Young teenagers from India, Algeria, and South Korea virtually met their peers through IVECA’s Live Class. After three months of collaborating through IVECA’s virtual classroom, students discussed the impact of climate change and how it affects the lives of the citizens in their countries. As climate change issues become more severe across different parts of the world, many activists are raising awareness of these effects and campaigning for solutions. To raise awareness of the problem within their countries, students presented to their peers some of the outcomes of climate change in their communities, such as air pollution in Korea, landslides in India and rises in temperatures and droughts in Algeria.
These middle schoolers were challenged to create sustainable solutions and motivate their audience to adopt their new ideas. Students shared possible actions that can be taken by the local communities to protect their environment, such as saving energy, recycling, using public transportation and using water mindfully. By enabling them to learn from each other’s diverse perspectives, students’ global collaboration inspired them to take an active role in this cause. “The solutions were amazing and very helpful… we will try to follow them in our country,” said an Indian student about her Korean partners’ presentations.
In wrapping up the Live Class, students from all three countries commonly resonated that it was a meaningful semester in which they gained a new perspective on the influence of climate change and sought personally feasible ways to solve the problem. The schools’ principals also highlighted the sense of accomplishment that students became part of the mission of raising awareness about climate change. The Korean principal shared his remarks emphasizing, “We have a duty to the future generations of the world, and working together we can implement the shared solutions.”