Pupils to present climate change study to experts
SCHOOL pupils who have been sharing their research on climate change with students in Brazil are to address academics in London.
Alongside the extra-curricular activities you might expect to find at any school, such as drama club and art club, students at MEA Central in Levenshulme can also choose to attend Eco Club.
The club, supported by the University of Manchester, aims to educate students on how the environment is being affected by climate change and how they can make a positive impact on the area around them.
“We have a lot of active climate change activists in the school,” said James Tomlinson, curriculum leader of geography at MEA Central.
“As a teacher, I’ve never experienced that before.”
Ben Allon, a geography teacher at the school who is involved in Eco Club, says the children are really concerned about what is happening to the planet.
“Climate change is taken very seriously, it’s their future after all,” Ben said.
As part of Eco Club, students have worked on a social cartography project to identify how the area surrounding their school could be affected by climate change.
“We got a huge map, it was all student-led, and they worked out what could happen around here if the temperature rose by two degrees,” Ben added.
“Then they also found out what would happen in a worst case scenario of all the ice caps melting.
“We discovered that basically we’d be a seaside town, because the sea level would rise so much.”
Students used data from the Environment Agency to help collate information on Levenshulme and Fallowfield.
“They found that there are an awful lot of housing and schools in the area that could be affected by increased flooding,” Ben added.
As part of the club, students have also been able to share their findings with schools in Brazil.
“It was really amazing for the students to talk to other students on the edge of the Amazon rainforest,” Ben said.
“Our students found that it was the same problem over there. Flooding is the biggest risk.”
The five students who have led the campaign are now set to present their findings to academics in London at a climate change conference in November.
The students, who said they were ‘very excited, yet nervous’ to present at the conference, were keen to share examples of how people could reduce the impact of climate change.
The school on Lytham Road is also one of only a few in the country that has an entire Geography staff, including Ben and James, that are accredited by the United Nations as climate change teachers.
“It’s a rare opportunity for a teacher to have a free course that enables them to expand on their learning,” James said.
“The thing about geography textbooks is that pretty much as soon as they’re published, they’re out of date.
“By being accredited and informed by the UN, we can ensure our students know things that are occurring right now.”