Climate education webinar for secondary teachers held
The Department of Education (DepEd) assured that it will continue to integrate climate education in many basic learning areas to make it more accessible to students across the country.
To advance climate education in the country, the DepEd, through the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS) and the Climate Change Commission (CCC), conducted the first free webinar for secondary teachers.
Renowned people in the field of climate action graced the virtual “Climate Science Master Class for High School Teachers” to share about climate education as part of the activities for the 4th National Climate Change Conference (NCCC) and the 13th Annual Global Warming and Climate Change Consciousness Week celebrated last month.
The Master Class featured lectures and discussion by the National Panel of Technical Experts, the government’s lead technical advisory body on climate science and technology. DepEd said that the high school teachers were also oriented on the knowledge materials that DepEd-DRRMS and its partners are developing to help teachers “effectively unpack learning competencies on climate change and promote climate action.”
CCC Policy Research and Development Division chief Jerome Ilagan noted that making climate education accessible to more students across the country should be a priority.
The webinar was organized to ensure the continued integration of climate education in many basic learning areas like Math, English, Filipino, and Araling Panlipunan.
DepEd-DRRMS Director Ronilda Co, who was among key speakers, informed the participants that they have plotted three ways to make climate education happen with the means of references such as creating a Microsite on Curated Resources for Teaching Climate Change as an online website, developing handbooks and self-learning modules, and producing the "KALIKHASAN: Likha at Lakas ng Kabataan Para sa Kalikasan," a creative sourcebook on using theater for climate change education and action.
“(By means of this) we want to generate the best from the youth, we want to hear their critiques,” Co said, noting how the youth are engaging efforts to make a difference during these times.
DepEd noted that the proposed handbooks consist of the following topics: The Science of Climate Change, Climate and Disaster Risk, Impacts of Climate Change on Human Beings, and Solutions to Climate Change.
Erin Consebido, a student-journalist, and Abigail Mirabel-Agapay, a school paper adviser from Liliw National High School, Division of Laguna, were among the graduates of DepEd-DRRMS and AYEJ.org’s Green Beat Initiative: An Online Environmental Journalism Training.
Consebido and Agapay said that the teacher-participants were exposed to informative topics like the roles of greenhouse gases in global warming, ocean acidification, mitigation, and adaptation, climate change on the health, responsibilities in climate change, and biodiversity, among others.
The webinar had 1,100 participants via the Zoom session while its Facebook streaming garnered 46,800 viewers.