Let’s talk about climate change

Debbie Joy M. Basilio

IN A BID to advance climate education in the entire country, the Department of Education (DepEd) decided to conduct the first free webinar for secondary teachers.

Through the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS), and the Climate Change Commission (CCC), a handful of renowned people in the field of climate action graced the “Climate Science Master Class for High School Teachers” to share about climate education via Zoom and Facebook Live.

This webinar is part of the activities for the 4th National Climate Change Conference (NCCC) and the 13th Annual Global Warming and Climate Change Consciousness Week.

The Master Class featured lectures and discussion by the National Panel of Technical Experts, the government’s lead technical advisory body on climate science and technology, and oriented the high school teachers on the knowledge materials that DepEd-DRRMS and its partners are developing to help teachers effectively unpack learning competencies on climate change and promote climate action.

Climate education should be made accessible to more students across the country, and this should be a priority. The webinar was organized primarily to integrate climate education in many basic learning areas like Math, English, Filipino, Araling Panlipunan, and others.

One of the key speakers informed the participants that they have plotted three ways to make climate education happen with the means of references such as creating a Microsite on Curated Resources for Teaching Climate Change as an online website, developing handbooks and self-learning modules, and producing the KALIKHASAN: Likha at Lakas ng Kabataan Para sa Kalikasan: a creative sourcebook on using theater for climate change education and action.

The proposed handbooks consist of the following topics: The Science of Climate Change, Climate and Disaster Risk, Impacts of Climate Change on Human Beings, and Solutions to Climate Change.

The teacher-participants were also exposed to informative topics like the roles of greenhouse gases in global warming, ocean acidification, mitigation and adaptation, climate change on the health, responsibilities in climate change, biodiversity as well as other topics to consider.

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The author is Teacher III at Benigno S. Aquino National High School,

Concepcion, Tarlac