Overview – The Climate Change is Elementary™ program will be piloted in a few selected schools. Once it is designed and thoroughly tested it will be presented by properly trained facilitators in elementary schools nationwide at minimal cost aimed at total nationwide coverage within a ten-year time frame. Over 50,000,000 students can be involved, along with all their teachers and most of their parents. The program uses the system that has been established and tested by Dave Finnigan who has visited over 2,000 schools with a highly valued self-esteem program that then becomes part of the school culture. Every student, every teacher, and most parents will be deeply involved in the Climate Change is Elementary™ Program and will be assisted to make a commitment to help solve the crisis. The expected outcome is a sea change in public opinion regarding Global Warming and should lead to action by families throughout the US. Secondary publicity will be enormous.

Brief Operational Concept – Climate Change is Elementary™ will be implemented through the network of 95,000 Wellness and Health and Physical Education (W/HPE) Teachers at the elementary level. It takes one long day per school for a trained consultant to implement but becomes part of the W/HPE curriculum thereafter. The day begins with a 30-minute teachers meeting before school where every classroom teacher is briefed on the program, sees a few of the slides from the Climate Project slide show and gets a few questions answered by a properly trained consultant. The consultant then meets every student in the entire school one grade level at a time in specially designed hands-on activity based workshops in the gym or cafeteria with classroom teachers and Wellness/HPE teachers in attendance. These workshops use principles of Accelerated Learning to get students and teachers physically involved in skits, games, music, poems, and group activities that teach parts of the problem. At the end of the school day we hold an all-school assembly and the students present the problem in bite-sized pieces, one grade level at a time. That same evening parents are invited to come to school with their children. Every child is in the show. The students present the material just as they did in the assembly. The consultant shows some of the more important slides. Then the families work together to come up with solutions. The consultant is the facilitator. Family feedback is built in by collecting e-mail addresses of all participating families, and by sending the group’s conclusions out to every family.

Detailed Operational Concept –

Getting into Elementary Schools – It is posited that Wellness, Health and Physical Education Teachers are the proper conduit for bringing a program about the Planet’s health to the elementary level. There is no “science teacher” at the elementary level. Classroom teachers are too busy teaching to the standardized tests required by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation to be involved deeply. It is predicted that if Wellness, Health and PE Teachers can be give the responsibility of presenting this material their professional organization, AAHPERD (American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) may endorse and support the program to enhance the status of the Wellness/HPE teacher at the elementary level. AAHPERD endorsement secures physical education teacher involvement. An appearance by Al Gore at the AAHPERD National Convention, April 8-12, 2008 in Fort Worth Texas, introducing the program and asking for PE teacher involvement would cement the deal. Go to http://www.aahperd.org/convention/ for information on the group.

The Presentation – Presentation of the full-length movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is not appropriate for lower elementary grades. Critical to the success of this program is to have personal visits by trained consultants who know how to work with children, teachers, parents and administrators in the school setting. We will send in and try to have the W/HPE teacher show the faculty the full length movie An Inconvenient Truth at least a few days before the day of the consultant’s visit, and we will present two copies of the book to the school library, one for reserve and one to be checked out. Realistically, in many schools this will not actually get done. However any prep work teachers can do will be appreciated.

The outline for a visit to a typical school is as follows:

Teachers Meeting - I'll start with a teachers' meeting in the media center (school library) before school and show a 30 minute version of the Al Gore slide show, leaving most questions unanswered, simply saying that I will see teachers later in the day. Then I explain the logistics of the day. Teachers rush off to greet their kids.

Grade level presentations - After the teachers’ meeting I go to the gym or cafeteria or another large indoor space where I meet the kids and teachers one grade level at a time for about 30 minutes per grade. Kids sit in rows on the floor. Chairs just get in the way. This means up to 100 kids in the space at a time. Of course I'm miked, and have my projector and screen set up. I lay out the ground rules early for each group. I run a no-nonsense but fun program. Kids love learning when they can get physically involved. Crowd control is my specialty. I love the kids. Nobody misbehaves in my classes.

For each grade level there are a few simple concepts to get across and we do it as much as possible through exploration, movement, music, poems, touch, physical models, games and verbal and physical repetition. Each grade level gets an age appropriate piece of the puzzle, and the information still flows in generally the same order as the Inconvenient Truth book, movie, or slide show. What follows is a first attempt at a curriculum. I want your help on fleshing it out.

Kindergarten – The concept to get across here is that scientists continually look for answers and sometimes change their minds about things they previously thought were true. Students learn a song about our "Big Blue Marble" and they get to see the globe from space and hear about space exploration and how the pictures were taken. They then get to put the world together, showing us how the continents drifted apart. To do that we project the appropriate slides up on the screen and show the idea. Then they all get in two big groups, called Africa and South America, and then the groups slowly move apart. They learn that scientists can change their mind as new facts come to light. They learn how much fun it is to explore new ideas. For instance they all get out their imaginary magnifying glasses and mill around the room looking at real or imaginary things that are very small, and they all get out imaginary telescopes and look at things that are up in the sky and far away. They practice chanting in unison "It isn't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just isn't so." (Grammar corrected version of Mark Twain saying.)

First graders – The concept to get across is how the atmosphere protects us and how it is very delicate. They get to learn about the atmosphere and greenhouse gases. We start with a game where we look at a globe and then we try to guess how many sheets of blue paper we need to put on top of a pile of 1,500 sheets of white paper to represent the atmosphere that keeps us warm and safe. Of course the answer is one sheet. Then we talk about the trees breathing carbon dioxide in and oxygen out, and they all get to stand up spread out their arms and breath in slowly together, then they breath out slowly together. Next the kids are all gathered together as the Sun in the middle of the room, facing out. Then using a big globe which some of the kids hold and slowly tilt, we can circle around the room and show how the Sun shining on the earth changes with the seasons. First graders learn how the Sun heats the earth and how the atmosphere protects us,;and they can tell us why we are the "Goldilocks Planet" with temperatures that are "Just Right" when compared to Venus and Mars and Mercury. We use choral response here. They will love to be able to shout out “too cold,” “too hot,” and “just right.”

Second graders – The concept to get across here is that glaciers are melting, deserts are being created, and habitat is being lost, making it hard for animals to survive. To represent glaciers, everybody stands up and spreads out and fills up the available space, locking arms and hands, like ice crystals. Then the warm air comes in and they melt, and slowly ooze together into soggy puddles on the floor. They can show us how the animals (birds, insects, mammals, amphibians, reptiles) need to migrate higher and higher, and we can do that with hand puppets for some of the kids, and these "animal kids" can climb a mountain (some sort of gym shape or pile of mats) to show how they need to go higher up as the ice melts. Eventually they run out of space. Next 90 % the kids are drops of water in the soil, supporting the other 10% who are wearing hand puppet frogs. The frogs can jump from kid to kid, from moist place to moist place, saying “ribbit” as they go. One group at a time the water droplets (kids) leave the gym floor and go back and sit down in their original rows, but the frogs need places to sit that are moist, so they are desperately seeking habitat. Eventually there are just as many droplets as frogs, with one frog on each droplet. Finally there is just one droplet left with all the frogs gathered on top of it. The kids can tell us what happens to frogs as it gets drier. They get to shout out in unison - "They croak!"

Third graders – This group can learn about hurricanes. We put big name tags on about 50 of the kids. Then we can model the Atlantic Ocean on the gym floor with kids sitting along the two shores, Europe and Africa on the East, the Americas on the West. We assign the kids with name tags to be hurricanes. The kids sitting around the edge use their magic sunshine rays (wiggly fingers and hot breath) to warm up the ocean slightly at first with little motions and little breaths, and getting stronger and stronger with bigger motions and bigger breaths and stronger hand movements. First we model storms in the early 1900s, with two minutes for the whole summer. I point to a particular smaller kid, say their name, and they slowly pirouette from the Africa side of the room to the North America side. Then I point to another small kid, and they do the same. I want only one kid on the floor turning at a time, and they go slowly across, glancing off the North America side, or fading softly into it. Then we model storms in the 1970s and this time the heat is higher, and the magic rays from the sun are stronger, and the named hurricanes (kids) are bigger and they move faster, and they spread their arms out farther, and they cause some consternation when they get to the shore. Finally the biggest kids go across, with as many as 4 on the floor at a time, sending 30 across in one two minute summer, 1995, and really messing up the other side, causing chaos as they land. We then sit down and talk about why this is happening. We show all the hurricane slides and talk about frequency, duration, intensity and resultant damage.

Fourth graders – These sophisticated learners can become the global ocean conveyor belt. We can show the slide from Mr. Gore’s show which presents the ocean conveyor belt in action. Then we establish an Atlantic with kids on the perimeter, and an Arabian sea, and a Pacific. Those kids sit. We just need signs for Greenland, India, Alaska, the Antarctic and Europe. Then the rest of the kids can walk in a single file line standing tall with arms upraised up from the Southern Ocean to the North Atlantic representing warming water coming up from the equator and creating the Gulf Stream. When they get to Greenland they turn south and sink and become cold, "duck walking" back down past the coast of Africa and up the Arabian sea to India, where they get warm and rise again and turn and come back down to the Southern Ocean walking taller and taller as they get up to Greenland, when they sink down again. Of course half of the kids, every other one, will duck walk all the way to Alaska across the Pacific before rising up to "flow" back to the Atlantic. We will save 20 kids to be the Greenland Ice cap. At a signal they will melt, rush forward, and stop the system.

Fifth graders – These “older kids” learn about the melting of Greenland and the Poles. We start with polar bears needing to find a new home. Some audition for the polar bear roles and the rest of the kids get to move out on the floor to sit close together and become ice flows. They start in big groups, and then these groups get smaller and move farther apart. The Polar Bears wear white bath mats on their backs and walk on all fours. (To represent melting I say, "Everyone who is part of the ice pack with a December birthday go back and sit down, everyone with a March birthday go sit down, etc." until they are all seated back in their rows, and the polar bears are left swimming around with no ice to land on.) "Are we going to let this happen?" "No!" Then we do the same with glaciers and penguins. Some kids get to waddle like penguins enjoying the ice. Then as the ice melts they have no place to live. "Are we going to let this happen?" "No!" Finally we show the effect of the rise in sea level on people using the slides. "Are we going to let this happen?" "No!"

Sixth graders – The concept to get across here is the difference in the effect on sea level between melting of mountain glaciers and the floating ice of the Arctic on the one hand, and melting of Greenland and the South Polar continental ice on the other hand. I’ll roll a fish tank into the gym, filled half full of water at room temperature. I’ll put a block of ice in the water to signify floating sea ice. I’ll mark where the water line is on the glass. Then I’ll ask the kids what will happen to the water level as the ice melts. I’ll put an immersion heater in the water and let the ice slowly melt as the ocean temperature rises. While the ice is melting we’ll watch some of the slides that have to do with this piece of the program. Then we will note that there is no change in the water level on the edge of the fish tank.

Next I’ll put a cinder block in the tank that represents a continental mass, either Antarctica or Greenland, with the water just slightly over the top of the island. We’ll note the water level on the edge of the glass, and get student response about what will happen when that ice melts. Then we’ll put a block of ice on the island and melt it with a hair dryer to represent warmer atmosphere, and maybe run the immersion heater too. We will make a little "city" or "shoreline" in the fish tank just at water surface level before the ice melts and then we’ll watch it submerge as the ice disappears. We’ll note what happens to sea level.

Then we will do the math on the blackboard (whiteboard). How much volume is in the world's oceans? How much volume is in the Greenland and Antarctic ice? If half the ice melts, how far up will the waterline go? If it all melts, what will happen? We will show the slides that show what this will do to people in Florida, New York City, Shanghai, and Bangladesh? We will introduce the term, “climate refugees.”

With 7^th and 8^th graders we can use the slides and a more "adult" presentation.

All school assembly - Now we are ready for the one hour all-school assembly, which is actually a dress rehearsal for Family Night. We convene as a school in the gym or cafeteria and each grade level presents their piece of the puzzle. Kindergarteners have about five minutes. They sing their song about the "big blue marble" floating in space and we look at that slide. They show us how the continents drifted apart, and we look at that slide, and they show us how to walk around like scientists either star gazing or looking into magnifying glasses or microscopes. Then they chant "It isn't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just isn't so."

We use the same format with every other grade level, doing in five minutes (plus about two minutes to get organized) what we did in 30 minutes of class together. Now that we have learned about what is happening, I can introduce the jagged red line which shows how much CO2 is in the atmosphere in each season, and we can talk about why it is so and the implications of continuing the line. Then we close by quickly generating a list of things that we can do to help prevent the crisis, putting them on a slide or on a white board. I get the kids excited about bringing their parents back for the evening program, and even if the family had no plans for the evening, most will come back.

Family Night - All of this work is a "dress rehearsal" for the evening program. That evening we hold a "(Your School) Saves the World Family Night." If this program follows "Family Juggling Night," I have earned credibility and we will get a crowd. No matter what we will get a big crowd because every student is in the show, so parents need to attend. We may have such a big crowd that we need to meet at the local middle school or high school so we can all fit in the gym and still have room for activities. The evening program is between one and a half and two hours long. In the first half hour the kids present their pieces again just as they did in the assembly. Then I show about 30 additional minutes of the slide show. Then we have families work together in groups of 3 or 4 families for 20 minutes to come up with lists on big sheets of paper using marker pens telling what they can do. We post these around the room on the wall and quickly go over them together. Then parents from that school decide what they want to do next, which can range from doing nothing, to staying on top of the problem and working together to help with solutions.

I close the Family Night with everyone standing and taking the following pledge:

“Raise your right hands and repeat after me.”

“I take full responsibility,

For the entire planet,

And for all life on it.

And I happily share this responsibility

with all of you,

and with everyone else who cares.

I promise

to take this mission to save the planet

seriously

And to take myself

Lightly

I will do my best to be

The change I want to see

in other people.

If this change is to be

It is up to you and me.

Pass it on!”

We make sure that every family that has one shares their e-mail address. Then that night after I leave the school, I'll put together a data base with all the names for that school, and e-mail all of them a thank you note, and a consolidated list of the things they came up with. I'll urge them to stay in touch with each other on this issue, deputizing them to take care of their piece of the planet.

Community Commitment – Our eventual goal is to get family and community commitment to “Think Globally and Work Locally” on matters of Global Responsibility. Every family and every school will be left with a set of challenges helpful to the overall cause that they have generated themselves and that they can accomplish. Schools will be urged to work together within their community, and the internet will be used to tie them together for this project, forming interconnected learning communities in a "My Space" type network where schools can go to get answers to questions and to brag about accomplishments.


Timeline for Recruiting Consultants and Schools – Planning will start now in Winter/Spring 2007. We will test the program in March or April 2007 and I’ll give it a full year of implementation in school year 2007-2008. If it is acceptable and we can get approval from the Climate Project, and we can get funding, we will use that program as the training vehicle for the national roll-out with national training in summer of 2008 and implementation in fall of 2008. Once the program has been delivered in a dozen schools, we will send in a camera crew to record the student response and create two DVDs. One will be promotional and about 10 minutes in length and will be sent for free to schools that request information on the program. The other will be several hours in length and can be used as a training DVD for potential consultants. Consultants can come from recent college graduates or from college students who want to take a year off and present these programs for credit or from current or ex-teachers, or from performers who like to work with kids.


Financial - Experience shows that it is vital for schools to invest in this program or they will not value it and they will not follow through after the consultant leaves the building. Schools will pay for this information if it is properly structured and professionally delivered. Certainly the PTA can make a contribution of $500 for a Climate Change is Elementary™ Program of high quality. This amount can be supplemented or matched by foundation support or a commercial sponsor to pay for getting the bookings and for overheads like transportation and housing, giving the consultant $500 to take home for each school. With this program and with centralized scheduling and a transportation allowance each consultant can deliver one-day programs to at least 100 schools per year and can net over $50,000 for their efforts. One hundred consultants can visit 10,000 schools in one year. In ten years every elementary school in the US can be visited at a cost of about $500 per school. $50,000,000 stretched over a ten-year period seems like a small price for a sponsor to pay to save the world, particularly if it is matched by contributions from the schools.


Pilot Program – For $35,000 it will be possible to design the program and give it a solid test in about 10 elementary schools in several states. Funds are being sought for that test.

Background of Principal Investigator – Dave Finnigan, has a BA from Cornell in Anthropology, where he studied culture change with Alan Holmberg. He has a Masters in Health Education (MPH) from Berkeley, where he specialized in Population and Family Planning, and he advanced to candidacy for his PhD in Population and Development Planning at the University of Washington.


Dave spent 10 years, from 1966-1976, working as a consultant in Family Planning and Population in Korea, Taiwan, The Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal and Turkey for the Population Council, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, the World Bank, and various UN agencies. Among his many projects in Asia was helping change thinking about family size in Taiwan and South Korea as a consultant on Information, Education and Communication (IEC) with the Ministries of Health and Education. Taiwanese and Korean family size fell in one generation from the average of over five live births per married woman to around two for both populations. In Taiwan an important component of this change was a book that Dave co-authored called, in Chinese, “Paste Your Umbrella Before It Rains.” It was distributed to every middle school student on the island starting in 1969 when it became part of the health curriculum. As a result of these efforts, population growth has literally ceased in South Korea and Taiwan and with this demographic transition they have experienced an economic transition from less developed to developed status. Dave would have stayed in the population field in the Third World but his son has cerebral palsy so he changed focus and stayed in the US.


From 1976 through 2005 Dave took a self-esteem and school-esteem program, entitled Juggling for Success, to over 2,000 elementary and middle schools in North America. Dave’s educational preparation, his 10 years of experience working in attitude change regarding population and family planning in Asia and his 30 year stint working in schools has given him a unique set of insights and tools needed to help design, test, refine, and implement the Climate Change is Elementary™ Program for schools.


Dave is also a Certified Speaking Professional, or CSP, the highest earned rank in the National Speakers Association.


Missing Elements – Discussion I had on January 10th with Al Gore indicates that someone is working on an elementary school version of the book An Inconvenient Truth. If others can work on this part of the project I can concentrate on the creation of the link to schools and recruiting locations for the test from among schools visited in the past.


Any other thoughts on the topic will be appreciated. Who wants to work with me on this issue? I want to test this concept in Spring 2007, and start these programs in the Fall. Until further notice, every school that hires me to do my juggling program gets this second day for free if they want it.


Dave Finnigan

davefinnigan@yahoo.com

770-329-1152