Connecting with Climate Connections at UWC East Africa [Moshi]
Details
United World College East Africa Welcomes Climate-Connections
In early November, UWC East Africa welcomed Marjon and Eline who have been travelling by EV across East Africa, spreading awareness on climate change impacts and responses. There were challenges in their journey, but they have been successful in navigating over 1500km by their E-Rover called Nala. With renewables integrated into the grid of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, they are showing the world that even an old Range Rover Discovery EV can navigate the ruggid roads of the region. They crossed all of the above countries and started their Tanzanian adventure with the UWC East Africa Moshi campus.
The workshops
Middle Years
Marjon (founder) and Eline (biologist) ran a three hour workshop with 60 MYP 3 to MYP 5 students. The workshop kicked off with reflective questions around personal understanding of the causes of climate change. They provided kinesthetic activities and got students moving as they navigated the inputs to earth’s atmosphere and oceans and where they are emitted from.
Marjon and DP sustainability committee members running the Climate Connections workshop with MYP students
In groups students then engaged in a card sorting game adapted to incorporate not only human activites, but the natural cycles and systems responsible for regulating our climate. Students were challenged to make connections between the various causes presented, before integrating connections to consiquences for ecological systems and societies. Many students were suprised by the time they reached the final round of sorting, when the consiquences started to become more interdependent. With some reasoning, they came to the understaning that when pressure on natural systems, societies and resources is compounded by climate change, there is a great risk of conflict. Students were thrilled with the climate bomb diffusion activity that followed, with one of the four groups successfully matching the correct mitigation strategies.
The workshops were well organized and engaging, most middle years students provided excellent reflections on what actions they can take. These actions were already on display across hosted events, with postive actions being seen in the campus waste systems and behaviours around campus. With hope this experience has moved these students towards climate action.
Diploma
A group of 11 diploma students attended a different workshop the next week. This time Marjon tested their knowledge of the changing levels of atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide, causes of them and the effects they have on the overall climatic patterns. The climate data revealed some knowledge gaps which motivated the students as the Climate Connections team moved into telling their story.
Eline joined in as they ran the climate bomb diffusion activity again, but this time without the connections activites which took the MYP students over two hours. With diligence they worked together in their groups, hiding answers from each other, a practice emblematic of intenational dilberations on climate change mitigation strategies. Students compeleted the a climate bomb diffusion activity in record time, but were then challenged to refelct on the nature of climate action deliberations through initives like COP. The take away was that conversations come from the perspectives of stakeholder groups within nations, that internationally the issues are framed through conventional diplomacy. They made clear links to the bottom line that this is not an issues of diplomacy as much as it is an Earth issue. That Earth does not respond based on national perspectives, that sovergnty is not an ecological mechanism, that action has to be for the Earth’s systems, not for the Earth’s nations.
Students were highly engaged, though some had obligations pull them away, a small group joined Marjon who showed off Nala the Range Rover Discovery electric vehicle. This machine is a marvel today, but as Marjon says;
“…in 10 years someone with a new version of the converted vehicle will probably laugh at the speed and distances it is able to cover on a single charge, this is not limited to the performance but also to the bulky size of the batteries, the efficiency of the solar panels and its functionality.” – Marjon
Marjon introducing students to Nala, the E-rover
This vehicle was a great attraction during their stay, throuhgout campus and in the school community. It was not so typical to see such an advanced vehicle and inspired students who carry their lessons learned with them as a force for positive change.
