will invest the money in.
20
Reflection
- Once they finish, learners can share their presentation with their classmates and have them vote to decide which option is the most realistic way of raising money for the eco club.
Downloads
File attachments
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