Planet in Peril!
Cost
£100 per session
(flexible timings to suit your needs: 1 to 2 hours)
Game of Awe and Wonder
Our ecosystem is an intricate web of connections between prey and predator, plants, animals, fungi - and of course humans too. Tug the web by removing one species, and the consequences will be devastating for other species too. Like a giant game of jenga, if one block is removed, others may come unexpectedly tumbling down.
Each block is hand-painted with eight animals or plants. An accompanying booklet contains interesting facts on each species.
Which insects or fungi have you heard of?
Do you know if they are endangered or not?
Where do they live?
What would you like to find out about them?
Oilpipes and Rainbows
Loosely based on Snakes and Ladders, this game is equally frustrating! Players move towards either a hotter, more damaged Earth, or a cooler, pleasant Earth, encountering different government and corporate policies along the way.
A fun introduction to the idea that government and business decisions are crucial to helping our environment alongside the individual actions which children are more familiar with.
Warming Stripes
“No words. No numbers. No graphs. Just a series of vertical coloured bars, showing the progressive heating of our planet in a single, striking image. The warming stripes show clearly and vividly how global average temperatures have risen over nearly two centuries.”
Professor Ed Hawkins, University of Reading.
The warming stripes are an image that children will become increasingly familiar with - it's even being worm by Reading FC as part of their football kit - but do they know exactly what the stripes mean?
this activity will help them to understand and to explain the graphic, and they can also explpore Warming Stripes for different cities or countries using the University of Reading website.
The Name Game
In a recent study, half the children asked could not identify stinging nettles or bluebells, and only 4 out of 10 could recognise a dandelion.
If you can name something, then in a small way it becomes part of you, and you may be more likely to take notice of it, to care for it.
How many flowers/birds can students initially identify on the apron? After playing a variety of matching card games, can they improve their score?
Domino Danger
A map of the world shows 15 crucial aspects of the world's habitats and weather systems, which are known as 'Tipping Points'. If these areas or systems are pushed beyond a certain point then irreversible knock-on changes will be set in motion.
In the game of Dominio Danger, smaller dominoes get knocked down by each Tipping Point to show the students the real-life impacts on humans and other species.
Question Generator
Sometimes it's hard to spark creative questions. Using these fun question generators can stir up ideas!
Museum of Natural Mysteries
Choose an object from the Cabinet of Curious Objects, such as shells, bones or feathers to draw. What questions do the children have about these?
About me
I am a part-time primary school teacher, with experience of teaching both teaching KS1 and KS2, based in SW London. I love to combine the science from my Geography Degree with my passion for art to create games which invite children to think about the beauty of our planet. Contact me at daleandjuliet@talktalk.net.