CSEJ Students Share Their Call-to-Action Journey with 6th Grade

Last week, members of the Upper School Climate Science and Environmental Justice class visited with 6th graders to share a special project. Upper School Science teacher Xiao Zhang shared more about this series of visits:

[Sixth grade Science teacher] Carla Shortino, [Upper School History teacher and Department Co-Chair] Andy Bigelow and I organized this event. Eighteen Climate Science and Environmental Justice class students were divided into four groups, with each group presenting their Call-to-Action project to one section of 6th graders.

The Call-to-Action project asks each student in CSEJ to figure out a personal action they can take to make a significant impact on their carbon footprint. Students learned how specific preferences—for example, eating beef, using single-use plastic, taking long hot showers or exclusively using non-electric cars for local transportation—might cause large amounts of CO2 emission and ways to take action to mitigate the emission.

Because 6th grade students are also learning about the Earth and climate change this year, we thought it would be great to have the US students present to each section. The 6^th grade class is talking about taking their own actions to mitigate CO2 emission, thus reducing their personal carbon footprint. The CSEJ students presented some options, discussed their experiences and brainstormed with the 6th graders.

Taking action on mitigating climate change is not only important in itself, but also an important vehicle for learning and practicing democratic citizenship and leadership.

Click here for photos.