Environmental Heroes

Teacher Tips

Hook

• Ask for the three qualities and for examples of heroes who have them, and give the full minute. Learners will name superheroes, footballers and family members, which is fine, so let them. It helps to write the qualities on the board and leave the list up, as you’ll come back to it when you circulate and again in the plenary.
• The reveal is that today’s heroes aren’t superheroes; they’re ordinary people who chose to solve environmental problems in different ways. If there’s time, you might ask “Do heroes always have to be famous?” The point to land is that learning how these people chose to act shows how we can each play our part.

ITZA Pathway

• You don’t need to know the heroes. The session covers more than 20 figures from different eras and approaches, and the pathway introduces each person from scratch. It’s self-paced and non-linear, with four tabs: Early Environmentalists, Solution Seekers, Defiant Disruptors and Environmental Influencers.
• The four tabs represent four different kinds of change. Early Environmentalists are pioneers who changed how we think about nature. Solution Seekers are scientists engineering practical responses. Defiant Disruptors are activists and organisers demanding systemic change. Environmental Influencers are public figures using their platform to advocate. It helps to encourage learners to spend time in more than one tab, because the awards depend on comparing them.
• As you circulate, you might ask “What heroic characteristics do these environmental heroes have?” and “How has this changed the way that you think about heroes?” Point back to the qualities on the board: which do these heroes have, and did anyone surprise you?
• Useful questions as you go round: “What did this person do?”, “What problem were they trying to solve?” and “Why did it matter?” These help learners build the case for a winner later.
• The pathway includes an AI Buddy challenge to assemble a five-member Climate Emergency Response Team. It helps to push learners to justify each choice with something specific the person did, not how famous they are. You might ask “Why this person and not someone else?” and “Did you choose all one type of hero, or a mix, and why?”
• Some of the stories, including activists who lost their lives, can prompt serious questions from learners. It’s worth looking through the tabs yourself beforehand so you feel ready.
• The pathway uses video, audio, articles and websites. You might ask “How do you know a source can be trusted?” and whether it is telling them facts or persuading them.

Classroom Activity

• Environmental Hero Awards: groups of three or four act as a judging panel. Give them one minute to choose four award categories from the list, or make up their own, and it helps to hold them to that. Categories that force comparisons across types of hero work best, such as a scientist against an activist, rather than four awards that all go to the same kind of person.
• Groups have 6–7 minutes to agree one winner for each award, three reasons why that person deserves it, and one sentence explaining why they chose them over everyone else. It helps to ask for reasons that are specific things the person did, not “she’s famous” or “he’s brave”. The “over everyone else” sentence is the hardest and the most valuable, because it forces a comparison.
• Debate is expected, and there are no right answers. The evaluation is designed to bring out disagreement, not to settle it. If a group agrees too quickly, you might ask “What would change your mind?”
• For learners who need support, sentence starters help: “We chose…”, “Their biggest achievement was…”, “This helped the environment because…” and “We think they deserved this award because…”. For early finishers, you might ask “Could somebody win more than one award?” and “Which award would actually have the greatest impact on the planet?”
• Use the 5-minute feedback to draw out the disagreements. Did two groups pick different winners for the same award? Ask each to defend their choice. Then ask what type of change each winner represents (grassroots, scientific, activist or influence) and which type came up most.

Plenary

• Part 2 asks what the difference is between someone who changes what people think and someone who changes what people do, and whether we need both. It helps to ask learners to place one hero from today on each side, and to say what happens if you only have one. It links back to Session 11: storytelling changes what people think, so is that enough on its own?
• The lock-in is from Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist who began the school strike for climate as a teenager, in 2018. It says that nobody needs special power or a global platform to create change, which is exactly what today’s heroes show. Ask what these heroes were not waiting for (permission) and what one thing learners could start without waiting for it. If there’s a spare minute, you might try “If you were going to add yourself to one of the four tabs in ten years’ time, which would it be?”