A long planned session of Climate Change education due to last a whole day was dramatically cut to 40 min a few days ago forcing Great Baikal Trail (GBT) volunteers to re-design the lesson plan. Subject - How will Climate Change affect Lake Baikal’s ecosystem. The driving force of this session, Varya entitled it "Как бы мы жили без зимы?" or "How would we live without winter." Which, was sure to grab the children's attention in a period of snowball games, ice-scultures and all things fun in a sunny, crisp and white Siberian winter.
Having been unexpectedly given 80 minutes to complete the activities we got started! After introducing ourselves (Varya, Olya, Tatiana and myself) embarqued on the first challange - The Ice-Breaker!
The Ice-Breaker, called "Снежный Ком" or "Snowball" involved all the children, around 20 or so, and ourselves standing in a circle. The first child said her name, followed by an action/movement, Christina, the next one had to repeat the first girl's name and action followed by her own and so on until the very end. It was challenging remembering so many new names and different actions for each name ranging from hip-shaking and one leg-hopping to jumping, twisting and even curtsying!
That being a success (especially Olya, for being at the "end" of the circle and remembering all the names and performed all the movements when most had already forgotten) we moved swiftly on.
This was followed by a short discussion about winter and more precisely, what it was that they loved about it which, introduced the next exercise, а role play called "Байкале без Зимы" or "Baikal without Winter" in which children played the part of Baikal's ecosystem. With each having his or her personal role to play within this they listened to the story being read out and acted it as they saw fit. The story was used to explain how an ecosystem may be altered by climate change and what would the repercussions be in such an event.
In the story, the sun raised the water temperatures above the usual average to a point where the ice-flow melted prematurely not allowing the nerpa (or the Baikal Seal) to use floating ice as its breeding ground, driving them to the shore where poachers eagerly awaited therefore, reducing their numbers. In addition, the animals were further weakened by the decreasing numbers of golumyanka, nerpa's prime food source, due to warmer waters.
The story also raised the issue of alien species entering the ecosystem, here characterised by the strange appearance of an exotic fish which brings sadness among the lake’s inhabitants, however the story ends in hope and with an even bigger question! The "fauna" and "flora" turn to the children (a few were given the roles of schoolchildren) for help, in other words to save them. This, I believe made the children realise that they can make a difference and that they are relied upon by the lakes dwellers. In other words, what can each of them do to stop this from happening?
Upon completion of this exercise we asked the children questions to see what they had taken from these activities. Answers were generally rewarding and showed not only an understanding of the food chain and of the domino effect on an ecosystem, but also how these can be triggered by anthropological climate change.
We hope that these fun activities will help make a difference, however big or small.
Olya and Varya with a student from the class.
