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Safe Spaces for Climate Migrants

Elementary

Description

Climate change is exacerbating inequality by increasing human vulnerability to issues like poverty, food insecurity and health problems.  These risks are compounded by more frequent and severe weather events such as drought or excessive precipitation, which are forcing many humans to permanently abandon their homes and communities. This lesson introduces young students to the topic of climate migration by encouraging empathetic thinking about displaced children and demonstrating how architectural innovation can improve climate resiliency in vulnerable populations.  A series of hands-on challenges involve pupils in the following learning activities:

 

  • Listen to a read-aloud story about climate migrants or safe play spaces and actively discuss thoughts and feelings

  • View and respond to a video about climate migration

  • Describe what important items they would take if they were forced from their home with only a single backpack

  • Examine and complete global examples of architectural designs that have been used to build safe, sustainable housing, schools and play spaces

  • Imagine, design and create a model of an inclusive playground for migrant children that utilizes recycled and natural materials

General Assessment

What skills does this resource explicitly teach?

  • Listening and responding
  • Critical thinking
  • Social awareness
  • Design

Strengths

  • Includes an authentic diagram and model building project that builds STEM skills
  • Contains information about real-world architects and their designs
  • Builds empathy towards disadvantaged children
  • Provides an online forum for student sharing of designs

Weaknesses

  • Lacks assessment strategies
  • Limited student information about distinguishing weather and climate and how climate is altering weather patterns

Recommendation of how and where to use it

This lesson reinforces Grade K-4 Social Studies learning about human needs, human rights and global connections related to social issues.  Students also increase their understanding of how socioeconomic disparities influence the impacts of climate change.  Science curriculum exploring sustainable development, structural design and properties of materials is supported by the "Design Your Inclusive Playground" activity, which also requires engineering process skills like imagination, project planning and creativity.  

The Government of Canada has a "Welcoming Week" intiative every September that encourages communities to organize events, post social media messages and conduct other activities to celebrate new immigrants to their community.  This idea could form the basis of a school social action project through which students share friendship with new pupils.  There is a free toolkit of support resources available on the "Welcoming Week" website.

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Themes Addressed

Air, Atmosphere & Climate (1)

  • Climate Change

Citizenship (1)

  • Community-Building and Participation

Human Health & Environment (2)

  • Human Population Dynamics
  • Quality of Life

Human Rights (1)

  • Refugees and Immigration

Sustainability Education Principles

Principle Rating Explanation
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives Good

Students will understand that all children have the same basic needs but environmental degradation makes securing those needs more difficult for some. They will also recognize that the way we live at a local level has global implications. Reducing climate change impacts requires a multi-faceted approach that begins with individual commitment to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Consideration of Alternative Perspectives:
  • Satisfactory: absence of bias towards any one point of view
  • Good: students consider different points of view regarding issues, problems discussed
  • Very good: based on the consideration of different views, students form opinions and  take an informed position
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions Good

Pupils will be more aware of how climate change intensifies socio-economic challenges such as poverty, while also learning how some of these pressures can be reduced with environmental adaptability actions that lessen community vulnerabilities.

Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions:

Effectively addresses the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the issue(s) being explored.

  • Satisfactory: resource supports the examination of  these dimensions
  • Good:  resource explicitly examines the interplay of these dimensions
  • Very Good:  a systems-thinking approach is encouraged to examine these three dimensions
Respects Complexity Good

Learners will recognize the disparities that affect all migrant and refugee children, and that the lived experience of those who have been forced from their communities is very different from those who have the security of a home, education, resources and social supports.

Respects Complexity:

The complexity of the problems/issues being discussed is respected.

Acting on Learning Satisfactory

Students learn that solving the issue of climate migration requires global solutions that develop cooperation and partnerships which empower communities and citizens. They will practice this results-focused approach when they create a welcoming play space that supports inclusion.

Acting on Learning:

Learning moves from understanding  issues  to working towards positive change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community,  or for the planet

  • Satisfactory: action opportunities are included as extensions 
  • Good: action opportunities are core components of the resource
  • Very Good: action opportunities for students are well supported and intended to result in observable, positive change
Values Education Good

The child-focused content of this lesson encourages students to compare their own lives to less fortunate children which builds sensitivity and concern for the welfare of others.  Pupils will also recognize that they can actively participate in building a more sustainable future by considering how their behaviors affect the environment.

Values Education:

Students are explicitly provided with opportunities to identify, clarify and express their own beliefs/values.

Empathy & Respect for Humans Good

The resource describes how wealthy, developed countries are better able to withstand and adapt to climate change, whereas poorer countries with limited resources are less able to do so. The unfairness of the fact that populations who are least responsible for climate change are suffering the most impacts, increases student understanding of global inequality and fosters concern for marginalized humans, particularly children.

Empathy & Respect for Humans: Empathy and respect are fostered for diverse groups of humans (including different genders, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, etc.).
Personal Affinity with Earth Poor/Not considered

This lesson focuses on a social topic but students will learn how pollution negatively affects the environment.

Personal Affinity with Earth:

Encourages a personal affinity with -the natural world.  

  • Satisfactory: connection is made to the natural world
  • Good: fosters appreciation/concern for the natural world
  • Very Good: fosters stewardship though practical and respectful experiences out-of-doors 
Locally-Focused Learning Satisfactory

Climate migration is a global issue but the learning experience can be made more localized through personal stories shared by students, teachers or community members who have to come to Canada to escape desperate living conditions.

Locally-Focused Learning:

Includes learning experiences that take advantage of issues/elements within the local community. 

  • Satisfactory: learning is made relevant to the lives of the learners
  • Good: learning is made relevant and has a local focus
  • Very Good: learning is made relevant, local and takes place ‘outside’ , in the community 
Past, Present & Future Satisfactory

Students learn about the current context of climate migration from the perspective of positive solutions that can reduce future emissions, create more sustainable communities and decrease inequities.

Past, Present & Future: Promotes an understanding of the past, a sense of the present, and a positive vision for the future.

Pedagogical Approaches

Principle Rating Explanation
Open-Ended Instruction Good

The lesson uses a guided, play-based approach that supports reflective thinking about the causes and consequences of climate change from a human perspective.  Students also engage in free choice with the colouring and playground design activities.

Open-Ended Instruction :

Lessons are structured so that multiple/complex answers are possible; students are not steered toward one 'right' answer.

Integrated Learning Good

This lesson encompasses Social Studies outcomes related to global issues, children's needs, poverty and inclusion. The “Design Your Inclusive Playground” activity supports STEM skills like problem-solving, design, and critical thinking.  Science concepts involving climate change, weather and structural design are also explored.

Integrated Learning:

Learning brings together content and skills  from more than one  subject area

  • Satisfactory: content from a number of different  subject areas is readily identifiable
  • Good:  resource is appropriate for use in more than one subject area
  • Very Good:  the lines between subjects are blurred 
Inquiry Learning Good

The young target age of the lesson necessitates some guided instruction from the teacher, but students use previous learning and imagination to design a playground that helps children meet their need for a safe place to play. The only qualifiers on this task are that the play area should be welcoming, inclusive and include recycled materials, which provides an opportunity for unique ideas and creativity.

Inquiry Learning:

Learning is directed by questions, problems, or challenges that students work to address.   

  • Satisfactory: Students are provided with questions/problems to solve and some direction on how to arrive at solutions.
  • Good: students, assisted by the teacher clarify the question(s) to ask and the process to follow to arrive at solutions.  Sometimes referred to as Guided Inquiry
  • Very Good:  students generate the questions and assume much of the responsibility for how to solve them.  . Sometimes referred to as self-directed learning.

 

Differentiated Instruction Poor/Not considered

No specific differentiation strategies are included in the resource, but the hands-on approach will appeal to a broad range of students.

Differentiated Instruction:

Activities address a range of student learning styles, abilities and readiness.

  • Satisfactory:  includes a variety of instructional approaches
  • Good: addresses  the needs of visual, auditory &  kinesthetic learners
  • Very Good: also includes strategies for learners with difficulties
Experiential Learning Good

An authentic problem forms the basis of the lesson and a hands-on approach engages students in a meaningful problem solving task that is applicable and relevant to a current world issue.

Experiential Learning:

Authentic learning experiences are provided

  • Satisfactory: learning takes place through ‘hands-on’ experience or simulation
  • Good: learning involves direct experience in a ‘real world context’
  • Very good: learning involves ‘real world experiences’ taking place’ beyond the school walls.
Cooperative Learning Satisfactory

Students work as a class or in groups.

Cooperative Learning:

Group and cooperative learning strategies are a priority.

  • Satisfactory:  students work in groups
  • Good: cooperative learning skills are explicitly taught and practiced
  • Very Good: cooperative learning skills are explicitly taught, practiced and assessed
Assessment & Evaluation Poor/Not considered

No specific assessment strategies are included in the lesson but the "Design Your Inclusive Playground" activity asks students to add certain elements such as places for swinging. Thus, this project could be used to provide some formative assessment of student understanding.

Assessment & Evaluation: Tools are provided that help students and teachers to capture formative and summative information about students' learning and performance. These tools may include reflection questions, checklists, rubrics, etc.
Peer Teaching Satisfactory

Teachers are encouraged to share student playground designs through the Architecture Playshop website which provides an online peer exhibition that is shared with other students.

Peer Teaching:

Provides opportunities for students to actively present their knowledge and skills to peers and/or act as teachers and mentors.

  • Satisfactory: incidental teaching that arises from cooperative learning, presentations, etc.
  • Good or Very Good: an opportunity is intentionally created to empower students to teach other students/community members. The audience is somehow reliant on the students' teaching (students are not simply ‘presenting')
Case Studies Good

In the introductory student booklet there is a section, "How Architects Can Help!" that features actual architects and their designs.  The "Colour These Pages" activity also provides examples of real play structures and shelters created from sustainable materials.

Case Studies:

Relevant case studies are included.  Case studies are thorough descriptions of real events from real situations that students use to explore  concepts in an authentic context.

Locus of Control Good

The student-centred approach empowers participants to apply their learning in an engaging context by developing a creative solution to the social issue of access to healthy, safe play spaces.

Locus of Control: Meaningful opportunities are provided for students to choose elements of program content, the medium in which they wish to work, and/or to go deeper into a chosen issue.

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