I draw three circles on the board as my class watches.
“So, what might this gas be?”
“CO2”
“Good, but what does CO2 stand for?”
“Oh, carbon dioxide,” reels off the whole class as one.
Secondary students know CO2. The chemical formula rolls off the tongues of even those who disdain science. Carbon dioxide is frequently mentioned in lessons; as products in reactions, during tests for gases, in the carbon cycle, respiration, photosynthesis and even to explain the greenhouse effect. This common gas, essential for many processes occurring on our planet, is intertwined throughout the secondary school curriculum. But real insight into the impact those two atoms of oxygen and one of carbon will have on my students’ future varies drastically between individuals.
I have been following the growing student strikes around the world with fascination. Seeing young people abandon their studies for a day and claim to be taking their future into their own hands should make any teacher uneasy, and it has led me to question my role as a secondary school science teacher.
I am sure most would agree with me that the purpose of a student’s school years is to safeguard their future; preparing them and educating them with information relevant to their future overall life happiness. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change and other global institutions have issued irrefutable warnings on global warming – now the education sector must ask itself how it can prepare young people for the battle against climate change.
In response to the recent protests, a government official told the Guardian that “children are very engaged, otherwise they would not be joining protests” and that this “shows they are obviously being taught quite well”. Well, those students taking part in the protests were engaged, but very few of my pupils knew it was even happening or understood why the protesters were so upset. Are schools failing to fulfil a potential duty to inform their students about the situation?
The newly updated KS4 science curriculum shows promise. In physics, students learn about renewable and non-renewable energy sources; in chemistry they study the carbon cycle and greenhouse effect; in biology they learn about biodiversity loss and methods of conservation. Exam questions ask about the consequences of global warming and directly link it to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being released excessively into the atmosphere. What is missing, however, is a way of bringing it all together; to show how the situation is likely to affect young people’s lives within a few years.
Projections of societal collapse, famine and war are not fearmongering: they must be taken seriously. It is never enjoyable to startle and worry children, but we have a duty to inform them of the issues.
We need more detail in the GCSE science curriculum, especially in terms of how renewable energy sources work, and I would like to see more information and debate about the consequences of not lowering carbon dioxide emissions or not rapidly acting to protect biodiversity.
The PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) education syllabus taught at schools has the potential to be expanded. A good PSHE programme should promote children’s personal and economic wellbeing and help them develop as individuals. Part of this should be to prepare them for the high-carbon legacy from previous generations.
Schools encourage charity fundraising and working within local communities. There now needs to be legislation to ensure they show the same diligence in protecting the planet’s future and preparing young people to be informed actors in their own futures.
The big revolutions of the young against the old in the past century, like the swinging 60s, were characterised by the introduction of new social values. But this burgeoning 21st-century revolt doesn’t have to be a revolution at all. Young or old, no one wants to lose key species of plants and animals. No one wants to be short of food or see their children displaced or harmed due to conflict from limited resources.
Some informed students of this country are simply prompting all adults, especially policy makers, to act on an issue which they ought already to be acting upon. We should stand in solidarity with them.