LWC Teacher Case Study Name: Charlotte Cavallaro School/organization: The Gryphon School Role: Teacher of Geography

1. Briefly describe the activity you delivered in your classroom, including the ages of children/young people:

COP26 was taught to Year 8 as a sequence of 7 lessons.

1. Human causes of climate change
2. Climate justice and the impacts of climate change
3. COP26 preparation lesson – Conference and countries introduced
4. COP26 preparation lesson – Time to research prepare 1 minute speech
5. COP26 conference.
6. The UK’s energy mix
7. What energy mix is most sustainable for the future in the UK - assessment

2. How did the activity addressed climate change?:

The activity taught the causes and impacts of climate change and students reflected on which countries were largely responsible for carbon dioxide emission and which were the first to feel the impacts. Fairness of this was considered. Students then used this knowledge as a foundation to research the approach of a specific country to climate change and were able to verbalise this during their speeches and through discussion with other countries.

3. What was your students / colleagues reaction to the activity? :

Students were really engaged with the fact that the UK was hosting COP26 and were really interested in the causes and impacts of climate change, they had a lot of prior knowledge here. Students who had a connection to their country were far more likely to get passionate about their research, e.g. a boy with Indian family did amazing research into India’s position. There was a lot of excitement around familiar countries. Students definitely valued the opportunity to learn more about the issue of the day.

4. How would you develop the activity in the future? What are the pros and cons?

The challenges were engaging all students in a mixed ability setting with worksheets that had complex vocabulary and a lot of information in a global context. In the classroom environment students who had found it hard could be a little disengaged. I do feel that all students should have the opportunity to take part and in future would differentiate information sheets and also book into the Conference Centre so students are in a more formal setting for the conference itself. I would also like to run it as a Challenge Plus activity so the academically gifted students can really get involved in complex debate.