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Critiquing Climate Change in Secondary Education and Incorporating Critical Making

Francesca Gruppuso 100649522

EDUC 5199G: Critical Making

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Dr. Janette Hughes

December 3, 2019
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Critiquing Climate Change in Secondary Education and Incorporating Critical Making

Introduction

I am currently an occasional teacher in the secondary panel of an Ontario school board,

and I am qualified to teach Science. As a future Science teacher in Ontario’s high schools, I

understand that I will be teaching students about climate change and perhaps most, if not all, they

know about climate change will come from my classroom. Today, fake news and “alternative

facts” are being spread widely through social media and greatly impacts how students perceive

climate change because as it is highly accessible to students and simple to accept as true and

reliable. Climate change is important to me as a teacher as what and how I teach climate change

to students will have a great impact on their perception of climate change. I wish to inform

students of the facts of climate change, give them the tools and hope to inspire them to make a

difference.

Climate change is of political, economic, social, and mostly importantly, environmental

significance and one of the most crucial and detrimental events that is taking place today

throughout the world. The planet is undergoing extreme changes and causing a threat to

civilization throughout the planet as we know it. Climate change manifests itself through

increasing average global temperature. Scientists and researchers have determined that the Earth

has been experiencing an increase in global temperature for more than a century, especially in

the last 50 years (NASA, 2019).

Climate change is chiefly attributed to the increase in greenhouse gases which traps heat

in the atmosphere. (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2018). Evidence has

overwhelming pointed to human activity as the only plausible explanation to the increase in

greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and subsequent increase in global temperature (Smith and
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McCullough, 2017). It greatly affects all people on the planet as we see the detrimental effects it

has on the Earth. Arctic environments are melting at an accelerated rate and creating melt water.

Educating adolescents on climate change is a chance to help future generations in Ontario and

around the world to understand the implications of climate change and how to potentially reverse

its effects on the environment.

For decades, scientists have been raising the red flag and calling for change in practices

and policies in place to reduce greenhouse emissions. Unfortunately, greenhouse gases have

continued to accumulate, and global temperature is projected to reach 1.5 °C above pre-industrial

levels of greenhouse gases between 2030 and 2052 according to the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change (IPCC, 2013). There is room for improvement for politicians, policy makers,

and ordinary citizens to in their actions. Climate change education in Ontario secondary schools

can be a key great influence in igniting a greater change as secondary students are the future of

the planet. Climate change education has informed students until now about the state of the Earth

and there has been some improvement, but there is still a long way to. A way to improve climate

change education in Ontario secondary can potentially be seen through the incorporation and

integration of maker pedagogy and critical making into climate change units of study.

Literature Review of Maker Culture and Critical Making

In the past decade, maker culture has become more and more prominent in K-12

education. What exactly is maker culture? In essence, it involves people of all ages,

backgrounds, capabilities, and professions making something by hand. The purpose of maker

culture and making with one’s hands is to re-introduce learning through doing. People engaged

in the maker culture create their own artifacts, so to speak, and share their processes and products
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with other people through physical means or digital means such as forums (Halverson and

Sheridan, 2014).

Upon hearing about maker culture for the first time, one might think how it differs from

what people have done in the past such as inventors and entrepreneurs. Three identifying

characteristics of the maker movement include the use of digital desktop tools, the sharing of

designs and online collaboration, and the use of common design standards to enable quick

iteration and sharing (Hatch, 2014). What defines maker culture from past computational and

internet revolutions is the feature of constructing physical objects. However, the maker culture is

not limited to making physical artifacts. Products in maker culture can be entirely digital such as

coding a game or an interactive story. Furthermore, artifacts can be designed digitally through

programs such as Tinkercad and brought to life through 3D printing. Artifacts can also have a

combination of physical and electronic components such as e-textiles where circuits are

embedded in materials.

Maker culture as a means for learning is primarily based upon constructivist theory

whereby students construct their subjective representations of knowledge from their prior

experiences. New information and processes are linked to prior knowledge which is how

learning occurs. Constructivism posits that learning is an active, constructive process which

accurately describes in essence what making is. Making is an active process as all parties

involved play a role. All people have their own experiences and cultural viewpoints that they

may come from. Building on these experiences and constructing knowledge is an active process

and creates meaningful learning for students (Orey, 2010). Maker activities are meaningful and

relevant because students build upon what they already know.

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Maker culture in itself is very much a social process as a key characteristic of making is

sharing the processes and products through physical or digital means with other people. Social

constructivism highlights the importance of social interaction in cognitive development (David,

2014). In social constructivism, knowledge is considered a human product and that is socially as

well as culturally constructed (Orey, 2010). Individuals create subjective meaning through their

interactions with others and the environment they live in. Maker activities rely strongly on

interacting with others through sharing processes and products. Learning in social constructivism

is viewed as a social process and does not take place within a single individual (Orey, 2010). It is

not a passive development of behaviours that are molded by external influences. Essentially,

meaningful learning occurs when students are engaged in social activities.

A crucial component of maker culture in education is the teacher must give up some

power and organization traditionally exhibited in teacher-centred classrooms. Teachers act more

as a facilitator in the maker spaces with students. Congruent with social constructivism, teachers

act as the more knowledgeable other (MKO) with a better understanding or higher ability level.

The purpose of the MKO is to help students develop beyond their zone of proximal development

(ZPD) through guidance and tools (David, 2014). What is flexible and dynamic about social

constructivism is that the MKO is not always necessarily the teacher in the classroom. It is very

plausible that some students are experts at the particular maker activity and they can be the MKO

for their peers. In fact, in maker classrooms, the teacher may learn just as much from their

students as the students learn from the teacher.

Critical making combines critical thinking, an abstract process, with hands-on making.

Critical making places an emphasis on the constructive process and sharing that process with

others. Rich learning occurs through the process of making. Critical making also call for
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reflection and re-evaluation of assumptions and values. For example, STEM technology

development has a history of colonialism, military intervention, and oppression of people of

colour (Vossoughi, 2016). In critical making it is important to recognize the militaristic, ethical

implication, gendered definition of making. Making and tinkering is heavily associated with

economically found white males and it is imperative to make making accessible to all people of

different genders, backgrounds, and socioeconomic status by using a critical lens.

Making in Science Education

Making is seen as a high ceilings, low floors, and wide walls meaning it is accessible to a

wide range of students. It is interest-driven in nature whereby students develop and pursue their

own processes to realize their ideas. It does not rely on formalized design. STEM making by

disposition is interdisciplinary entailing elements of design, engineering, and mathematics in

addition to science concepts. It allows for students to develop familiarity and understanding of

scientific concepts and phenomena while engaged in design, engineering, and mathematics.

Teachers are able to formatively asses students’ understanding by having them apply their

understanding through design and engineering.

Maker Culture and Climate Change Science

Climate change is a crucial and important topic in secondary Science curriculum. How

exactly is climate change being addressed in the Ontario Curriculum? In this paper I will be

looking at three resources pertaining to the topic of climate change in Grade 9 and 10 Science in

the Ontario Curriculum. I will look at strengths, gaps, the incorporation of technology, and how

making can be integrated into these units of study.

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Critique

Resources For Rethinking

This is a website that has resources prepared, organized, and peer reviewed by 30

experienced educators across Canada. It is backed by Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF), a

non-profit Canadian organisation which promotes knowledge, skills, perspectives, and practices

for a sustainable future. LSF prepared a highly organized document that lists resources such as

lessons, units, and videos about various topics on climate change based on grade level.

For Grade 10 Science, there is a plethora of resources on different topics including

sustainable energy choices, climate change controversy, graph analysis of ice core data, melting

ice, oil pipelines, UNICEF Climate Change Report, Indigenous perspectives on climate change,

and the effects of climate change on women living in poverty.

A strength of this website is that it brings forth resources and case studies that are aimed

towards Canadian students such as the Paris Agreement, Canadian Oil Sands, and Ontario’s cap

and trade system of greenhouse gas emissions. Many resources tend to focus on the United States

which is still important nonetheless, but these topics are of more relevance to Canadians. These

important topics in Canada on climate change that students should be made aware of.

Another strength of this website is its resource on analysis and graphing of ice core data.

It is interdisciplinary such that it incorporates mathematics, specifically graphing, and has

students analyse the relationship between carbon dioxide and atmospheric temperature. Students

can see through that as carbon dioxide has increased over time, so has global temperatures. It

links real world science and environmental problems and promotes student awareness.
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There is also a resource on analysing ecological footprint and its link between causes and

consequences. It is an effective way to introduce the issue or resource use, consumerism, and

sustainable development. It allows for abstract ideas to be made concrete. It provides immediate

feedback to the consequences that the students’ choices have and encourages more responsible

choices.

This resource describes stories and case studies of Indigenous people in Canada and

women living in poverty. It brings forth different perspectives from minorities on climate change

such as Indigenous people and worldwide views from women living poverty and how they are

affected by climate change. Students can build empathy and understanding for others and how

understand how decisions that negatively impact the environment has severe impacts on

Indigenous people and women living in poverty.

There is also a resource for a particular STEM activity, the floating garden challenge,

which incorporates elements of making into it. The premise of this activity is that climate change

has caused more rain and flooding than ever before in Bangladesh. As a result, land where

farmers used to grow crops is now flooded consistently and cannot be used to grow crops. It is

hands-on, incorporates inquiry, cooperative learning, and it is cost effective as materials required

included a container, water, dirt, crops, and other practical materials students may need to get the

plants to float. Students are to design and build a model structure to enable farmers to grow crops

in a region that could potentially become flooded. This activity allows for creativity as students

will have differing designs of different capabilities in holding different weights of crops and

students build skills in design and engineering. There is room for extension of this activity to

create a larger model of a floating garden in the school yard or beyond the school in areas with

flooding.
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Looking at the multiple resources this website provides, there is a consistent theme of

weaknesses apparent in most the resources. Many activities lack out-of-doors experience, actual

hands-on experience, and lacks authentic action opportunity as well. Of the inquiry incorporated

into these resources, they are very much structured and closed ended inquiry which does not

leave much room for creativity, expression, and formulation of students’ own ideas. However,

the floating garden challenge does entail elements of making more so than other resources on

this website. Although these resources contain a wealth of interesting information that is relevant

to students, there seems to be an overabundance of information and possible memorization of a

lot of this information. Additionally, there is not much incorporation or embedding of technology

in the resources provided.

Overall the Resources For Thinking website has great interdisciplinary activities as well

as gives different perspectives of climate change that are not always heard. Its gap lies in that

there are not many hands-on activities or opportunities for making.

Western Washington University

Western Washington University designed a curriculum package intended for Grades 9-

12, Climate Change: Connections and Solutions. It is a nine-part unit which has several hands-on

activities for students to better understand concepts in climate change. For example, there is a

hands-on activity to simulate the effect of greenhouse gases on temperature using glass jars.

Although this activity is closed-ended with one correct answer, it allows for some inquiry as

students are being introduced to this topic and are not too familiar with the relationship of

greenhouse gases and temperature. It involves elements of mathematics as students are required

to graph data and analyse the data to answer their initial hypothesis of which jar will have the
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highest temperature. Students are encouraged to debate the advantages and disadvantages, ask

questions, discuss overall findings, and conclude discussion.

This resource also allows for several group activities for students to work together.

Jigsaw learning can be incorporated into learning one group becomes an expert on a topic such

as a certain population in an ecosystem or a certain energy source. Experts are mixed up with

experts of topics and engage in peer learning as they teach each other different topics they are

now experts of.

Many of the activities in this resource involve group research and presentation of this

information to the classroom. Students are able to build research skills and determine reliable

sources of information through practice and guidance from the teacher. Group presentations

allow for students to further build on what they know and their prior experiences in a social

context with their peers. They synthesise a body of information and share it with classmates

which can be discussed.

Additionally, several activities offer classroom games to help understand concepts in

climate change. Games and activities pertain to topics like cap and trade, carbon dioxide

emission by country and per capita, and environmental and social impacts of resource

consumption. Games are fun and allow for active learning as students are engaged and are

learning otherwise difficult concepts.

This resource attempts to engage and present concepts in climate change through hands-

on activities and group research and presentation of information. The activities assist in teaching

difficult concepts and make it more enjoyable for students to learn as they engage in games and

activities. However, the hands-on activities are closed-ended inquiry and do not allow for much
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creativity. Also, technology is only used to gather information when there is much more potential

for the use of technology in a climate change unit. Additionally, there is no sort of opportunity

for making in this curriculum package.

Green Learning

Green Learning Canada Foundation has created a unit plan on climate change. It was put

together by Canadian teachers, curriculum consultants, and ministry of education representatives.

This resource, similar to the SLF resource, considers Indigenous perspectives on climate

change. It looks at how climate change affects their environment, accessibility to travel from

place to place, accessibility to food. It also considers Indigenous traditional knowledge and

environmental management. It also makes use of using concepts maps for students to make as a

group.

Green Learning also includes demonstrations carried out by the teacher in front of the

class with student volunteers. One demonstration looks at heat transfer and albedo effect to look

at the effect of the Sun’s radiation and greenhouse gases on temperature using oven mittens.

This resource also offers a virtual simulation of the Milankovitch cycles to look at

seasonal cycles and Earth’s rotation around the Sun. Students can manipulate the simulation to

look at winter and summer seasons in the northern and southern atmosphere. There are

animations of carbon dioxide levels, ice cores, and melting glaciers.

There are also several PowerPoints created and provided by teachers from Green

Learning with accompanying student handout and extended teacher notes. The PowerPoints

provide rich information for the students, but it is however done is a passive manner.
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Furthermore, this resource has a hands-on lab activity pertaining to ice cores. This

activity is based on modern technologies used by scientists and students investigate like

scientists would. The activity quantitative in that students collect numeric data. There is also a

discovery and inquiry-based aspect to this lab activity, although it is not entirely open-ended

inquiry. Students will get achieve varied but similar results in their lab experiments. There is also

a dry lab activity of graphing and analysis of ice core data. This is interdisciplinary in nature as it

involves mathematics skills of graphing and understanding trends between greenhouse gases

such as carbon dioxide and methane and global temperatures. The dry lab activity allows for

differentiated instruction as students can do the hands-on approach previously mentioned or the

dry lab activity.

This resource provides rich information on climate change, several demonstration hooks

for the classroom, hands-on lab activities, simulations and informational animations on various

climate change concepts. In terms of inquiry, the ice core lab activity is the only activity that

uses an inquiry and experimental approach to learning to a certain extent. There is incorporation

of technology for simulations and animations, but the use of technology such as PowerPoints,

and watching videos and animations is passive in nature. There is room for more inquiry and

better utilization of technology. Additionally, making could be incorporated.

Discussion, Implications, and Conclusion

The climate change unit packages that were reviewed each contain a variety of resources

that can be considered passive, information-loaded, inquiry-based, and hands-on. It is beneficial

to have a wide range of lessons with varied components like demonstrations, labs, games, and

even structured PowerPoint. Some of these resources include activities that are social and active

in nature. However, there is room for improvement and more incorporation of making into
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climate change. Making is a social process that engages students to be active in their learning

and promote creativity. There are several making activities that could be incorporated into

climate change units of study.

The previously mentioned Floating Garden Challenge is a fantastic example of a making

activity that is resourceful and has meaningful purpose. Students are given creative freedom to

design and engineer a floating garden model. It is a creative STEM projective that incorporates

engineering, science, and design. This activity could be further extended to create a larger model

of an area that experience frequent flooding

Coding is a growing and useful tool for 21st century learning. Most careers that students

may pursue may involve some sort of coding. A suggestion to incorporate more making into

climate change would be for students to create a culminating activity that incorporates key

learning and may also help educate others. This can be done through coding a game on Scratch

or CoSpace Edu where students actively create an educational game. Students can also create

interactive stories or narratives pertaining to climate change through Scratch of CoSpace Edu.

Students can learn how to code as well as teach their peers about coding. Additionally, students

can teach other students about climate through coding programs.

3D printing is becoming more mainstream and accessible in schools. It is important as

teachers to teach students about the advantages of 3D printing as well as the disadvantages of it.

Students must be aware and critical of what and how much they design and print. 3D printing

requires energy and resources to make. Wasteful production of 3D printing artifacts contributes

to wasteful use of imperative resources and energy. As a teacher, it is important to facilitate and

monitor what artifacts students make and ensure students do not make for the sake of making.

Critical making is done with a meaningful intention to create something of use and value.
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Students could also design climate change awareness posters or infographics that

incorporate paper circuits (Makerspaces, 2019). Students can use conductive copper tape, LED

lights, coin battery, recycled paper, and Bristol boards to create circuits that light up. Students

can be creative about climate change while also incorporating concepts from the electricity unit

in Grade 10 Science

How teachers teach climate change to students will have a great impact on their

perceptions of climate change. Currently, many adolescents around the world are pessimistic

towards climate change where some are in denial and others are hopeless that any action will

help. Children and adolescent activists from around such as Greta Thunberg call for action from

world leaders to make policy changes towards helping reverse climate change. She stresses how

adolescents are dreading and worry about the state of the planet (Forani, 2019). Young people

are becoming anxiety-ridden and fearful of the future.

Perhaps incorporating more interactive and active maker activities will provide students

with the tools and autonomy to realize there is hope for the planet. Being an active participant in

creating products that promote climate change awareness such as coding a game or story will

allow to students to feel involved and active.

Activities like the Floating Garden Challenge that start off small by creating a model can

ignite students’ interests. With teacher facilitation and peer collaboration, students can expand

their work into a larger project that has meaning. They may want to build larger models that can

be useful to farmers or property owners who grow crops in areas prone to flooding.

Facilitating maker spaces in the classroom and doing activities like the Floating Garden

Challenge allows for students to build their six global competencies: critical thinking,
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innovation, self-directed learning, collaboration, communication, and citizenship (Ontario

Ministry of Education, 2017). Making involves solving real world problems and prior

transferring skills to make meaningful products. Designing and engineering involves innovation

and creativity in order to design something is plausible and useful. The process of making

develops both self-directed learning as well as collaboration as students take autonomy over their

learning and can further research into questions they may have. On the other hand, students work

together and learn from each in solving complex problems. Students communicate their work

through creative outlets like oral, written, and multimedia presentations. Students are taking

action to support and help others to make a positive difference. These global competencies are

what will enable students to become active participants in the future and leaders in the fight for

revering the negative effects human activities have had on the climate.
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