Over the past 3 days, I have learned a lot about my carbon footprint and how it is affecting climate change. To begin I learned that a carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide you are putting into the atmosphere. Based on taking the carbon footprint quiz on i2sea I learned that things I do like taking flights to travel, charging my phone overnight, or even just leaving a light on in my room are contributing negatively to the earth. In addition, you may think that it's not that big of a deal I'm just one person, but if more and more people think that way it will have a detrimentally negative effect on our planet. To add on the article "More stuff = more climate change?" describes how every item that we purchase or consume releases greenhouse gas emissions during its production and transport. Similarly in class when we took notes on greenhouse gasses it described how they can move with infrared energy, which is heat. All things considered, buying less stuff and educating yourself on the simple things that are adding to your carbon footprint can help reduce global warming.

During this project, I learned a lot about my carbon footprint and what causes it. After doing this project I will try to live a more sustainable life in many different ways.

What have you learned over the past 3 days about your carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate change? How do they all relate to each other?

In the past week, I have learned a lot of new things about not only myself but about how things are affected by the things I do daily. Whether it's how I get to school or what I eat daily, the world is always affected. My carbon footprint was shallow before I filled out the transportation aspect of it. Before the transportation part, I was sitting around 3,000 kgs. After the transportation aspect of it, it shot up to 11,000. This made me realize not only how much I drive every day, but how much planes affect the atmosphere. With an average of 9,000 kgs per person, our earth is becoming filled with toxicity more and more. The greenhouse gases capture these CO2 emissions from going into space. This is causing our planet to become hotter and hotter filled with these gasses. This has a clear effect on our climate and how it is changing. An article by Environmental Science Journal for Teens says that the Carbon that we put into our atmosphere each day, is being caught by greenhouse gasses, the carbon is trapped inside our atmosphere ultimately heating the atmosphere of our earth and causing climate change. We are already seeing the effects of this and we need change to happen soon before it's to late

My 6th grade Earth Science students have used the ISCFC to jump-start designing their own environmental campaigns. Looking forward to sharing and hearing from other groups as well!

Hi Ms. Rossi!

I am a middle and high school teacher at a small rural school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (we call it the UP). I teach 7th-11th grade, but will be focusing on Biology students for this project. I have been attempting to start a recycling program at our school, which is difficult because the closest recycling place is pretty far away and in the opposite direction I travel to school. I commute 140 miles a day to teach at my school, therefore, i anticipate my own carbon footprint to be high. Are teachers able to add to the footprint calculator?

Hello and welcome to the ISCFC!  Yes, anyone can calculate their footprints and save their data with our calculator -- including teachers

Hello from the Lower Pennisula! I live in southeast MI. Glad to see a fellow Michigander! My Algebra 2 students are participating as part of our data analysis unit.

Do Lights really need to be on during school hours?

Nobody likes litter

I agree we should find ways to clean up the world’s trash in ways that don’t hurt the environment. Because I feel like some of the ways we try to clean up the trash put more carbon in the atmosphere.

One way to reduce your carbon footprint is to stop buying into fast fashion and thrift your clothes and donate your old clothes to shelters. https://www.constellation.com/energy-10 … print.html

I feel that in school, we are consistently lectured about CO2 emissions and how the environment is changing due to Green House Gases. However, I feel that students are rarely taught how they can personally help the environment. Maybe a change  from showing the effects on the environment to what we can do about it would help a lot more than some think.

Teaching theoretical concepts in an applied way represents a challenge for the educator. These notions related to climate change, the greenhouse effect, pollution, ecological footprint, sustainability, etc. must be approached in an integrative, interdisciplinary way, emphasizing the causes of these phenomena.

Do you think that global warming will increase in the future or decrease?

Hey there bowd. Great thoughts here. I think that global warming will keep increasing until we do something to stop it. Since some people don't believe in global warming this means it could get bad so we need to stop it.

Hey guys! I totally agree with Barlo’s thoughts here, there is plenty of things the average human can do to stop the amount of Co2 emissions, for example washing your clothes with cooler water, and drying those clothes on a drying rack instead of using a dryer. I do thin that global warming will increase, just based on past events and how hard it is to get everyone on the same page.

How will co2 emission affect your surroundings in your  lifetime?

We need to protect marine life! Imagine your home being contaminated by others, which is what marine animals are experiencing. Stop polluting the ocean by throwing trash in it. The ocean is not a garbage can, it's home to other creatures and if we continue doing our ways the one that is going to suffer is us.

I completely agree! We did an ocean clean-up not too long ago, and just seeing the amount of trash that we picked up was just devastating! My team and I picked up more than 300 plastic water bottles that day. It's extremely important that we keep our oceans and marine wildlife safe. The trash bins are there for a reason, use them.

I also agree because it is something as easy as putting trash in the bin. It is very avoidable as well. Throwing your trash in the bin is the least we can do for the environment.

Take bus not car to school.
Add a compost bin to school cafeteria.
Cut out and reuse notebook paper at the end of the school year.
Bike to school not drive.
Walk to school not drive.

Nice

Hello from CA. I am excited to have my students participate for the first time.

Greetings from California's San Joaquin Valley.  My first time trying this with my students, can't wait to see how it goes.

Hello Nicole and welcome to you and your students to the ISCFC.  What is the subject of the class that is participating and how are you using the ISCFC with your students?

I am a physics and maths teacher and an advocate of the importance of the synergy of school subjects and hands-on learning. My school promotes skills development and learning based on experience and investigation of global and territorial issues

I'm so interested in visiting Italy someday soon.  Maybe that is how I can get my students interested in discussing with students around the world science and global issues.

I think that if teachers planed a discussion of how we can help better our planet that would also be very beneficial to our eco system. Teachers play a major part in our lives and them discussing to us what is going on in our planet and how we can help even at young ages can also help because they are making a small change to make a big impact in our planet.The students they teach are the next generation and being able to teach them something to help better our planet is very beneficial to them and to us.

This year my AP ENV. class will be doing the survey, lets see how it goes.

welcome to you any your students from beautiful La Push WA (Quileute tribal lands and waters)!

Dear ISCFC Partner Teachers,
Thank you for including your students in the ISCFC and helping them understand their personal role in fighting climate change. We believe that in calculating their carbon footprint, students become mindful of how their everyday choices can make significant impacts on the well-being of Planet Earth.
Cheers to you and your students!

Happy Earth day!

Hi everyone ! I am an English teacher in a high school in a medium-size town in the west of France ( Cholet)  and am taking the challenge with a  class of 31 students in year 11 ( boys and girls) who all follow an advanced English programme with an extra hour of English per week ( total 4h) and a subject taught in English in their curriculum which can be maths, History and Geography or PE in our school ( for another extra hour). The protection of the environment is part of our curriculum as language teachers and I thought this challenge would highly motivate them. We will try in the dicussion forum to tell you about our high school which has been certified for its sustainable development approach for three years now and is working on new projects to pursue this goal. We have just been granted the highest level of certification possible, but there's a lot more we can do .
Looking forward to exchanging with you all !
Sandrine

I will have one class posting results (~20 students).  Hope all are staying safe!

Dear Will, great to have you and your new students from Philly back this session!

Hello! I teach community college in Jacksonville, Florida and I have one small class that will be participating this semester.  Looking forward to interactions from many countries! 

Karen Meyer

Warm welcome back to you and your new students, Karen!

I teach 8th and 9th grade science at Morris Area High school in Morris, MN. This is our first time participating in this discussion and activity.  We are working with our Germany Partners in Saerbeck to compare our footprints as well.

Dear Britney - great to have you and your students join.  Please make sure to report back here on your co-discoveries with the Saerbeck students.

Welcome to the September 2020 ISCFC! We hope that the act of measuring their carbon footprints will help make students mindful of their personal impact and empower them to take action.
Please check the RESOURCES link at the top of the opening page of the ISCFC. You will find a wealth of references to help students build on their ISCFC experience.

Thank you, Pam!

hello! I am a teacher in Tahiti and would like to plan a date for my ESL students (aged 18 to 20) to exchange with other students on the discussion forums at specific times.
Tuesday 8 September, 10am-12pm (Hawaii time)
Wednesday 9 September, 10am-12pm (Hawaii time)
Thursday 10 September, 1pm-3pm (Hawaii time)
Friday 11 September, 9am-11am (Hawaii time)

anyone interested and available?

thanks!
Caroline

Great idea!  Teachers from around the world can use this time zone converter to see what times Caroline suggests above are in your own time zone:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ … 000&p1=103

His this is Alice Ryan the 7-12 science teacher from La Push Washington... still trying to figure out what I am doing... and then COVID19....

well you found something for us to do

Welcome Alice and Quileute Tribal School students!  We're glad to offer something engaging for you all to do while school is out.

I teach Biology and Marine Science at Forks High School in Forks Washington.

welcome John!  Looking forward to meeting your students here !

Hey John.... I see your little flag on the map... but alas not sure how to get mine up there. I read the directions but I must be missing something.

Hello Alice!  You can find all of the participation information (including the steps to submit your class data and a whole lot more) by clicking the "participate" link at the top of any page on the ISCFC site -and then open up the "Teacher Participation Steps".

For the data in particular leading to a map pin, you need to:

1) gather the data from all of your students.  On the first conclusion page there is a link for your students to email their data to you -- which is how most teachers gather their students' summary data (total footprint and the 4 categories - home, food, purchases, transport.

2. Fill out the spreadsheet that you can download at this link
https://depts.washington.edu/i2sea/docs … ations.xls

Note that we ask you to fill your information in the upper yellow field, and your students' data in the lower field.  The student name column is for you- put in there whatever you like, we do not post individual student information, just the compiled data.

3. email the completed spreadsheet to me (hodin(at)uw.edu)

4. There is a guide to filling out the spreadsheet at this link:
https://depts.washington.edu/i2sea/docs … ctions.pdf

let me know if you have any questions!

(note that we are hoping to one day soon automate the process of posting map pins based on submitted data from students who selected their school when they did their calculations... as soon as we have funding for that, we'll implement it!)

thanks, I read through the teacher participation info but it just didnt make sense there... Its me not you I am sure.

but what you wrote here makes sense and now that students are able to e-mail me here is hoping.

Greetings from Crowden School in Berkeley CA.
My students and I are participating in the Youth Climate Strike this Friday by educating younger members (4-7th grade) of our community about the science of climate change and things each and every one of them can do to make a difference.
This was completely generated by my students in Leadership. These are also the students who participated in the ISFC challenge last spring.
I am thrilled to be supporting these young people in speaking up, out, and educating those around them.
I look forward to their revisiting the ISFC and seeing if the changes they proposed/made as a result of last year, changed the outcome this year.

please post about the climate strike - or encourage your students to do so!

I live in Jacksonville Florida, U.S., and teach at St. Johns River State College in Orange Park, Florida.  We are happy to be participating, having just dodged Hurricane Dorian and losing four days of school.  My students are in environmental science and will be doing their carbon footprint calculation today and Thursday (Sept. 17 and Sept. 19).  We are looking forward to this fall's carbon footprint calculation!

We'd love to hear about your students' experience with hurricanes, and glad this one missed you.  Very sad for everyone in the Bahamas though!

Hello, I am Melinda, co-foudner and educator at CT Experiential Learning Center (CELC) Middle School.  We are a small, experientially-based school with 8 full-time students.  Looking toward to meeting others and taking part.

Hello Melinda and welcome!  Looking forward to meeting your students here as well!

Good Morning from all the students of CELC!  We are working on the Carbon Footprint Calculator prep sheet and will have more news soon.  We hope to meet other students on this site! m

Welcome to all participating teachers! This is the page where we would like to hear about your students and your school. What is your community like? What makes it unique? Tell the other teachers about why you are having your students participate in the ISCFC. Describe you school and where you are located. If someone was to visit your community what should we see? How is your class and your school investigating climate change?
For example, I live on the Central Coast of California in the USA. It is a beautiful, rugged coastline. It is a wonderful place to live! I taught biology at Seaside High School, a very ethnically diverse student body for 39 years, and I have been working with projects at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station for almost 30 years. I have been collaborating with the spectacular Professor David Epel since 1990 and the amazing Dr. Jason Hodin since 2005. We are excited to share the International Student Carbon Footprint Challenge with you and your students. We hope that it will empower them to commit to solving the problems humans have created with climate change. What are they interested in doing to combat climate change?

I live in Jacksonville Florida, U.S., and teach at St. Johns River State College in Orange Park, Florida.  We are happy to be participating, having just dodged Hurricane Dorian and losing four days of school.  My students are in environmental science and will be doing their carbon footprint calculation next week (Sept. 17 and Sept. 19).

It’s encouraging to see your students’ wonderful discussions!  Their determination to do something about climate change is most reassuring.

My name is Marko Šafran and I’m a biology and environmental systems and societies teacher. My school is in a small town in a northern part of Croatia, called Varaždin. We are gymnasium that offers different programs to our students, either as a part of national curriculum or as a part of International baccalaureate diploma programme. I covered ecological footprint and sustainability concept with my students, and they were very interested and engaged in the topic. That’s the reason why we decided to enter ISCFC. I hope that our students will communicate well and share ideas. Best regards.

Hello everyone. I was told about the project by a colleague of mine. My students got interested and took part in it! We were really excited about doing the calculator. It was both interesting and fun. I'm sure this experience will encourage them to think about the world around us and what we can do to make our environment better.

Hello from Lisle Illinois USA

Hello from Sacramento California USA

Hello from Sacramento! Late to the party as usual.

Welcome Nov ISCFC teachers and students!  Returning teachers from Stevenson School in Carmel CA USA and Liceul Teoretic "Decebal" in Constanta Romania have updated pins for their schools!  Fantastic!  Keep those results coming in! 

Teachers: The complete link for downloading the excel spreadsheet is: https://depts.washington.edu/i2sea/docs … ations.xls and, once you fill it out, email it to me at larvador(at)uw.edu   

I will then post your data as a pin on our Compare page world map!