The Next Climate Fellowship

Session 10: The final session - Putting it into action 👊

In this final session our students discuss how they can put to action what they have learned over the last 9 weeks.

Students get together in their groups to put the finishing touches on their green cities of the future and present to one another.

🚨 EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS TOMORROW 🚨

The Next Climate Fellowship is currently at its lowest price ever. Enroll your children at only $550 for virtual programs and $600 for in-person.

Prices go up tomorrow at midnight so if you are planning on signing up, make sure to do so as soon as you can

Programs available Thursdays and Saturdays 🎉

Session #9: The city session 🌆

Cities are at the heart of humanity. Throughout this entire program, students have viewed climate change through the lens of our cities. It is in this final session that we take all of this knowledge and bring it together in reference to different example cities around the world.

First, students start by examining some of the world's most innovative cities as it relates to their infrastructure, transportation, green space and more.

Students then complete a research assignment in teams around one of the four examined cities. Each team presents their findings.

Students then get back with their green city of the Future teams to bring together all the knowledge they have gained over the 9 weeks and apply them to their cities.

Session 8: Ride a bike 🚲

In this session we explore transportation. Riding a bike is one way in which we can reduce our impact on the climate but the connection between movement and climate change is much larger and more complex.

Right now air-travel, the movement of goods, and more all account for a large part of climate change. Often a part we don't think quite as much about.

In this session, students will start with a discussion on cars. Why we have them, and why we have made ourselves dependant on them.

Next students will explore innovative alternatives to cars as a method of movement and travel. They will examine case studies from cities around the world put in place to change the way we travel.

They will end the session by working on their own city's transportation and movement systems.

Session 7: Conserve energy

In this session, we will talk about conserving energy as well as the use of renewable energy. Energy is sooooo important! It is one of the largest pollutants around the globe.

Energy is everything. It powers our phones, heats and cools us, and powers machinery that makes things we need and want. It is ubiquitous and yet, beyond renewables, is not as much a part of the climate conversation.

In this session, students start by thinking about their city's natural environment and the ability to create and utilize renewable energy based on the city's environment. Next, we discuss our teamwork skills in groups. How have we improved or worked on continuing to be better team members?

Then, students launch into a review of fossil fuels. Where they came from, what they are good for and how they are used to power our society. In this analysis we review a number of graphs and other data in order to help students learn data interpretation.

Finally, we review the downsides of fossil fuels and why we need to get off them as soon as we can. We end the session with an analysis of renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Session 6: Plant more trees

How does the earth breathe? Concepts like the carbon cycle, carbon sinks, and emitters are all crucial to understanding climate change. Carbon dioxide is produced by our planet naturally and eliminated as well. It is in understanding this base concept that we can get a deeper understanding of how human-produced Co2 warms our planet and how new innovations eliminating Co2 will aid in slowing down climate change.

Students start the session by discussing the connection between climate change and trees.

From here, we begin to research what different cities are doing in increasing the amount of trees and green space globally. Next, students review a case study involving a tech company that is using internet searches to plant trees.

To end our session students work on their green cities of the future in reference to their own greenspace.

🚨 EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS IN ONE WEEK 🚨

The Next Climate Fellowship is currently at its lowest price ever. Enroll your children at only $550 for virtual programs and $600 for in-person.

Prices go up August 24th at midnight so if you are planning on signing up, make sure to do so soon!

Programs available Thursdays and Saturdays 🎉

🥦 Session 5 | Eating healthy sustainable foods 🥦

Now what we eat can be a sensitive topic but by taking the scientific approach when looking at food we can help Fellows understand a bit more about what eating, healthy, sustainable food can look like.

In this session, Fellows explore our agricultural system. We begin to understand how different components of our diet are produced and where.

Fellows are asked to analyze complex diagrams to see if they can spot any trends or items of importance in data.

Fellows are then invited to explore new inventions and innovations in producing food. We explore how each of these innovations helps us but also how they are viewed publically. Fellows get the chance to share their opinions on these innovations.

We end the session by completing campaigns to invite our families, friends, neighbours and more to eat more delicious, healthy and sustainable foods. Fellows explore the important points of communication and marketing.

♻️ Session 4 | Reduce waste ♻️

The flip side of buying responsibly is trying to reduce waste. This can be as simple as fixing something versus buying new, or making sure that when we are done with a product we dispose of it in such a way that it has the least negative impact on the planet.

Fellows explore a more in-depth version of the simply reduce, reuse, recycle method.

We then apply this method to a case study around waste management in Germany. Fellows are asked to see what kind of innovations this case study has used in order to reduce the impact of waste.

Fellows then use all they learned in this session to plan out how the different waste of their city will be disposed of or reused.

🛍️ Session 3 | Buy Responsibly 🛍️

As humans, we love to buy things. We consume. Coffee, clothes, new technology. It makes our lives better, but often when buying, we are not thinking about where the things we buy will eventually end up.

In this session, we help students understand that there are better ways to buy things.

We start by exploring linear versus circular economies. What does it mean to buy something that is part of the circular economy? Then we explore plastics and why, while useful, they can be so harmful to the planet.

Next students get their first case study. Here we look at the popular clothing company SHIEN. Students explore the company, how they operate and their values.

The session ends with time to work on their projects and to think about how things will be produced, sold and disposed of in their green city of the future.

🔭 Session 2 | The scientific process 🔭

In this session, we want students to learn how to think like a scientist. Thinking like a scientist involves problem-solving and critical thinking. It is about understanding the world around us, not just trusting what we see on our phones or what someone tells us.

Climate change is a complicated subject. Many people want to change young people's opinions in one way or another around this topic but, The Next Climate Fellows will be trained to think for themselves and to try and discover the truth about complex topics.

🔬 In this session we learn about the scientific process and how it works, we then discuss how scientific discoveries are made, who makes them and why money often is a leading cause of innovation 💸

Students then are introduced to our program-long project, building their green city of the future where they are the city planner. The session ends with presentations from each student on what they are most excited to work on as it relates to their green city of the future.

Over the next 10 posts, we want to break down The Next Climate Fellowship program. To give you an inside peek at what the program is all about. Below you will find the details around session 1 🎉

🌍 Session 1 | We will solve climate change 🌍
In this session, students are asked if they believe we will solve climate change. This gets students' brains ticking and helps us establish the group's understanding of how bad climate change really is.

From here, students learn a bit more about where climate change comes from, what greenhouse gasses are and how they work, and finally, The ways in which we can and others are fighting climate change.

We wrap up by having students discuss a form of climate tech they are most interested in and or found most important.

In this session students are getting to know one another, learning the basics of climate science and establishing a foundational understanding of what it means to fight against rapid climate change.