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Katharine shows kids how they can help!
While I watch the videos every two weeks, ideas start forming about what I can do in my classroom. And when I watched Katharine Hayhoe, it was no different. In addition to being an elementary teacher, I am the Global Awareness Club advisor. And I immediately thought of sharing her video with my club members. But then I thought about contacting Katharine herself and seeing if she could Skype in to my club.
Not only did Katharine agree to Skype in, she willingly Skyped with two different groups. The fourth grade students Skyped with her to learn about how they can be empowered to help stop the climate changes caused by nonrenewable energies. And the fifth grade went more global, learning about how they can affect children around the world, for both good and bad. Katharine even went so far as to create two different presentations to change the focus for each group.
Ms. Parisi’s students learn what they can do.
Katharine spoke to the children in simple-to-understand language, using graphs and pictures to explain how our climate is changing, heating up, and what that heating up is doing to various parts of the world. She answered questions about Long Island (where we live), about how they can change their energy use easily, about the recent tornados in the Midwest, and about her job as a climate scientist. She was gracious, energetic, and exciting to listen to.
Katharine told the children about simple ways to save energy. “If each home in the United States changed one incandescent bulb for one fluorescent bulb, we would save the same energy as taking 1 million cars off the road!” This really hit home. She told us that if each child walked to school one day a month this year, then two days a month next year, etc, in three years, we’d save billions of dollars we spend now on energy. This made so much sense
What can YOU do to help?
to the children that many of my students chose to walk or bike to school the very next day! They were inspired!
I cannot say enough about Katharine Hayhoe and what she did for our students. And I cannot say enough about what she did for me. She reminded me that, if I want to bring someone great into my classroom, I just have to ask. Reaching out can bring about some amazing lessons. And, who knows? Maybe one of my students will grow up to be a climate scientist, too.
