School news Pupils call on their grandparents’ insight
Generations swap knowledge to mark Earth Day
Pupils at a Perthshire school have been celebrating Earth Day by asking their elderly relatives questions about their experiences when they were younger.
Children in P6 from Robert Douglas Memorial School in Scone asked their grandparents about the weather and climate, their diet and transport to compare then and now.
They got a variety of thought-provoking answers.
Earth Day is about raising awareness about the environment. It takes place every year on April 22, with this being the 50th anniversary of the first event in 1970.
This year, the ‘World’s Largest Lesson’, which aims to educate children about the UN global goals, set a challenge to classes during this period of school closure.
During their remote learning sessions with their teacher, P6B thought about what things have changed in the past 50 years. They thought mostly about transport, food and weather/climate and how they have affected the climate or been affected by it.
The children shared questions using Google Classroom, an online learning tool, and then got on the phone to grandparents and other older members of the community.
Finlay Kerr, a P6 pupil, said: “All my grandparents agreed that people used to be more local.
“People did not travel so much for work or to go on holiday, and there were far fewer cars.
“If you were to go on holiday back then it wouldn’t be abroad; if it was, then you wouldn’t go very far and you would take a ferry.”
Classmate Mina LuthinDevine added: “After an introduction to this task in class, each pupil picked a senior citizen to call.
“I chose my uncle. With these phone calls, we realised that there used to be more snow in winter and that most people walked to school.
“These examples show that some things were good for the climate but others, for example leaded petrol the cars used, were not.”
Luca Gilmartin made a call to his grandad and discovered that dietary habits have changed.
He said: “My grandparents said that often people used to eat potatoes twice a day because they were local but now pasta is much more common – and not usually made close to home.”
Abigail Duncan-Hart (10) was surprised to find that electric vehicles are not a new thing.
She said: “My grandad told me that in his youth the electric vehicles they had were the trams and trolleybuses using wires above the street.”
Class teacher Fraser Boyd explained the Earth Day challenge had a dual purpose: “We are always aiming to teach more about sustainability.
“Earth Day’s 50th anniversary got a good discussion going about the tangible effects of climate change and how our habits have had an impact.
“Encouraging the children to phone up elderly relatives, many of whom will be self-isolating, also gave an opportunity just to check how grandparents are doing in these lonely times.”
Leah Smith and Scarlet Milne noted after calling grandparents that the distance we travel for holidays is much greater.
They said: “We were surprised that often holidays were simply trips to stay with family members in another part of our own country.”
And after quizzing his grandad in Crieff, Jake McMartin (11), said: “I’ve discovered that the summers used to be warmer and drier but the winters colder than now.
“He delivered shopping back then too, but he used a bike, not a delivery van.”