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You are here: Home > News > Helping Kids To Think Green

• Helping kids to think green

• Date:

  8th June 2008

• Contact:

  Sarah Egerton

• Organisation:

  The Civic Trust

Children in schools across England were encouraged to wear green and think green and focus on climate change for 'green day’ last Thursday (5 June).

The green day, devised by CABE and coinciding with world environment day, is designed to bring alive the connections between climate change and the built environment, through thought-provoking eco-themed activities. The initiative targets pupils aged seven to 14 in key stages 2 and 3. It gives teachers and the chance to explore how environmental issues link subjects across the curriculum, and have a trial run at putting the new key stage 3 curriculum into practice. 

CABE has devised the green day as a fun way of engaging young people in a serious issue. Pupils are invited to wear an item of green clothing to school (a journey they make on foot or bike, of course). Teachers will start the day by making the link between climate change and the built environment throughout the morning, before whole-school activities go green in the afternoon.

The green day approach gives each school a flexible way to explore how the design of their building and grounds could be more environmentally friendly. Maths lessons will be used to calculate students’ carbon footprint, physics will focus on the insulation properties of different materials, and in geography pupils will design a sustainable city. Some schools will have a ‘green day out’ with pupils visiting eco-housing projects, allotments and energy centres.

Matt Bell, CABE’s director of education, said the response from schools to the green day project had been extraordinary. “There is clearly a huge appetite for practical ideas that help young people make the connections between climate change and the buildings and places around us,” he said. “Climate change is in many respects a young person’s issue. And the built environment offers a fantastic resource for a school to become both more sustainable in the way it runs and more creative in the way it teaches and learns.”

More than 30 schools across Birmingham participated in the green day as their contribution to the climate change festival, being run by CABE and Birmingham City Council in the city between 31 May and 8 June.