https://coastal.climatecentral.org

At our center we offer to school children and teachers the project "The climate changes! Are we?". 

Here is our bioclimatic building!

For adults. 

I would start with our everyday choices related to the use of energy (electricity use, consumerism, means of transport etc.), pointing out our contribution to climate change and consequently our responsibility for the loss of land or for the loss of the means to secure their livelihood in countries that do not contribute to climate change at all but nevertheless will be those that will first face its effects.

Furthermore, one can address environmental injustice in relation to other issues except climate crisis, like chocolate production and children labor in geography.   

So we teachers must take every opportunity to design situations that will enable them to express their opinion to politicians or to the public regarding the future they want for their life in the cities or the future world they want to live in. We must also show them how seemingly impossible situations have changed in the past due to people activism that fought for unjust although widely accepted beliefs. 

No matter how small an action is it has its impact to the world and there is a point in time that many small actions bring a big one. Additionally, consciously undertaking an action puts you in position to be critical toward the actions of others or the performance of our institutions. These lessons of life may be more important than school knowledge.  

Additionally, we must persuade them that knowledge and skills attained during their school life gives them powers necessary to achieve their goals for the future. That brings us to school knowledge that is taught in a way that makes sense and brings out exactly these connections to real life.

During snack break place buckets – containers for the students to put in what they would normally throw away to the garbage bin. At least one for solid food leftovers and one for package waste. Ask the students to weight them with a scale and keep record of their weight on a wallchart. Pick up different wastes and discuss with students, food waste and package waste, and relate it with climate change, biodiversity loss, water pollutants etc., discuss ideas on how can they together with parents reduce their waste. 

Continue every day, take the chance to discuss about what you find in the buckets, monitor the weight of the buckets, and allow students to adjust. Praise their effort!

We would find our city's altitude. Our city is a coastal city. 

We will check how much it will be affected by sea level rise according to worse and optimum scenarios of sea level rise. 

What about our favorite swimming beaches in summer? How will they be affected be sea level rise?

The roles the students could take would derive from the events of that day: both individuals that were influenced by the flood and public authorities that were involved in the relief of those influenced.

The debate would focus on: How can we build urban resilience?
- What we as individuals need to do 
- What we as a community need to do

a. food, and any kind of single use packaging– wrappings: we shall organize campaign to inform the whole school, and debate for the school canteen that will set rules for canteen's everyday operation. 

b. clothes, games, books etc: we shall organize campaign to inform the whole school and an exchange bazaar between the students of the school

c. tools and devices: we shall organize a lending library for adults (teachers and parents) with tools and devices we seldom use with items offered by those who possess them  

Parts of them are relatively easy but some others are difficult to apply. 

Main challenges foreseen: 

For each teacher: Practicing What We Preach  your own example is the most powerful teaching method ever invented as long as values and attitudes are concerned. 

Getting the whole school involved: the other teachers (may be the most difficult part)!

Having a school framework that allows such approaches (that is essential and at least in my country it primarily and largely depends on the ministry of education and secondly on the principal of the school)

Starting with something small that will give you the positive feedback of succeeding your target, and will allow you to get most people involved  

Inspiring people and ideas e.g. the principal of the school 

Give role to everybody 

An idea that is easy to implement is to organise the collection of olive oil cooking resuids at the school. It can activate students and families, neighbours and local autorities. The collected olive oil resuids can be  converted almost by 96% to biofuel, the school can benefit  some income this way, and the sewage network works more efficiently.

Additionally, we teachers can:

- use some of the collected oil to produce pure traditional home made soap, a practice almost abandoned even at the olive oil producing areas

- integrate the soap making process in to our chemistry lesson reffering to oils and saponification- explain the difference between home made and commercial soap

- intergrate the biofuel production to our physics and chemistry lesson

- integrate the range of olive tree in the geography lesson in the discussion about the  mediteranean climate  

-- investigate the possible effects of climate change on olive oil production and economy  of Medeterranean countries

 - focus attention on healthy diets 

-- investigate the connection of olive oil and olive trees with  civilization, art, culture, nature, landscape, biodivericity etc etc the catalogue can be quite long….
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