Make Climate Action Day More Interactive
On April 26th, Climate Action Day, Exonians of all grades and interests participated in numerous climate workshops—we listened to seminars, went on all-day trips, and experienced hands-on volunteer work with leaders who were very informed about environmental issues. The purpose of this day was to motivate students into involvement with issues centered around climate change, as well as a deeper reflection on the environment and the impact we have on it. However, this can only be accomplished through actively engaging with the topic of climate change.
For this special day, students were required to go to the keynote address, hosted by Ko Barrett, called “Every Choice Matters.” After the address, we were asked to choose between going to an all-day workshop or to one featured workshop and one workshop of their choice.
During the all-day workshops, students could help improve the environment actively. They had the choice of going to the Kimball Reserve to remove invasive plants, plant trees at Tuckaway Farm, visit the IABE lab of Universtity of New Hampshire (UNH) Integrative Animal Behavior and Ecoacoustics Laboratory, plant dune grass, travel to UNH Jackson Estuarine Laboratory to help with efforts to restore the population of the eastern oyster, and many more. By making a physical effort to understand and help the environment, students were left with a memorable experience that has an impact on their lives and their attitude towards climate change.
As for many of the non-featured workshops, I heard many good things about them. In the "Campus Waste Audit" workshop, students were able to sort through recycling. They got their hands dirty, separating trash from recycling for one and a half hours. Maybe not the most fun experience, but, definitely memorable for years to come! For the "In Plain Sight: Exeter" workshop, students were able to walk around campus and notice the efforts Exeter was making to help the environment.
However, for the keynote and the featured workshops, I found myself wondering how many people would actually remember the message they contained. I spoke to many Exonians, and most of them reported zoning out or falling asleep, especially during the 8:45 a.m. keynote speech.
First of all, one of the biggest things that makes Exeter unique is the Harkness method. In theory, each student actively participates in a discussion with their peers to further their understanding of a topic and clear up any misconceptions. Exeter has gotten each and every one of us—hopefully—adjusted to the Harkness method. No more lectures, no more powerpoints spewing information on each slide—we learn by talking, engaging with the topic, by discussing it. If the required Climate Action workshops had adhered to this philosophy, they would have had more success in retaining students’ attention.
One presenter did try to engage with the audience—Sumil Thakrar, from the University of Minnesota. Occasionally, he would ask the audience a question or two to get us involved. But, when he spoke to us, it seemed too complex for us to comprehend. He showed us many confusing diagrams. For example, one of them had multiple pictures of the U.S. with areas glowing in different colors, next to words such as “industrial,” “agriculture,” “road dust,” which was then connected to other words like “exports,” “transportation,” and “shelter.”
Another thing I also considered was MLK Day—why was MLK Day so impactful for many students, versus the relative indifference that Climate Action Day faces? In my opinion, this is because we were able to engage with the speakers on MLK Day. Discussions were held between the students and the speakers to further our understanding of race and ethnicity, equity and inclusion, and various other topics. I asked a senior why we couldn’t do discussions for Climate Action Day since they are so impactful and her response was that in order to have a discussion, you need to prepare. On MLK Day, students are already relatively prepared because we have experienced many things involving race throughout our lifetimes and are mostly aware of the racial issues that permeate our society.
However, for Climate Action Day, not many people are aware of the issues or the topics involving it, so the best idea is to just absorb information. Perhaps if we have readings, or some material to speak about and understand beforehand, we will be able to actively engage with speakers and retain important lessons from Climate Action Day.