Lesson 1: Find Your Entry Point

Lesson 1

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Learning Outcomes

Students will:

Identify causes and effects of climate change. (Day 1)

Describe important climate change terms and concepts. (Day 1)

Explore a range of storytelling techniques and examples of successful CIC projects. (Day 2)

Recognize how they connect with the land, their community, and the things they care about. (Day 2)

What are the reasons behind climate change and how can we be part of the solution?

Lesson Preparation

It’s recommended that you complete these steps before leading the lesson with your students:

Understand the requirements and expectations of the CIC video competition if you are planning to enter
Preview Friendly Guide to Climate Change
Print or digitally assign the lesson 1 handouts

Documenting Progress

Consider having students document their experience from the start or document process as a class. Photos and videos from these initial steps can aid in the storytelling process when creating a final CIC Video.

Entry Point Brainstorming

For many students, finding their entry point may not be clear from the outset. Identifying where to begin can be the hardest part. Work with students to brainstorm how their passions and interests might work together to create a solution that is meaningful for them. CAVU staff are here to help with this process. Please reach out to your CIC Coordinator or email us at cic@cavu.org for support.

Video Note Catcher

Optional Extension Activities:

Supplemental Resources:

Guide students through a quick-write and/or discussion on the following prompt: What experiences have shaped your understanding of climate change and why it’s important?
Watch: “Call the Learning for Climate Education” (3:10) by the United Nations

Show and discuss the video “Friendly Guide to Climate Change” (16:52) by Henrik Kniberg. As you watch, pause and discuss the following questions. You may also have students record their answers on the Video Note Catcher.
- 0:00-1:22: What is global warming?
- 1:22-2:57: What are the consequences of global warming? Which ones have you noticed in your life? How do they affect you, your family, your community?
- 2:57-5:25: What is the main cause of global warming? How are humans responsible?
- 5:25-7:33: Why do we burn fossil fuels? Can you think of examples from your life? From your day?
- 7:33-11:46: What are the alternatives to burning fossil fuels? Have you seen clean energy being used in your community or at home? Where?
- 11:46-12:25: What is the second biggest cause of global warming? What can we do about it?
- 12:25-16:53: What are some ways people can help stop climate change? What is one change you can make at home to help the environment?

Ask students to reflect on the following prompt: After everything you’ve learned today, what’s one big idea or message you want to remember? How might you use it to make a difference in your life, school, or community?

Read or show the following two very short stories:
- I went to the park to play.
- On a bright sunny day, I met two of my best friends at our favorite neighborhood park. We all laughed together as we played “the floor is lava” and then shared our snacks.
Ask students which story they enjoyed more and why. Students can turn-and-talk to share ideas in small groups. Explain to students that today they will learn about elements of a good story.

Facilitate a discussion about storytelling in students’ lives by asking students to share their ideas from the quickwrite, then use one or more prompts below to continue the discussion. Consider a think-pair-share where students are asked to share their partner’s answer with the class rather than their own in order to encourage active listening and making connections.
- How do you share stories?
- What types of stories make an impact on you or your world?
- What does storytelling look like in your family? Your community?
- Where do you see yourself in the next 20 years? How might climate change impact this vision?
Encourage students to think beyond oral examples and consider their digital lives, social media, YouTube, gaming, and other ways that they connect with people around the world and in their communities

Introduce CIC and answer student questions: The Climate Innovation Challenge is a fun storytelling competition where kids like you, from all around the world, share ideas to help your community fight climate change! You’ll get to think of a solution that helps your community and then make a short video to tell your story. Your video can show what’s important to you and how you want to make a difference. It’s your chance to be creative, speak up, and spread hope in ways we can all take care of our planet!

Analyze how other elementary students have used storytelling successfully in CIC
- Cut Back on Plastic!! (3:59) by Jonah, 4th grade student at Thrive Community School in Santa Fe, NM
- Reusable Rainstorms (4:00) by Aailiyah, Aaron, Annabella, Diego, Giuliana, Jack, Jorgina, Kristy, Peter and Sofia, 4th grade students at Amy Biehl Community School in Santa Fe, NM
  - What caught your attention most in these videos?
  - What did you learn about these students from their videos? Think about what they shared about who they were, including things like their home, community, interests, skills, and more.
  - What did you notice that was similar in these approaches to storytelling? What was different?

Introduce the entry point: Your entry point for CIC is how you will combine who you are, your skills, and your passions with a part of climate change that you care about. You will consider why climate change matters to you and use your unique perspective to tell a story to others to inspire change and hope.
Provide student examples:
- Recent forest fires in their area changed the landscape of their favorite hike so they are going to learn about wildfires and fire safety. They are good at painting, so they gather their neighbors and together they make a large, colorful sign and put it up in their neighborhood.
- They used to grow corn with their grandparents and the crops have gotten smaller every year so they are going to research gardening projects in the area and how to combat negative effects on family/community farms. They love to sing, so they plan to make a song with helpful tips.
- An endangered species in a nearby wilderness area is something they are passionate about, and video games are something they are good at so they create a proposal for a video game where the user is tasked to protect this endangered species from the multiple threats it faces due to climate change.
  - Students use the template on the Mind Mapping worksheet to create a mind map of possibilities for their entry point. This activity may be done individually, in small groups, or as a class. Students should save this worksheet to use for further lessons.
  - Guide students through the process using the following prompts:
    - In the center yellow circle, write your name(s) or the name of our class
    - List at least 3 passions- these are things you love to do.
      - Examples could include: riding my bike, going to see my grandparents, video games, crocheting, hanging out with friends.
    - List at least 3 skills-these are things you feel proud of about yourself. These might overlap with your passions and that’s okay!
      - Examples could include: Watercolor painting, cross country skiing, cooking, math, basketball, taekwondo.
    - List at least 2 ways you have experienced the effects of climate change before. Don’t worry if you can’t think of many, we’ll learn more.
      - Examples should be based on personal experiences and could include: more extreme heat in the summer, worse snowpack in the winter, droughts, more days with poor air quality because of wildfires.

Discuss or have students complete a written reflection on the main takeaways from today’s lesson on storytelling and finding an entry point to CIC.
- Possible prompts:
  - What did you learn about storytelling from today’s lesson?
  - How might you tell a unique story in your CIC video?

If time allows, teachers may decide to include one or more of these activities to reinforce the concepts taught in today’s lesson and provide students with additional opportunities to learn about adaptation and mitigation strategies used in their local area and around the world.

Share “I Am From: Kid’s Voices” poems created by children in Kenya as part of the “Kid’s Voices” program.
- KIDS’ VOICES© is a cool way of introducing children to the world of classic literature using the I AM FROM storytelling framework. Each story within these vibrant pages not only entertains and inspires young minds, but also subtly encourages them to explore the transformative potential of their own actions as they write their own stories and share their unique identities. Through these narratives, young readers are invited to dream, learn and grow with the potential of igniting a lasting change not only in their lives, but also of the lives they touch.
Guide students through the writing process for creating their own “I am From” poem using the Freewrite for “I am From” Poem handout, produced by Teddy Warria.
Guide students through the drafting and revision process of their poems, providing opportunities to collaborate with classmates as they go.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.3

Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.

Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domainspecific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.