Essential Questions

• How do we get people to believe what scientists know and respond with action?

• How do people find connections with individuals who live and think differently than them? 

• How can I present climate change data to the public that conveys the urgency to act?

• How is storytelling an effective strategy in addressing the climate crisis?

Learning Intentions– Upon completing this module, students will:

• Identify and describe an important social issue that motivates them to act toward positive change in the world;

• Generate a list of approaches for raising awareness around a particular issue;

• Listen for and present details about how a physicist connects with people to raise awareness about the climate crisis; 

• Analyze and present data to communicate the climate crisis;

• Retell the scientific story you heard in your unique, artistic voice;

• Articulate the role of storytelling in building trust and promoting action for change;

• Create a short film that relies on storytelling to provide knowledge, raise awareness, and promote action toward positive change.

Success Criteria

• I can retell this climate emergency story using my unique voice and perspective. 

• I can explain how climate change is connected to other systems including economics, biodiversity, culture, agriculture, etc.

• I commit to picking something I can do and making it mine in response to the climate crisis.

Learning Outline

This 3.5-hour module is on Climate Crisis: Pick Something And Make It Yours video presentations by Physicist Rob Davies. It can be taught as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows:  

• 15 minutes: Launch Activity– Pick Something and Make It Yours

• 60 minutes: While Viewing–  The Climate Crisis Story

• 5-10 minutes per video: Post-Viewing– Retelling the Climate Crisis Story

• 60 minutes: Demonstration– Data Visualization– Graphing Running Averages to Communicate the Climate Crisis

• 40+ minutes: Making Connections–Retelling the Climate Crisis Story in My Artistic Voice

Worksheet

Retelling the Climate Crisis Story in My Artistic Voice

Supplies for Data Visualization Activity:

Data Visualization Examples:

• Climate Spiral This visualization shows monthly global temperature anomalies (changes from an average) between the years 1880 and 2021. Whites and blues indicate cooler temperatures, while oranges and reds show warmer temperatures. As you can see, global temperatures have warmed from mainly human activities as time has progressed. 

• Mapping UK Temperature Changes Every Decade The maps above show mean annual temperatures in each decade relative to the long-term average of 1910-99.

• Warming Stripes The ‘warming stripes’ are a visualization of how the climate has changed for every country across the globe. This set of simple graphics was designed to welcome the United States back to the Paris Agreement and start conversations about climate change. 

Videos

1. Data Visualization Using Averages (7:51)

2. Data Visualization Activity (13:25min) 

3. Utah Temperatures Student Worksheet

4. Utah Temperatures Teacher Key

Supplies for “Pick Something and Make It Yours” Arts Integration Activity

Website that includes examples of student projects using their artistic voice to talk about the climate crisis

• Unveiling the Anthropocene Student Projects

Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Pick Something and Make It Yours

[15 min]

[Learning Objectives 1, 2]

Procedures:

• Hook: Tell students about a cause you feel passionate about and how you have found ways to take action toward positive change related to that issue (e.g., girls education → donating to a particular organization; homeless pet populations → fostering dogs; immigration reform → writing letters to policymakers and leaders, etc.)

  1. Acknowledge that not everyone is motivated to action by the same causes. We each have unique passions. 

• Think-Pair-Share: What matters to you?

  1. Think: Give students 3 minutes to free write on something that matters to them and how they do or could be agents of positive change around this issue.

  2. Pair: Put students into pairs and let them discuss their ideas for 5 minutes. Ask them to jot down a list of ways they can promote change to share with the whole class.

  3. Share: When the class comes together, invite volunteers to share their ideas and get feedback from others. You might invite a few class ‘scribes’ to compile ideas in a Google doc so everyone has a record.

• Discuss: In our class there are so many different passions and causes that motivate each of you. The important thing is to do something. You don’t need to do everything but you do need to do something. Physicist Rob Davies says, regarding our climate crisis: “Pick Something and Make it Yours.”

• Introduce the video series

  1. Tell the students they are going to watch a series of videos where Physicist and Climate Activist Rob Davies teaches us about climate change and the current crisis. He is a scientist, so the way he talks about climate change or as he calls it ‘climate disruption’ is by telling it like a story from his scientific perspective. 

While Viewing: The Climate Crisis Story

[60 min]

[Learning Objective 3]

Procedures:

• Tell students: We will start by watching the introduction video (Intro to Rob Davies (4:29 min) ) where you will meet physicist and climate change activist Rob Davies and learn how he became a passionate spokesman on this subject. 

• Tell students: As you will soon see, Rob asks us all to start talking about our climate emergency. He encourages us all to retell the climate crisis story in our own voices to as many people as possible.   T  This retelling from each of your perspectives, and in your own creative voices,  is a vital contribution toward exponential change,  steering us away from a catastrophe,  toward a future that allows humankind to thrive in harmony with our planet's natural systems.  

• Give each student the Retelling the Climate Crisis Story In My Artistic Voice handout. Tell students: The good news is that we can succeed. We know how to do it, we just need to get everyone on board.  And the way we are going to help to do that is first, by listening to how Rob tells this climate change story. As a scientist, he tells the story from that perspective. But there are many different and effective ways to tell this story and your job is to figure out how you can best tell it. Your job is to find your voice. 

• Read the module introduction out loud to students.

• Review the handout. Tell them as they watch to:

  1. Note information, concepts and facts that stick with you

  2. Note what Rob uses to tell the climate crisis story: metaphors, images, other art forms

  3. Ideas on how you can tell this story and to whom.

• Play each of the following videos and after each follow the instructions in the post-viewing section below: 

  1. Part I: The Time Has Come To Believe What We Know (4:58 min) 

  2. Part II: A Story About Climate Disruption (6:45 min) 

  3. Part III: Lessons From the Titanic

  4. Part IV: Understanding Exponential Growth

  5. Part V: Adopting a Mindset of Emergency

• You will play Part VI : Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project and the ‘Message To Youth’ as part of the Arts Integration Activity. See that section below. 

Post-Viewing: Retelling the Climate Crisis Story

[5-10 min per video]

[Learning Objective 3]

• As a class or in small groups have students discuss: 

  • What they learned

  • How what they learned makes them feel

  • Rob’s storytelling techniques

Demonstration: Data Visualization– Graphing Running Averages to Communicate the Climate Crisis

[60 min]

[Learning Objective 5]

Procedures:

• Tell students: As you saw in the videos, Rob really strives to present data in ways that his audience, and the public, can easily understand. He presents data by either placing statistics alongside  impactful images or he designs graphs that emphasize the trends and acceleration so we can better absorb the meaning. For most of us, seeing tables of straight data doesn’t  help us understand the bigger picture. 

• Tell students: Data visualization is the representation of information in the form of a chart, diagram, picture, infographic, etc.  Data visualization is hugely important in understanding the data. More artistically inclined people are often better at it than the scientists (though some scientists are great at it also).  

• Tell students:. Let’s take a look at a few data visualization examples: 

  1. One of the most famous data visualizations are the “warming stripes.”  The ‘warming stripes’ are a visualization of how the climate has changed for every country across the globe. This set of simple graphics was designed to welcome the United States back to the Paris Agreement and start conversations about climate change.

  2. Climate Spiral This visualization shows monthly global temperature anomalies (changes from an average) between the years 1880 and 2021. Whites and blues indicate cooler temperatures, while oranges and reds show warmer temperatures. As you can see, global temperatures have warmed from mainly human activities as time has progressed. 

  3. Mapping UK Temperature Changes Every Decade The maps show mean annual temperatures in each decade relative to the long-term average of 1910-99.

• Tell students: Now it’s your turn to look at data close to home! We are going to take a set of data (The yearly average temperature in Utah from 1895–2021) and using a spreadsheet (Excel or Google Sheets) turn that data into a graph so we can better understand it. 

• To do this we are going to graph something called Running Averages. Let’s watch this video to learn what that is. Play video: Data Visualization Using Averages (7:51). Answer any questions. 

• Put students in pairs and give them the Utah Temperatures Student Worksheet handout and the Data Visualization Activity video link: Data Visualization Activity (13:25min) 

• Tell Students: First watch the “Data Visualization Activity” video where Rob explains how to turn the spreadsheet data into 5-yr, 10yr, and 30yr running averages. And then, how to turn those running averages into a graph so we can easily see how Utah has warmed significantly since 1895. And once you have your graphs built, you can change the colors, size, stretch or squeeze the vertical and horizontal axes to better reveal trends, etc. Your goal is to make the data pop to tell the temperature rise story. 

• Have a few volunteers share their graphs with the class. (You can share the Utah Temperatures Teacher Key as well). 

Retelling the Climate Crisis Story in My Artistic Voice

[60+ min]

[Learning Objective 6]

Procedures:

• Tell Students: Rob Davies said that it is essential that we respond to this climate crisis by first talking about it. 

• Physicist Rob Davies tells his version of the story of our climate crisis. He shares a scientist's perspective and his voice is a science voice. He explains how greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere causes global warming; he describes how all the systems on earth including cultural systems, agricultural systems, ecosystems, economic systems, etc. are interconnected – how changing one affects all life on earth. He shares statistics and data comparing the past and present to the future and confirms that if we continue this on this high carbon trajectory, the results are catastrophic for nearly all current forms of life on the earth.

• Tell Students: How would you tell this story? Each of you has a unique voice and perspective. You aren’t scientists, so don’t try to tell it like a scientist.  This is a human story so tell it from your perspective.  Rob’s philosophy is that artists are the voice of change. Why? Because artists and art are emotionally impactful. Art  can trigger an emotional response and that is what we need if we are going to change the current mindset and establish a stable and sustainable environment on earth.  Your assignment is to tell this story using your artistic voice. There are endless ways to do this. 

• Ask students- can you think of art that opened your mind, taught you something new, or changed the way you feel about something? Acknowledge responses.

  1. Examples to share with the class: 

     1. Sociologists have been talking about the horrors of the Holocaust; but Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List reached millions

     2. Civil Rights in the 60’s was propelled not by professors giving lectures but rather by 19-yr-old musicians like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix; films like Easy Rider; books like Toni Morrison’s the Bluest Eye

     3. Ask students to share other examples.

• Our goal is to retell this climate crisis story by enlisting the arts to generate a meaningful response. 

• Tell students: Rob Davies works with artists to help tell his science version of the climate crisis story. Let’s see how he does this: Play video Part VI: The Crossroads Project_Rising Tides (22:19 min). Afterwards, we will discuss how Rob is using art to affect his audience and change the mindset. 

* (Option to watch the FULL Rising Tide: Crossroads Project Film (1:12:28 min))

• Discuss. Tell Students: Rob is also a professor at Utah State University, and he has his students do this same activity we are about to do, which is retelling the climate crisis story using your unique artistic voice. Here are a few examples from his students: Unveiling the Anthropocene Student Projects (Select a few to show students from each category: Artwork; Video; Writing; Music.) Here is an example of a high school student who did a short science documentary on Lead in Water (2:38min)

• Have students revisit their notes on the Retelling the Climate Crisis Story in My Artistic Voice handout. Working individually or in pairs have them brainstorm ideas for retelling the climate crisis story from their perspective using their artistic voice. 

• Encourage students to use any form of media they are comfortable with, written/spoken word, video, visual art, graphic art, audio recording, 3-d, etc. 

  1. Low Tech Alternative:  Students can create a storyboard for their piece. Their work should connect with any aspect of the climate crisis issue that they feel connected to.  Their piece may reflect their feelings or the data, it may call attention to an environmental or social justice problem related to climate change or be a call to action. The assignment is to create a visceral and/or informative piece that is a personal response to the current climate crisis.  

• Either give them class time to complete the project or a project deadline. Have each student (or time depending, select students) present their project. 

• Play the video: Message To Youth (A short video of Rob speaking directly to students.)

“The Time Has Come to Believe What We Know.”

Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection about the climate crisis and the immediate need for every one of us to act and do our part. 

“Pick Something and Make It Yours.”

Try-it-Out: Rob Davies said that the first step in addressing the climate emergency is to talk about it. Have students share what they learned from Rob Davies with at least two other people. Tell them to keep a journal about the impact of their message on the listeners. Did sharing this message lead to deeper conversations? Are people compelled to do something? What did you learn about yourself in the process of sharing this message?

Youth Movements

• UYES (Utah Youth Environmental Solutions) UYES is a youth-led organization that empowers youth in Utah to mobilize around climate and environmental issues around the state through legislation, education and action.

• Fridays for Future- or FFF, is a youth-led and -organized global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate. 

• https://www.mockcop.org- When the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) was canceled during COVID, 350 youth came together and held their own conference, engaging economists, scientists and climate experts. They called it Mock COP26.

Articles

• Unleashing the Creativity of Teachers and Students to Combat Climate Change: An Opportunity For Global Leadership

• In Cancun, This Man is Turning Seaweed Trash into Natural Building Treasures

(Newsela Article- Need to Create a Free Account to View) 

Books

• Bewilderment by Richard Powers. A great story about a parent and child struggling with realities of climate change. Bewilderment Book Review HERE

• Build Beyond Zero New ideas for carbon-smart architecture. A student group out of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada is taking action to impact change in the way students are being taught (or not taught) sustainable architecture.  They founded the Supernatural Design Collective that now has chapters in many architecture schools.

• Enough is Enough (2013)

Lesson Plans

• PBS Learning Media- Videos and lesson plans on climate change.

Websites

• The World’s Largest Lesson- Resources for teaching climate change meant to inspire youth to take action. 

• Nova- Features the Rising Tide Crossroads Project. (NOVA Chamber Music Series celebrates the vast chamber music repertoire and Utah's resident artists through concerts, commissions of new works, educational programs, and recordings.)

Short Videos

• What’s Your Role? Utah Clean Energy promotional video rallying all to find their role and act on behalf of our planet. 

News Casts by Meteorologist Ginger Zee (Ginger Zee is easy to understand, positive, and hopeful.)

• Meteorologist Ginger Zee on The View bringing attention to the climate crisis. 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/climate-change-explained-ginger-zee-80482347

• Overall view of the systemic issue:

https://www.ginger-zee.com/its-not-too-late

• About mining battery minerals in Idaho:

https://ktul.com/weather/weather-news/climate-special-abc-news-chief-meteorologist-ginger-zee-examines-climate-change

• On new technologies: wind, carbon sequestration & capture, and new "scarless" cities. 

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/paul-lagrone-talks-with-abc-meteorologist-ginger-zee-about-technologies-fighting-climate-change

• It's Not Too Late series:

https://www.ginger-zee.com/its-not-too-late

• On hurricane patterns, damage, equity, and rebuilding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xktjpww-LT8

Films

• Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project- This feature-length cinematic performance fuses compelling science, evocative imagery, and powerful music in an exploration of nature, humanity, and the paths that lie before us.

• Titanic- two young lovers find one another on the maiden voyage of the "unsinkable" R.M.S. Titanic. (Based on a true story.)

Films you can arrange to screen at your school

• The Revolution Generation (78 min)- A how-to manual for saving the Earth

• Film | Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018) (87 min)

• Film | 2040 (2019) (92 min)

• Film | Breaking Boundaries (2020) (73 min)

• The Invisible Extinction: (85 min) Two globetrotting microbiologists race to save our vanishing microbes

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva (82 min) How did the willful daughter of a Himalayan forest guard become Monsanto’s worst nightmare? The Seeds of Vandana Shiva tells the remarkable life story of Gandhian eco-activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, how she stood up to the corporate Goliaths of industrial agriculture, rose to prominence in the food justice movement, and inspired an international crusade for change.