Period 3 - Jena Flores

[CALIS]

Thank you for participating in TIRP service-learning outreach!

Your reports are the basis for academic credit. Whether or not you are seeking a credit option, reports are required as a record of your teaching complex issues in local schools.

1. For each report, select Post Reply. (Do not select New Topic)
2. Copy/paste from your Word file and save a copy until after the semester is over.
3. Before pasting, confirm that you have met the minimum of at least 500 words.
4. Each report must be submitted within 3 days after each session.

Remember:
a. The webboard is public. Do not refer to students by name; instead call them Student A, B or C. If you include names, commentary or observations, you will need to revise your post.
b. Guiding questions for reports are provided in section F of the Requirements & Guidelines.
c. If you include too much focus on the step-by-step process of the lesson rather than content, you may be asked to revise your report.

A CALIS staff member will review your report each week and post a message below of the scoring for your performance evaluation.
We welcome any questions or concerns you have about scoring.
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Session 1
On time: 3/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 15/15

Nice work, Jena! I'm glad you were able to build on the knowledge the students already had regarding climate change. However, you only provided two specific comments from students--these should reference particular things student say rather than general statements about participation. You are free to add another comment to get full points! -CT on 2/21

Session 2
On time: 3/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 15/15

Great report, Jena! Even though the reading posed a challenge, your team did a great job at pushing the students for detailed and stronger answers. Keep it up! -CT on 2/27

Session 3
On time: 3/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 15/15

Nice job, Jena! Sounds like you had a fun and interactive session! Love the hashtag idea -CT on 3/6

Session 4
On time: 0/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 12/15

Great last report! I like how you wrapped things up, encouraging students to continue thinking about climate change. Thanks for your commitment to TIRP! -CT on 3/22

[Jena Flores]

The learning objective for this session was to understand “What is Climate Change?” and the basics of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. We first asked the students if they knew some basic examples of the causes and effects of climate change. The students had some understandings of everyday causes of climate change such as pollution but were not sure of the specifics. We then showed them a 2 minute video explaining some specifics on climate change, which was a very helpful tool. We then introduced mitigation and adaptation. Since most of them were unclear of what exactly they meant, and of the difference between the two, we explained in further detail in order for them to understand. For this session, we had decided to focus on mitigation, as we are focusing on adaptation in the next session. We did this by using the Akon Lighting Africa case study.

Unfortunately, there were many students missing from class this session. However, quite a few of the students who were present were able to eagerly and enthusiastically contribute to the class discussion. When asked about the causes and effects of global warming, Student A responded that fossil fuels were a main cause. However, when asked if Student A or the class knew any specific examples, they were not able to specify any at the time. Later, after watching the video we had prepared, many students brought up greenhouse gasses as a contributor to climate change. We then asked for any specific greenhouse gasses that they could name and Student B brought up CO2. The class also brought up other causes that they had seen in the video and were new to them. Multiple students paid great attention to the video and some even took notes--something we did not ask them to do, but greatly appreciated. There was also a group of students, C, D, and E who, in the beginning, were hesitant to participate but after talking in their small group and interacting with us as we walked around, were able to volunteer their answers. Student D in particular seemed very excited to get involved and along with student E volunteered to read part of the case study outloud to the class-- something we did in order to ensure the class actually read the articles.

Overall, we were able to interact with the students well and the contributions were better than we had anticipated. We encouraged the students to cooperate, even if it meant just reading the case study out loud. Next time, we hope to make the class more interesting so that the students would be able to focus more, such as by having shorter videos or videos that are not only informative but exciting and interesting to watch. We will also try to have more interactive games other than just group work and popcorn reading. Furthermore, one of our members struggled to talk due to her losing her voice, however; by next week, we will definitely be able to communicate better and be able to interact with the students more.

[Jena Flores]

The learning objective for this session was to understand “What is Climate Change?” and the basics of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. We first asked the students if they knew some basic examples of the causes and effects of climate change. The students had some understandings of everyday causes of climate change such as pollution but were not sure of the specifics. We then showed them a 2 minute video explaining some specifics on climate change, which was a very helpful tool. We then introduced mitigation and adaptation. Since most of them were unclear of what exactly they meant, and of the difference between the two, we explained in further detail in order for them to understand. For this session, we had decided to focus on mitigation, as we are focusing on adaptation in the next session. We did this by using the Akon Lighting Africa case study.

Unfortunately, there were many students missing from class this session. However, quite a few of the students who were present were able to eagerly and enthusiastically contribute to the class discussion. When asked about the causes and effects of global warming, Student A responded that fossil fuels were a main cause. However, when asked if Student A or the class knew any specific examples, they were not able to specify any at the time. Later, after watching the video we had prepared, many students brought up greenhouse gasses as a contributor to climate change. We then asked for any specific greenhouse gasses that they could name and Student B brought up CO2. The class also brought up other causes that they had seen in the video and were new to them. Multiple students paid great attention to the video and some even took notes--something we did not ask them to do, but greatly appreciated. There was also a group of students, C, D, and E who, in the beginning, were hesitant to participate but after talking in their small group and interacting with us as we walked around, were able to volunteer their answers. Student D in particular seemed very excited to get involved, and when asked what kind of benefits could arise from rural African communities receiving solar power--before watching the video we provided--they brought up multiple good points such as light at night so it is safer for them. After watching the video, we asked the class what sort of examples of the benefits they saw in the video, and Student D answered with benefits not thought of before, such as the power’s use in hospitals.

Overall, we were able to interact with the students well and the contributions were better than we had anticipated. We encouraged the students to cooperate, even if it meant just reading the case study out loud. Next time, we hope to make the class more interesting so that the students would be able to focus more, such as by having shorter videos or videos that are not only informative but exciting and interesting to watch. We will also try to have more interactive games other than just group work and popcorn reading. Furthermore, one of our members struggled to talk due to her losing her voice, however; by next week, we will definitely be able to communicate better and be able to interact with the students more.

[Jena Flores]

During our second session we focused on the Paris Climate Change Agreement and an example of adaptation (as we had focused on a mitigation example in the previous session). We did this by using both the “Hooray for the Paris climate agreement! Now what?” And “Save Tuvalu, Save the World: Will Paris Rescue Us?” case studies from the database.

We showed up to our session at 10:23am, 7 minutes before the time our form had said to be there. But the bell schedule actually had the class starting at 10:20am, so our teacher marked us late. We will adjust our schedule to fix this issue. We then began by asking the class to recap what we did the previous week, as a lot of students were missing for the first session. Student A answered that we introduced the topic of climate change. We then urged Student A to be more specific and they brought up how we talked about mitigation and adaptation and they were able to define them to the class.

We then had the class popcorn read the introduction of the first article and then broke them up into five groups to read the next five sections separately, which they would then explain to the rest of the class. When asking the groups to explain, Student B told us about how there are government subsidies for fossil fuels and that we should eliminate them. We then asked if they could explain what they meant by “government subsidies” and how getting rid of them could help with climate change. They then explained government subsidies and told the class that if “20 major countries abandoned their subsidies, global carbon dioxide emissions in those countries would decline nearly 11% by 2020” and that by lowering carbon dioxide emissions we would greatly help the planet.

After all the groups explained their sections and the class understood the Paris agreement more, we moved on to the second half of the lesson. We started this by giving them some background about Tuvalu by showing them pictures of its geographic location, its environment, and how it is looking now because of the flooding. We then read through the article and asked the class a few questions before going to the four worlds activity. One of the questions we asked was “What does Sopoaga mean when he refers to climate change as a moral crisis?” Student C answered by saying it’s a moral crisis because the people of Tuvalu and the island are being negatively affected. We then tried getting more out of them by asking if there is any fault to the emitters. They replied “yes, it is their fault. And it is morally wrong for them to not do anything about it.” I then explained to them two international relations concepts--polluter pays and good neighborliness-- which apply to this situation.

This session definitely did not go as well as we were hoping as the students did not seem very engaged. This was because of the lack of fun activities and too much reading, which we take responsibility for. We plan to put a lot of effort into our next two sessions to improve the engagement and make sure the students enjoy our program and end the four weeks with good knowledge of climate change.

[Jena Flores]

For our third session we focused on climate change and policy options. We used the “Our Carbon Budget: How fast will we exceed the limit?” lesson plan from the database to do so. Since our last session had lacked energy we worked really hard in order to make this one a success.

We started off by reviewing what we had gone over the during the last two sessions. We reminded them of what climate change is and how it occurs, as well as mitigation and adaptation and examples of both. I then read the introduction to the lesson plan our loud to the class. This introduction explained how CO2 in the atmosphere is measurable and how nations must agree on standards to manage CO2 emissions since the Earth’s atmosphere is a global public good.

Before continuing the lesson plan and watching a video on different country’s emissions, we asked the class who they thought the highest and lowest emitting countries were and where they thought the US ranked on that level. The whole class agreed that China was the highest emitting country. For the lowest emitting countries, a student mentioned that it would consist of the “third world” nations. Student A said that the US is a very high emitting country. We then asked them where they would rank it number wise, such as #2 (right behind China) or further down. Student A then ranked the US around #4.

We then continued the lesson by showing them the interactive video “Carbon emissions: past, present and future.” Many students were interested in the fact that by 2033 we could exceed our carbon budget if we continue business as usual. We then went over some questions together as a class, such as “What do you think a fair or reasonable level of cuts for a developed country might be?” Student B answered “not quite as much as Germany, but more than most are doing.” We then asked if they saw any countries on the list provided that were cutting a reasonable amount and they replied that the UK is cutting by a reasonable 45% which is not too extreme, but will actually have an impact.

We then had the class fill out the 10 highest and lowest countries from the list in order of carbon intensity. When they were finished we compared the correct answers to what they had thought at the beginning of class. Although correct about China, they were not correct on the lowest emitting or the US’s placing. They were surprised by the fact that France was the lowest emitting country and that the US was actually the 10th highest carbon emitting country. Student C then inquired that we had thought that the developing countries would be low emitting, but they were actually not. We then asked them how a developing country develops, and they responded “through industrialization.” They then had the realization that developing countries would emit high carbon emissions just like how the US and other industrialized nations did during their industrial revolutions.

We then decided to do something fun with social media by creating a hashtag with the class that they can use to tweet/instagram/facebook about what they’ve learned. The class came up with three hashtags, but after voting decided on “#APClimateGreen.”

Overall, I think this was our best session. We had a lot of fun, and it seemed the students did as well. They also learned a lot, and were able to eliminate misconceptions about the amount of carbon emissions from different countries.

[Jena Flores]

For our fourth session we focused more on the political side of climate change. We did this using the “Policy Creativity and Climate Change” and “Snapshot: Climate Change Policy” documents from the database.

We began the lesson with a review of the last three sessions, including discussion what is climate change, mitigation versus adaptation, the Paris Agreement, and our carbon budget. After this we started the session off by describing how the government must form policies that balance equally between the individual freedoms and rights of people and the public interest and common good, and how most policies will end up leaning towards one side of the spectrum.

We then went over the policy option continuum, explaining the progression from no government intervention to incentives to penalties to regulations and finally to moratoriums. In order to clarify this, we used the activity with six hypothetical situations and worked out loud with the class to figure out what location on the continuum they belonged. We went over one situation in which a customer brings their own plastic bag to the store while grocery shopping. Student A then answered that it did not fit in any of the four categories and therefore there was no government intervention in that situation. We then asked them whether they thought that was a personal or business choice and they answered that it was personal because the customer decided to bring their own reusable bag to limit their environmental impact.

We then continued using the continuum, but switched to the real life examples. When going over the example of the Setubal, Portugal “Terraced” water taxes Student B answered that it would fall under the realm of a regulation because they were only allowing a certain amount of water to be used. We then asked them to think about what happens when they go over that amount of water, in which they answered they are charged a fee and then realized that this example is of a penalty and not a regulation.

After that we had the class read parts of the article “AB 32, Nunez. Air pollution: greenhouse gases: California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006” and discussed some of the actions to be implemented through AB 32 and why it’s needed as well as other possible actions such as Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to permanently ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in the state. We then read the article “Trump White House Orders EPA to Delete Climate-Change Web Page” in order to segway into the current administrations beliefs and actions towards climate change. We discussed President Trump’s disbelief in climate change as well as his executive orders from his first week in office--green lights for Keystone XL Pipeline Dakota Access Pipeline--and and their possible negative environmental impact.

We then asked the class how they think the new administration’s beliefs on climate change will affect the actions of California against climate change. Student C answered that it will likely not have a huge affect. We then asked them to elaborate some and they said that California has their own rules and regulations against actions that increase climate change and that the Trump administration will not change those state laws.

We ended the class by asking them whether they feel more comfortable about the subject of climate change and if they plan to work towards personally leaving less of a negative impact on the world. Student D then answered that they plan to turn off the lights, use less water, and ride their bike whenever possible, because even those that will not create a huge impact it will help and may be able to spread to their peers.