A Call to Action for all Teachers
Imagine how many teachers create wonderful coursework for students that is locked away in a file cabinet instead of being shared.
Imagine what could happen if that coursework was accessible to other teachers, schools, associations and youth around the world, with credit given to you.
Imagine volunteer translators could transform your coursework into languages recognized in over 100 nations, making it accessible to all students.
This can become a reality with your help. We need volunteer teachers to blog and post their coursework on this portal to be shared with teachers around the world. Contact us at: translate@zerofootprint.netYouth Calculator – Getting Started!
Students can participate in the (OF)2: Our Footprints, Our Future! project by participating in the (CO)2 Youth Calculator and by joining the online discussion forums in which teachers and students are sharing their activities to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions/footprint.
The first step is for your students to register at the Calculator site: www.youth.zerofootprint.net, by selecting your language of choice and then clicking on the “Get Started!" button.
Students are first asked to create a username & password and then to identify their gender, age and school name. Students begin by typing the name of their school and it will appear from a list of options – select the correct school from the list. If it does not appear, please send an email to youth@zerofootprint.net to have your school added to our database.
Next, students are presented with a series of questions and tips, starting with “travel” followed by "tips" about different options for setting specific goals for themselves (for example, "I will ride a bike instead of riding in a car"). By setting a goal, they are helping to pledge a reduction of CO2, which will be joined and/or compared with goals set by students of the same age/gender at different schools and in different countries.
The categories are: Travel / What you eat / Home / What you use / What you throw away
At any time, students can click on the results button at the bottom right to calculate their carbon footprint. They do not have to finish all the questions at one time, but can log-off and return at any time to answer any remaining questions.
Calculating one’s Carbon Footprint
When a student clicks on the results button, they are taken to the results page where they can compare their carbon footprints and goals with those of others in the same or different school, country, gender and age group. They can see these comparisons by clicking on the “My School” “Boys/Girls” “Country” and “Age”. To compare with a specific school, the student should start typing the school name and keep typing until the desired school’s name appears. A comparison with different countries works the same way.
They can also see how many earths it would take to maintain the level of carbon dioxide that they are producing from their lifestyles, assuming that everyone produces the same amount as they do.
In the upper right corner, they can also see the total amount of CO2 that students worldwide have pledged to reduce by changes in their lifestyle. The goal that students are collectively trying to meet this year is to reduce CO2 production by 35,000 tons.
Hopefully, these results and the issues raised in the tips/goals can become part of the discussion that students have together in the forum for Our Footprints, Our Future: http://www.iearn.org/