Raising Awareness About Climate Change

Project Theme/Description:

Task Goals:

• Research the issue of climate change
• Further the research, continue a graph of projected temperature or GHG increases beyond 2100
• Create and promote a music video, animation or documentary on the topic of Climate Change
• Share the project with schools from around the world on iEarn, and, if you wish, publicly on Youtube or another platform of your choice.
• Discuss submissions from other students and other schools.

The Driving Question:

• How can we make a video that makes an impact and influences opinions and feelings towards this important topic.

Subject Areas:

• Math: Look at the projections for climate change. Recreate and extend the graph as accurately as possible. Continue the projections beyond 2100, create optimistic and pessimistic projections, if your graph fluctuates, provide reasons for the fluctuations.
• Science: Look at several types of reports, IPCC report, scientific literature and a speech by Donald Trump. Compare, contrast and critique.
• Music/English: Work together in small groups. Find the music sheet or lyrics of an existing song, replace the lyrics with your own on the topic of climate change. Practice singing and record your song using splitter cables, earphones and a microphone.
• Art/Photography: Create a storyboard for your video, outlining your ideas for each section of the video. Create clothes, props or backdrops inspired by the topic for use in your music video. Create artwork such as a preview image for your video.
• Computer Class/ICT/ComTech: shoot video for your song, find free stock images and video as B-Reel. Edit together an engaging music video.

21^st Century Skills:

LEARNING AND INNOVATION SKILLS

• Environmental literacy
• Global Awareness
• Creativity and Innovation
• Collaboration and innovation

INFORMATION, MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• ICT literacy

LIFE AND CAREER SKILLS:

• Adaptability
• Initiative and Self Direction

Process

Math:

Introduce the problem:

How big of an increase in temperature have we seen to date?

What can we expect by the end of the century?

Part A

Take a look at the graph, explain the difference between blue and red lines (red is no action, blue is immediate and massive action). Ask the students to find what temperature increase we can expect for each decade up to 2100.

Part B:

Discussion. What happens in the year 2100? Will global warming suddenly end even without action?

IPCC did not publish projections for beyond 2100, so we are going to create our own.

You are going to plot your own graph, and you are going to extend it to the year 2300. You will use your graph to mark temperature changes that we can expect to see every 50 years.

Instructions:

Students must reverse engineer the graph using a ruler to gain several data points. They must then replot the graph either on graph paper or with software such as: https://plot.ly/create/#/

The provided graph:

An example of a graph extended to the year 2300:

Assessment: Completion grade.

Science:

As part of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), students need to "ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century." (Wagner, 2019)

Discuss: What do you know about Climate change?

Learn: Use Climate Kids, an free online platform developed by NASA, to introduce climate change to the students.

https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/climate-kids

Discuss: How is climate change addressed in the media?

Watch and discuss:

Trump on climate change:

PBS NewsHour video on the IPCC report:

Compare and critique:

Compare the IPCC report (Allen et al., 2018) with Trump's argument

https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/chapter-1-pdf/

Does how does what Trump says go against accepted science?

Write:

A 100 word reflection on the importance of understanding the science behind climate change. Assessment: Completion grade.

English + Music:

Introduction

Discuss the topic of song parodies. What is a paraody?

Show video comparing original songs to parodies

"Weird Al" Yankovic's "Fat" vs. Michael Jackson's "Bad"

(start at 3:10) Compare to bad by M. Jackson.

Discuss which one you preferred and why.

Parody was originally protected because it can be harnessed for critique of politics and institutions.

We are going to harness the power of parody to make music videos about climate change.

Permission slips are handed out. Students must get them filled in to allow sharing of the final video with other schools, etc.

Part A

Form groups

Show students an example of lyrics from a Climate Change Parody song made by students in the past:

Brainstorm

Think of an idea and choose a song. Your homework is to find the lyrics and rewrite them, preserving the original rhythm and length, to fit the theme. Record a first draft of you singing your song using your phone, this will be your proof of concept. This is a project that you are going to be spending a lot of time on, so it is important to put the time in now to get off to a good start.

Art:

Part A: The storyboard

Introduce storyboards and their purpose with some samples:

Discuss: What should a storyboard contain to make it useful for your video production? What differences can you see between the two types of storyboard? What do you think the arrows and squares mean in the first storyboard? How much detail does a storyboard need? Which storyboard do you prefer? Why?

Try to keep some limitations in mind when making your storyboard, think about what you can and cannot feasibly do. How many locations will you include? Are you using a green screen or are you going to actual locations? It is recommended that you have at least three locations and that you shoot some footage with a green screen/backdrop and some with actual locations. If you are shooting real locations, limit yourself to an achievable number. Less than 3 is recommended. If you are creating props or art for your video, try to limit it to a few essential pieces.

Extra time (optional):

Create physical props and artwork for your video.

Part B - Digital Art

After the students have finished shooting their video, take them into the computer room.

Have the students use software like Inkscape, Blender, and Gimp to create advertising/marketing images that they may need.

They will need to make: A Preview image for their song with a text showing the title or tagline

Promotional images for Social Media.

Special effects/Assets for their video.

Computer Class:

Part A: Create an animatic

Students break their storyboard down into individual frames using GIMP or Inkscape.

These images are then imported into a Video sequence editor along with the audio from their proof of concept song.

Students will time the images and add motion to create an animatic of their song.

Any sections that don't work or should be redone and improved upon.

Students must record the final audio for their song before the next class. They should wear headphones while recording their singing so the background music doesn't enter the mix.

Above is an example of an animatic that I made to prepare students for a performance.

Part B: Editing their song together

Students are introduced to Audacity (an open source sound editor, less features for music creation but easier to use) and Ardour (an open source DAW with more features for music creation but more difficult to use). Students can also use software of their choice. Students must edit together the final version of their song's Audio.

Part B: Recording with the Green screen (scheduled during various break times and free periods)

Students take turns recording their song in the 'studio' with a green screen/backdrop set up, play the final version of the song and lip sync or sing along with it.

Students must shoot video at other locations for homework. Students are encouraged to use as much lighting as possible, bring portable lights if shooting outside.

Part C: Composite the green screen footage

Students composite the green screen footage using Blender's VSE or some similar software. Blender is free and open source, so the project can be finished at home if necessary.

Part D: Bring everything together and edit your video together.

Students edit their final video together.

English

A film festival is held at school where all the final videos are screened. The videos are also shared online with iEarn and other platforms. Students are also told they may upload the videos to social media if everyone in their group agrees, parents should be consulted first.

Rubric

The final video is scored on the following categories:

• Lyrics/English
• Video Editing
• Artistic Merit
• Video footage and Composite quality
• Attitude/Effort/Teamwork/Creativity

There will be 20 points for each category.