How to get people to change

Reading and listening to Severn Suzuki's speech and thinking about the questions in our new English Persuasive Language resource got me thinking about how we persuade people to change their behaviour. 

Severns speech is very emotive and impressive from a 12 year old but it left me just feeling a bit guilty and inadequate.  Yes I know about all these problems (yes in 1992 not everyone did and also it was at the Rio Earth Summit so aimed at big decision makers) but HEr speech didn't really give me a sense of what I should do the change things.  It gave me the impression that the whole system is against me and that as an individual I wouldn't make much difference.  The problems come across as overwhelming (as indeed they are but feeling this doesn't help action).

I think that emphasising what people can do, the sum of small steps by everyone is a more powerful message.  Yes people must be aware of the problems to want to act but once they are then we need a more empowering message.

I hope that this is what we are doing with our School sustainability programs, giving teachers and students the knowledge of what they can do as well as the hands on experience of how easy and enjoyable it can be too.    If students and the wider community feel the personal benefits of their work (friendships, support, health etc) in their organic gardens, collaborative learning in the classroom, recycling and energy saving campaigns etc. and understand the cumulative positive environmental effect of doing this then hopefully that knowledge and action will spread out. 

We'll see.  What do you think?

Persuasive Language for English 2A

We have a fantastic new English resource on our website written by new resource developer Georgia.  ITs been designed for use in English 2A but the ideas could easily be adapted to lower school as the speech by Severn Suzuki would appeal to all ages (she was just 12 when she made it).  Here's the link to this Persuasive Language Resource on our website.

You can use this resource with your students to examine and analyse how environmental activists use persuasive language to appeal to audiences about environmental issues and encourage social action and change. It includes a glossary of terms for persuasive language techniques, a speech by Severn Suzuki (daughter of David Suzuki) at the 1992 Earth Summit and an accompanying worksheet in which students identify and analyse the persuasive techniques she used to such effect. Students will also analyse the concepts of context, purpose, audience, values, and attitudes, and consider how powerful language can be used to encourage action and change.

Students then consolidate and demonstrate their knowledge by researching an environmental issue of their choice and writing a speech to inform and persuade audiences to change their habits. They choose a context, purpose & audience for their speech and demonstrate their understanding of how language can be shaped for particular purposes. The final part of the assessment involves students presenting their speeches to demonstrate their comprehension of how verbal and non verbal language is used to enhance persuasive speaking techniques. The accompanying task sheet includes a rubric for assessment.

You could also play the speech students.  Here is a link to it on Youtube  Severn Suzuki Speech

This one has some graphics added in but there are other versions on there too.

All this got me thinking about the best way to persuade people to change their behaviour, as that afterall is the whole point of what we are doing.  Severn's speech is very emotional but is it really the best way to get people to change how they live?  See my next post for what I think.

Show us your Ocean!

Get your class involved in photo elecitation.

Beautiful shells at Eagle Bay

 I took this photo during a pilot study for Steve's photo elicitation module.  We were each given an underwater camera to go off and take photos with whilst snorkelling.  It was a great experinence, it really made me look at the sea and shore in a different way.  I really noticed the different fish, the effects of the light and water and movement of the plants.  It was even more interesting to look at everyone else's photos and see what they had deccided to capture, discover new creatures that i didn't even know existed(!) and to share our experiences with each other.  It definitely changed my relationship with the ocean here.

Steve's doctoral research is into the effectiveness photoelicitation as an education technique and your class can have the opportunity to take part in a similar exercise to the one I did and be a part of this Curtin University reseearch.  Steve has develped a series of 4 lessons to support the snorkelling field trip.  You can download them on our website here.
He's also got his own website with more details about the program  http://showusyourocean.wordpress.com/

Please get in touch with any of us here at Hotrock or with Steve (at steven.andrews@postgrad.curtin.edu.au) directly if you'd like more details about the program and/or would like to be involved.

I'll leave you with a couple of my other photos.  Lucy (resources@thehotrock.org.au)

Leeming Garden Build

Leeming Senior High School and HotRock are busy constructing their new garden this week.  Yey.  Students and teachers are hard at work, and hopefully Ingrid and Richard too.  I'll put up some photos when they're back. 

HotRock presentations on Slideshare

I've been uploading some of our presentations onto slideshare.  I hope that it might make it easier for many of you to find and you can use them through this or download them.  They are of course still available to download on our website www.thehotrock.org.au.  Here's one of them.  We use it to start of our Climate change module - Global Warming, Global Warning.   1. what is climate change quiz

View more presentations from HotRock.

Climate Change Information for 3BGEO & Science

I've come across a great resource which would be perfect for use within unit 3B Geography.  It's a booklet called The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers.  Its written by the Australian Academy of Science, which also means that lots of the statistics and impacts are focussed on Australia too.

Its very readable, whilst also being informative and discusses the answers to 7 key climate change questions:

1. What is Climate Change?
2. How has the Earth's climate changed in the distant past?
3. How has the Earth's climate changed in the recent past?
4. Are human activities causing climate change?
5. How do we expect climate to evolve in the future?
6. What are the consequences of Climate Change?
7. How do we deal with the uncertainty in the science?

Its really perfect for the 1st few lessons of 3b Gegraphy on climate change and would be useful in science too.  Lucy

Last Chance to See

Have you been watching 'Last Chance to See' on ABC.  A great program to complement any lessons you are doing on biodivesity and the treats to it.  Its with Stephen Fry, travelling the world to find engangered species and explore their habitats and the threats to them.  LAst week he was in South East Asia and saw amongst other things - komodo dragons, mangroves, spiny coated ant eaters and proboscis monkeys.  Monocultural palm oil plantations were a big threat to the natural environments that support these animals and plants.  

Source http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/image/226

Scaly Anteater by Bjorn Olesen

http://animals-in-the-news.blogspot.com/2009/07/dierenrechtenorganisaties-luiden.html

 

Next week they are off to New Zealand.  Its on Sunday at 7.30 pm.  You can also catch past episodes on iview. 

National Recycling Week 8 -14th November

In 3 weeks time its National Recycling Week.

If your school needs a kick start to get its recyling program off the ground then this could be the opportunity that it needs.  Its organised by Planet Ark and they have got a few ideas to get you going.  Why not organise a Swap Party for your class, year group or even whole school.  Everyone brings in good quality clothes they don't wear and get to exchange them for ones they want.  Everyone pays a fee to enter so you could raise money for a good cause or for a school recycling program.

 This page on our website gives you a step by step guide on how to set up a recycling program in your school.

We've also got lots of resources on our website can help get it into lessons too.   In  'i change' students look at all the materials in their phones or MP3 players, how quickly they're running out and the issues around recycling them.  They then organise a schoolwide phone recycle.  If you taught this next week a collection could happen in National Recycling Week. 

That's a Society and Environment lesson (although it could easily be a science one too).  In Home Economics the Food Waste Module examines packaging.  In the 'Smart Cookie' lesson students sort packaging into recyclable or not and look at alternatives, which don't need recycling.  The whole module addresses the issue of food and resource waste (as you probably guessed from the title) and would be applicable to the week.

Or usse our recycling powerpoint to launch a poster competition at a school assembly.

So Reduce - Reuse - Recycle - and enjoy it.  I'm a bit of an opshop fiend, I am just so pleased when I find some new clothes - they're reused, but still lovely, not expensive and the money goes to a good cause and its fun finding things.  Find your way to enjoy it and get your studetns enjoying it too.

Water

We're going to develop some resources about the topic of water.  In the meantime here's a link to the Australian Water Education site which has a great search engine allowing you to search for Water teaching resources by concept, activity type etc.

Just a short one.  We'll be searching through these to find the best ones and show you ways to use them with your classes. 

Climate Change Graffiti

We've got another new module up on the website.  YEY!  Climate Change Graffiti is an upper school art module developed by Anna Henshall who has developed a couple of other great art modules for us already...... Design for the Future & Painting Australia's Natural Habitat.

This one, as the title suggests, gets studetns to create a graffiti artwork that gets across the message about climate change and encourages people to change and act to stop climate change.  I think I would have really enjoyed doing this one at school.  I always like editing the Art ones as I learn loads of things myslef and get really inspired.  I hope that some schools take this on and allow their studetns to brighten up some boring school walls with an important message.

The module also gets them to look at the work of local Perth Graffiti artist Stormie Mills and I felt particularly cultured when I came across these in a car park in Subiaco last time I was up in Perth as I knew they were by Stormie.  They're pretty affecting too I'm sure you'll agree.  He looks at beauty in decay and people's resilience even when things don't seem to be going well.

In the module students analyse how he gets his message across and then think about how they will communicate theirs and develop their own style.

Grab your spray cans now!  (but of course make sure its legal to paint where you plan!!)

Lucy