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Connecting Experience
Goal 15 – Life on Land
Forests provide a home for millions of species and give us all clean air and water. To protect and restore life on land, we need to stop deforestation and preserve biodiversity.
Tasks
Nature Art
Wake up points
| Age Group: 7+ | Amount of people: 5+ |
Time: 30 minutes
Objective:
To be aware of all that Nature can offer you, to realise the importance of the forest.
Material:
n/a
Instructions:
Have the meeting in a place with access to nature, it could be a park, a forest, a field etc.
In small groups, participants should create a piece of art out of what they can find in the area. Such as fallen leaves, branches etc.
When all the groups are finished, look at all the works. Like the art they have created, the nature around them will not last forever.
Debrief:
- What are the good things about the forest?
- What can you do to protect the natural environment?
Be the Bee
Wake up points
| Age Group: 11+ | Amount of people: 6+ |
Time: 30 – 40 minutes
Objective:
To discover the work done by bees.
Material:
Small balls or tokens, hoop/rope to mark space or a container per team, blindfolds, double sided tape, cardboard cone per team
Instructions:
Split the participants into teams of three, giving each team a hoop or container.
Each trio makes up a single bee, and the hoop/container is their hive.
If you have a large group, several bees can share one hive.
To create their bee, participants line up one behind the other, the front person will be the head, the middle the wings and the back the stinger.
- Head reaches their arms out behind their back to hold the hands of Stinger, Wings stands in between
- Wing and Stinger are blindfolded, only Head can see
- Wings is the only person allowed to pick things up
- Stinger has a cone taped to them, if this gets knocked off their bee is out
Scattered around the room there are small tokens or balls, these represent the pollen.
Bees have two minutes to collect as much pollen as they can, by picking up tokens and dropping them in their hives.
The bee with the most pollen in their hive at the end is the winner.
Debrief:
- Why is it important to protect bees?
- What do you think would happen if we didn’t have bees?
Even the Insects Matter!
Look around points
| Age Group: 7+ | Amount of people: 3+ |
Time: 30 minutes
Objective:
To learn that every species is important for our ecosystem.
Material:
Dominos or small blocks
Instructions:
In small groups, participants create their own domino effect or chain reaction. Every block should knock over something else and so on until they all fall.
When participants complete this task, they should set up their course again. Before they knock it again, remove some blocks from along the course. When they try again, the chain should stop at some point.
Discuss how every aspect of nature is like one piece in their domino chain, each plays an equally important part in our eco system. If we lose even one piece, everything suffers.
Debrief:
- What can you do to help protect insects?
- What can people do to help species that are in danger of dying out?
Earth Hour
Look around points
| Age Group: 11+ | Amount of people: 5+ |
Time: 2 meetings
Objective:
To raise awareness about the necessity to reduce electricity use.
Material:
n/a
Instructions:
Earth hour is a global event which takes place every year on the last Saturday of March.
The idea is to switch off.
The point is to switch off every light in your home from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM your local time. The goal of the movement is to raise awareness about climate change.
Before the event, participants should promote the event with others in the community, aiming to get as many people as possible to take part.
On the day, take part in the event and switch off your lights!
Insect Hotel
ACT points
| Age Group: 7+ | Amount of people: 5+ |
Time: 2 – 4 hours
Objective:
Learn about the differents insects in your area.
Material:
A crate (wooden box), clay pots from 6 to 14 cm in diameter, pinecones, branches of different diameters, corrugated boards, hay, small rocks, hollow flower stems, some bin bags
Instructions:
This is one example of how to create an insect hotel, but there are many different methods available online using alternative materials.
Choosing a location: ideally pick a space that faces the sun in the morning and is near some flowers. Choose somewhere that is sheltered from the wind and at least 30cm off the ground.
To create your insect hotel:
- Cut and roll up the corrugated boards and fill one of the pots with the rolls
- Cut the hollow flower stems and place them into another pot.
- Fill the final pot with hay.
- Cover the roof and sides of your hotel in a bin bag or another waterproof material to keep the inside dry
Put the remaining materials inside the crate however you choose and wait for the insects to arrive!
Clothing Swap!
ACT points
| Age Group: 11+ | Amount of people: 5+ |
Time: 2 – 4 hours
Objective:
To be aware of the costs of the production of clothes.
Material:
Papers, pens, picture, art supplies, access to library or internet
Instructions:
The clothing industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, after the oil industry. Mainly because of fast fashion which is the very rapid renewal of collections among the giants of low-cost fashion. The production of clothes requires a lot of non-renewable resources (water, oil…), very bad working conditions to guarantee a very low price and polluting transport to get them to the different points of sale.
The goal of this activity is to host a clothing swap. Participants should each bring in some clothes that are in good condition, that they don’t wear anymore. During the meeting, participants can choose something new to bring home.
If there are any clothes left over at the end of the meeting, take them to a local charity.
