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!

Welcome to the November 2018 ISCFC. It’s fantastic to see your posts from around the world! We would love to have you tell us and your ISCFC colleagues a bit about your students, school and community.

My name is Shaun Moir, and I teach Geography at Herzlia Middle School in Cape Town, South Africa. I am very excited to be participating in the "International Student Carbon Footprint Challenge" with our Grade 7 year group this year. We are going to be working through using the calculator in class over the next week or so and discussing our results. We look forward to possibly linking up with other classes around the world to share our results.

Dear Shaun

The ISCFC had a long Northern Hemisphere summer break and we are back now preparing for the November session.  Sorry not to have seen this post from you until now -- how did it go with your students?

best
Jason

My name is Tihana Cus Slatkovic, and I teach in Prva gimnazija High School in Varazdin. I teach Chemistry to students in grades 17-18.
My students are very interested in the project. Participating in the ''International Carbon Footprint Challenge'' made them think a bit more about how theirs day-to-day activities impact our planet.

Hello- I was so excited to discover this website! My students are in the middle of a statistical analysis unit.  After taking the carbon footprint survey they are applying their skills to analyze sets of data related to their carbon footprint, and it fits in nicely with Earth Day.

Hi everyone - from a British International School in Santa Tecla, El Salvador - came across this project while going through the Carbon Cycle (IB Biology). Thought it was a great way for students to see their results and to compare the data with other schools & countries - the deadline coincides nicely with Earth Week as well! Looking forward to future discussions in the next few days.

Hello from an American Military Base High School in Bavaria, Germany.  My environmental class just finished entering data for calculations and will continue with the discussion next week.  I happened to stumble across this activity in December while looking for ideas so waited for the dates before teaching about this topic.  I am really looking forward to seeing the results from the student discussions!

Welcome Susan, looking forward to hearing about your students' observations.  I would guess that children of those in the military probably travel a lot by plane...

My high school students and I are looking forward to taking the ISCFC together and communicating with you all!

My name is Krista Osborn and I teach at Mahopac High School in Mahopac, NY.  I teach environmental science to students in grades 10-12.  We are very much looking forward to this unit and hope to center it around Earth Day!

Greetings to you both and welcome to the ISCFC!  Yes, the April session is nicely timed to coincide with Earth Day.  We look forward to hearing what the ISCFC students may be up to to celebrate that day.

I'm active with three Universities in Ecuador, preparing talks on: comparing ISCFC transport results to results from another footprint tool in Spanish,  technology assessment of WrightSpeed hybrid drive to replace customary power for large low-mileage high-use vehicles.  Also, proposal for design concepts for footprint tools with OPSA, who published my review of DRAWDOWN  <p>http://www.opsa.com.ec/es/analisis/393- … -hawken<p>

Hello Protean and welcome!!  Please come back and post your results on the transportation comparison.  We are adjusting our math on flights this week, you might want to check it out about middle of the week when you do your comparison.

hello from the jersey shore

Hello!  Welcome to the ISCFC!  Can you tell us about your participating class?

I am a Social Science teacher,first time participant. Hoping to motivate my students to widen their horizons

great to see you here James, and we're looking forward to welcoming your students as well

I am Gonzalo Field. An English and World Culture teacher and this is the first time that I am participating in this kind of event. I wanted to do something different with my students and motivate them to get involved in global projects like this one.

Great way to motivate your students to get involve in global project, this will definitely get your students attention on global projects.

Hello Gonzalo!  Please email me at hodin(at)uw.edu so I can send you more information about our ISCFC project.  Welcome to you and your students!

My name is Emily Gray and I teach science at Madison High School in Madison, Maine. I grew up in Portland, and have always been very passionate about climate change and educating people on our impact. I'm excited to start this unit with my freshman science class on climate change and wanted them all to start with calculating their impact on the planet. This is an especially important topic for them since a terrifying amount of them do not think climate change is happening or think its natural and will not harm them. (I know this from giving out a 'Climate Opinion' anonymous survey to my classes. Here's to hoping I can change some young minds

Hi everyone! My name is Sandrine Bellanger and I teach English to a group of 28 high school students, who are in a CLIL class in history and geography. I'm just starting a topic and environmental issues and while browsing the web for a footprint calculator , I found the ISCFC challenge and thought it was a good idea for them. They are usually up for the projects I suggest, so we'll see!

Hi Timur- what do you think?

I am looking forward to my second year with ISCFC. My 8th graders will be working with the new "Basic" version next week!

Hello from South Africa

Hi guys after analyzed your results, please share with the community in which area would like to work for reduced the level of carbon footprint and suggest some actions, that you can to do in a short period to obtain positive results.

I would like to focus on meat industries and I would like to reduce carbon footprint from these industries because cows and sheeps emit large amounts of methane, which is a gas. "A vegan diet might make as much as a 20% difference to your overall carbon impact but simply cutting out beef will deliver a significant benefit on its own." Some things we can do to stop these gases to keep on damaging our planet is by eating a plant based diet. By changing meat into a healthier alternative, it is going to change the amount of greenhouse gases these industries are producing.

After doing the ISCF activity I realized my carbon footprint is actually huge. Most of the carbon came from traveling by plane and train, to reduce my footprint in the transportation area I can try to use a bike more often for short distances. Many of the people in our group had a major impact due to the traveling, in that area we will have a hard time lowering the impact. So I propose we try to lower it in the other areas by taking smaller actions.

The area in which my carbon footprint is greatest is in the home area, to reduce my carbon footprint, I propose to make small changes in my house, such as changing light bulbs for ones that are thrifty, also reducing the number of hours that I spend on the computer or on television and disconnect any device that is not in use. These small changes seem insignificant but they will make a difference.

Now that I have calculated my carbon footprint, I saw a great number that I didn't know about. I have realized that the area I have to take action is in my transportation. To reduce this number, I think I can try to walk more when it comes to short distances. Also, I can get a ride with other people using only one car for many people. In that way, we can reduce the pollution of many cars. Another thing I propose is to reduce the amount of gasoline we consume with my family by leaving earlier our house to avoid the traffic and the number of gallons we usually use. These are simple things that at a long term will make the difference and will reduce the impact of my carbon footprint.

The area in which my carbon footprint is higher is transportation. i think we need to change the way we move of one place to another. sometimes we don't need to use the car because the place we want to go is near, we should use another way to move, like a bicycle or just walk, but even that we still using the car. If everyone change the way to make the thing, the world will be different.

After I analyzing my results, I realized that I have a big footprint, and I wasn't aware of that. In general, I think that the community should care more about the transportation area. Most of the public transportation in Guatemala generates a  large amounts of gases that are harmful to the environment. In a short period, we should try using the less amount of cars possible by sharing transport with other people. Also, if the trip is short, we should try riding bikes or walk instead of using cars or public transportation.

hi

After calculating my Carbon Footprint, I realized that it is really high compared to my region. My highest area is food, so this is the one I want to focus on. While doing some research on the topic, I found out that beef has one of the highest CO2 emissions, and I eat beef almost every single day. Actually, according to Green Eatz's Food's Carbon Footprint article (http://www.greeneatz.com/foods-carbon-footprint.html), eating one kilogram of beef is the equivalent of driving 63 miles by car! This was the most shocking data I found. Luckily, there are certain simple ways in which I can improve my diet. One of them is trying different food, like tofu, which has a lower Carbon Footprint, and replace beef with it. Even if I do not become a vegetarian or a vegan, changing the menu some days is beneficial. Another interesting fact I found in the same article is that "Food’s carbon footprint, or foodprint, is the greenhouse gas emissions produced by growing, rearing, farming, processing, transporting, storing, cooking and disposing of the food you eat". This means that my Foot print would be reduced if I start buying products with less packaging. Finally, another interesting idea that I have always wanted to do and that now I value more because of the impact it can have on our environment, is growing my own vegetables at home. But having my own vegetable farm requires space, time, care and some investment, so it would be a long-term solution.
The best part of these solutions is that they not only help the environment, but are also good for our health and economy.

http://www.greeneatz.com/foods-carbon-footprint.html

Karina Alejos: After analyzing my carbon footprint I realized that overall it was much higher in comparison to others, this is concerning. One of my highest was transportation, this could improve by changing the way in which I go from place to place. For example car pooling and taking less airplanes when possible could reduce this. I could also reduce food by reducing my consumption of animal products such as red meat. By changing my dies towards a vegetarian diet this could reduce carbon emission and help the

The area that differentiated more from the mean in my case is "Home". Before, I used to think that only because we use LED bulbs in my house I was already leaving a smaller carbon footprint on the environment, but when doing the calculation I realized that in my house we sometimes don't turn off the lights when we leave a room. In order to decrease my carbon footprint in my house I could turn off the lights when I leave a room, take shorter showers, reduce the amount of waste I produce or recycle it, and reuse all the paper I can.

hhb

The area where my carbon footprint had the greatest strength was food. It was surprising for me because I didn't consider to contaminate with my diet so much. I noticed that my carbon footprint is higher than the average in Guatemala and this makes me worry. One of the things that I propose to change is to modify my diet by making an effort to consume foods that are more friendly to the environment when consumed. I also have in mind to reduce the amount of light that I occupy normally separating a bit of technology in my house and doing activities that have more to do with the environment. In my plans is to plant a tree at least 10 times a year.
This is an initiative that I have contemplated for a long time and seeing that I pollute too much. I'll try to reduce my carbon footprint and give back a little to the environment. Every great change starts with a small step and without doubt this will be my first small step.

After doing this activity, I realized that I have a large carbon footprint, compared to my region. My highest category is transportation and I would never have realized my actions without this exam, however, knowing this can help, and not only me, but nature, because with this data we can look for solutions such as increasing the amount of people inside the vehicles or use the public transport service. However, in Guatemala, public transport should have improvements to be considered as an option to reduce the carbon footprint.

After analyzing my results of the carbon footprint calculator, the area in which I need to improve is transport. That result did not surprise me because I, personally, use a lot of public and private transport because I usually go to far places of my home. In this area I could improve using other ways of transportation such as bicycle, or take a walk to my destination as well as being helping the environment and reducing the carbon footprint would also maintain and improve my health. Another area in which I must improve is in the food. This was one of the areas that surprised me the most because I had not analyzed the way and the type of food I eat is closely related to the environment. In this area I could improve by reducing my intake of processed foods and consuming a greater amount of vegetables. Doing this and many other actions will reduce the carbon footprint that has been caused over the years.

When my carbon footprint was calculated think that it was not as high compared to others which is good. Were my footprint was the highest was in transportation I use the car very often at least for 2 hours every day which is really high. In a country like Guatemala, it is very hard to do anything about it because it is not safe to walk or take public transportation and there is a lot of traffic which makes me use the car even longer. I possible solution is to try to carpool more often with people that leave near me since I cannot stop using a car. Also possibly in the future, I can get a car that is more environmentally friendly.

When I calculated my carbon footprint, I realized that my carbon footprint in the transportation area is almost double compared to my region. It seems strange because I use public transport at least twice a week, but it have a lot of sense because the traffic in Guatemala is very dense and although we use collective transport, carbon is released. I think that if I start walking short distances by bike or just walking, my carbon footprint would reduce a lot, as well as using public transport more frequently. Traveling a person by car also increases this number, therefore it can be resolved using only one car per family or group.

When I calculate my carbon footprint, the fact that my carbon footprint in purchases is low compared to my region, gave me a positive side, since that reduced CO2, but if I wanted to reduce my carbon in my home, given that it's too high a number compared to my region. I think that this could be reduced if we use less electricity, because there is always some equipment connected and many times it is for pleasure, so this number could be reduced with energy savings, and look for other types of energy more profitable for the environment. My total footprint is 4,318 kg of CO2 per year, which surprised me, because I did not think I could produce so much carbon.

When I calculated my carbon footprint, I knew from a start that it was going to be high because I travel quite a lot. Not only that, but I travel very far too. I think that in that area, I won't be able to take a lot of action to reduce my carbon footprint for transportation, but I could do things like carpooling here in Guatemala. However, I can work on other areas. For example, I could work on my emissions from home by reducing the time I leave the water on and turning off the lights whenever they are not necessary. Another area I could reduce my carbon footprint is decrease the amount of processed foods and meats that I consume and eat more fruit and vegetables. Not only would this reduce my carbon emissions, but it is healthier for me too. Hopefully these measures will lower my carbon footprint and create a positive result.

Through this study, I was able to realize that my carbon footprint is much higher than the average in Guatemala. The most worrying area is food. I think I could improve in this aspect if I consume more fresh foods, not bottled, nor processed and consume a smaller amount of meats and more fruits, cereals and other seasonal foods. All of this because the consequences of a high carbon diet depend on the resources that are used to produce the food, whether it is bottled or processed and how far the product comes. Guatemala needs to improve in many aspects, because we have not given due importance to environmental problems.

After analyzing my results, I noticed that my footprint is higher in the food category, this could be because I eat a lot of beef, chicken, and eggs. I think I can change this by eating less beef, and meat in general. I will also look for alternative products to eat instead of meat, that have a lower CO2 emission.

hi

When my carbon footprint was calculated, I thought that my results were a little bit to high regarding the normal person. Most of the sections where I was tested were average in regard to other students but travel in particular was pretty high. I am a person who likes to travel a lot even if it is short distances because I like to learn new things and have new experiences. My travel section will be hard to decrease because I really enjoy traveling and would not like to stop at any time soon. In order to decrease my carbon footprint I could improve my other sections in order for them to be below average and in the end bring my entire footprint average down. Some things I could do to decrease my footprint are to stop using my electronic devices so frequently. By stop using my electronic devices, the amount of electricity used throughout the day would be much lower. This will enable for electricity to be distributed more evenly throughout the community and the footprint of each and everyone would be lower.

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When I did my carbon footprint test, I realized that I was just a little above the average of my community, in almost all the categories it was below the average, except in my house, I believe it is because we have many lights and same are lit a long time, this is a solution to reduce my carbon footprint, save energy of light and also with my cell phone

After analizing my carbon footprint, I could see that it was above the average of my region. Specially in the area of food. This gave a warming signal that something is wrong with my food habits and the impact that they have on the environment. Although I had a big result, this also gives me the chance to improve so I have less environmental impact.

Before doing this activity I thought I was a person who helps the environment and if preservation. When I saw my results I realized that I was not putting effort into trying to help the environment. My carbon footprint was larger than average and I know people who leave a bigger footprint. It's when I realize that as human beings we have to change and do our part if we really want to help the environment.

After realizing and analyzing my results of the carbon footprint calculator, I came to the conclusion that I need to improve the house category. In general, I had a low carbon footprint, but I would like to reduce it more, I will speak about the topic with my family in order that together we work in reducing this category. What I must do now is to reduce my consumption in disposable articles of plastic, for it I must begin reusing several articles of plastic, also I must separate the waste in paper, carton, plastic and organic. If I realize these actions I will be capable of reducing my carbon footprint and of contributing with the planet.

For me it was very important to calculate my carbon footprint because it helps me to recognize the way in which I am benefiting or harming the world and that is why I would like to improve in several areas so that the number of my footprint can decrease. To begin, I would like to improve the use of so many electronic devices, since these damage the planet Earth too much and I think that to begin to diminish the damage on planet Earth, this would be a great start.

When I receive my carbon footprint, I was expected it would be higher than the result that I had. I use few polluting products and my daily routine isn't extravagant. However, I need to improve in areas like the time that I use to take a shower or the time that I spend washing my hands.

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After analizing my carbon footprint, I was able to notice that I had a higher impact in the food area than the average in my zone. I was very surprised when I saw it. I think that right now, I have to make some changes in my life so that I can improve my carbon footprint.

Before I knew what my carbon footprint was, I thought that it did not do great damage to the planet. After doing the test, I realized that I have to improve in two aspects: food and transportation. In order to improve them I will investigate more about which food products affect the planet and I will look for other ways so that the transport I use is not so harmful to the environment.

After completing the carbon footprint calculator I realized that my footprint is much larger than I would have expected. The main contributor to my carbon footprint was relating to transportation and travel. In order to reduce my carbon footprint I am going to address the fact that I use my car much more than I need. In order to reduce my car usage I will carpool with my friends to my after school activities, and then make sure their car is fuel efficient. Also There are many other people that I know of that go to the same place after school, so if I take my car I will offer to give many of them a ride to reduce the amount of cars used.

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Before I calculated my carbon footprint, I thought that I was a good person and always I try to contaminate as little as possible and I thought that little things like eating could make a big difference with the carbon footprint. When I got my scores I was so surprised because I was above of my community average and I think that I have to pay more attention with the little things that I do if I want to make a really big difference on my community and in the world.

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I thought that my CF was below the average, but i dindt know that the foos make a big CF. Mora than the half of my CF was from food. It was really surprusing for me because I thought that the CF was principal by the car, but it wasnt treu in my case.

When I calculated my carbon footprint, I thought that I was not emitting so much carbon dioxide into earth. After I got my results I was very surprised to see how much carbon dioxide is emitted and all of the things that emit carbon dioxide into earth. The largest area in which I emit carbon dioxide the most was in transportation. During the last few years I have traveled long distances a lot.  Some things I can do to make sure that my carbon footprint is not too high is to make sure to alwyas think about the consequences of my actions and also now how my actions can affect future generations.

I am co-founder and educator of CT Experiential Learning Center (CELC) Middle School.  I found out about this project in late October so haven't been able to spend too much time - my students did do the calculator and I have submitted data.  I would very much like to involve them with students from other parts of the world and continue to work toward bringing awareness about carbon footprint and how we can lessen our impact.  Please be in touch if you'd like to collaborate/talk, etc.!  Thank you

My name is Marko Safran and I’m a first-time participant in ISCFC. I teach Biology as a part of our national high school curriculum and at the same time I’m one of the teachers that teach Biology and ESS in the IB Diploma Programme.  Some of my colleagues had already participated in previous ISCFC challenges and they shared only positive impressions with me about this project.
Because of that, I decided to participate in the November ISCFC with students from my ESS class. We have already discussed the concepts of Ecological overshoot and Ecological footprint as a way of measuring our impact on the environment. Later we will use data collected from this challenge as a source of arguments for discussion/debate during our Human pollution & resource use lessons.

Great to welcome you and your students to the challenge, Marko!  I'm looking forward to hearing some of the results of your discussion/debates posted in this forum.

Hello. I'm Katherine, a teacher in BKK Thailand. I have about 8-10 students participating for the first time this year as part of our discussion on Human Systems and Resource Use topic (part of the IB Environmental Systems and Societies course). The student in my class have been talking about sustainability, needs/wants, and the Sufficiency Economy that is the foundation of many projects here in Thailand.

I am open to facilitating a discussion between schools that is more directed if anyone else is interested.

Here are some reflective questions that could serve as helpful discussion forum questions.
- To what extent can development be sustainable?
- What are the limiting factors for the planet's human carrying capacity?
- At what point is an MEDC's ecological footprint unsustainable?
- Can economic development of a country even take place independent of other countries and international organizations?
- What factors create differences in attitudes to the management of natural capital (resources)?

Dear Katherine, welcome to you and your students!  I look forward to hearing your students reflect on those interesting and important questions.

Hi, I'm Melissa Trout, a teacher for Environmental Systems and Societies in the IB Diploma Program.  My class will participate in this project as part of our discussions on sustainability and Ecological Footprints.  I look forward to it!

Dear Melissa- great to have you and your students join us for this session!  I'm looking forward to hearing about the outcomes of your discussions in this forum.

Hi Melisa from Norway

Hello Melissa - I am in Thailand and also teaching the same class. We are using this tool in our class to discuss about the 8.4 topic on Human Systems and Resource Use. I have 8 students participating in the Y1 class - let me know if you think we could get some valuable conversation going between our schools.

Hi, may name id Brent Enerva and I will be participating with my AP Environmental Science students. This is my first yer teaching the course (as well as taking part in this project. I'm very excited to see my students work and interact with their international peers!

My name is Anamarija. This is the second time that I'm participating in ISCFC with my students. I teach Chemistry in my school and this year two of my colleagues (one is Biology and the other one is Geography teacher) are also part of this with their students. We plan to use results in our classes and to discuss them from different aspects.

Dear Anamarija - welcome back!  Please share your specific plans for the discussion with your students if you want -- I'm sure other teachers will be interested to hear your classroom plans with the ISCFC

Dear Jason, in one topic students learn about acid deposition and pollution. With ISCFC results we have broaden students knowledge about their impact on atmosphere composition, emission of greenhouse gases and reactions that take place in atmosphere and lead to pollution. Students were mostly surprised by the carbon footprint based on transport, particularly travelling by plane. We realized that, although we are not able to have effect on everything, even small changes in our lives (like turning off light bulbs when we are not in room) can lead to smaller carbon footprint and that matters.

great, thank you for sharing, and yes it's important to focus on what you can change!

I don't know if Kruno already used class results in geography but I will remind him to share it with you.

My name is Wayne and I, along with 14 MYP-2 students, am participating in the ISCFC for the first time.  I teach General Science and DP Biology, at the Ermitage international School near Paris.  We came across the ISCFC after starting to look into Global warming, along with its causes and consequences.   This had added some excitement for my students.

We're very happy to have you and your students join the session, Wayne!

I'm an IB ESS teacher from Istanbul.  I'm looking forward to going through this experience with my students and hopefully generate some good discussions inside and outside the classroom.

Dear Hina, welcome to the ISCFC!  Can you tell us a bit about your students?

Unfortunately, the "muut" forum is not set up well to be able to follow or find individual users, and there is no way explicitly to have all of your students be in a single group.

But there is a way you can keep track of your students' posts and comments.

You need EACH of your students to send you their username.  Note that this may not be the same as their "display" name (it is originally, but they can change their display name!).

The easiest way for them to find out their user name is to look in the top right corner of the page where their display name is and click on their display name.

Then a dialog box comes up with their info.  At the top of the dialog box it shows their user name as:

"@____"

So for me, username hodin, it shows

@hodin

If you go to this page you can see all my posts and comments:

http://web.stanford.edu/group/inquiry2i … s#!/@hodin

Likewise if you simply replace the "@hodin" in that URL with anyone else's user name ("@___") then you can see *their* posts and comments as well.

Try it with your own account and see how it works.

So...if all of your students tell you what their user names are ("@___") then you can check all of your students' posts and comments.

please reply below with any questions about or problems with these instructions

Thanks for this, Jason. I have created another spreadsheet with all student data, and on it I also put the average for where they live (as our school is a distance learning school). I have asked them to put their username (should have said display name, but I think they figured it out) on the spreadsheet. They are not getting as involved as I hoped they would in the discussion. Does anyone have any hints on how to get them talking? I'm so glad there is a way to see how many times they've contributed to the discussions! I see the discussions range far and wide beyond the general theme of carbon footprint. Interesting! I'm tempted to pipe in on the student discussion, asking questions to get them thinking, but I'm resisting because this is their space - right?

you should go ahead and comment!  I certainly do

I just want to thank the person who made up the data collection worksheet.  It has really helped my students to simplify their data entry!  Last year several of my students were surprised to discover that due to all the airline flights they made they put out as much carbon as entire villages in other parts of the world!

That was designed by long-time friend of the ISCFC Kim Scoville (Science Teacher & Department Chair, St. Agnes Academy, Houston, TX, USA).  Kim and St. Agnes are participating in this session, so we look forward to what is usually a tidal wave of their students on the discussion forum

...with the HUGE caveat that being from Houston they are in hurricane recovery! We wish them the best!

I would like my students to comment on their findings on and feelings about the differences in carbon footprints around the world in the open forum.  Is there another school who would like to ask the students to join us?  I am going to have them work on this in class on Friday,Sept. 29.  We are in South Carolina, USA.

greta idea, I hope you find some teachers to join!

My name is Kruno. I am participating in ISCFC with my four geography students for a first time. I teach Geography in Prva gimnazija Varaždin. School is situated in Varaždin (population around 45000). We have around 800 students in Croatian national program and we are also part of IB schools. My colleague Anamarija (few post bellow... hello Anamarija ) have had an idea to discuss about carbon footprint from different aspects: natural and social so I gladly joined in this project.

Hi Kruno and welcome to you and your students.  It['s an intriguing idea to have discussions across schools in your classroom so please keep us updated here on that project so that other teachers can benefit from your classroom plans with the ISCFC.

Participating with 2 mixed-ability Year 10 classes (14 year olds)

welcome Leeston!  Great to have you participating!

My name is Annie Pollet, and I teach an 11th-grade science course in which we study climate change, sustainability, etc. Looking forward to getting involved this year!

Dear Annie- welcome and great to have your sustainability students involved.  we look forward to their insights into taking the results of the calculator the the next step: action!

I am a BA student, doing an internship in Quito. I will be working with a Green Movement group in the school. They are from primary(5-6 years) to high school (17-18 years), but most of them are around 15-16 years old.

We are excited to calculate the carbon footprint of the students and create awarerness around this.

Greetings from Cape Cod!  Hoping to make full use of site this year, allowing for student communication both near and far.  A great way for students (and teachers!) to open their minds at the start of the academic year.

Welcome David!  Please see the email I wrote you earlier today - I think we had your email address wrong before - but if you got an email from me today, it is fixed.

Hello !  Can you please tell us a bit about your students from Iselin?

I teach an introductory Chemistry class to 10th and 11th grade students. This will be our first time participating in the Carbon Footprint Challenge.. I think it will be an eye-opening experience for students to understand the impact they have and compare it to others around the world.

that's great, you might want to have your chemistry students have a look at the Ocean Acidification (OA) activity (note: it's in Flash , so not very mobile compatible), linked under "activities" at the top of this page.  It has an interactive OA model your students might find interesting.

I teach an 11th/12th grade Environmental Systems Design class.  We finished CarbonTime's Human Energy Systems curriculum which focuses on the path of the carbon and energy as well as climate graphs and models.  I wanted to add this for an international discussion.  The students will also be developing some solutions to limit carbon emissions.

we'd love to hear the solutions your students come up with!

Hello Everyone,
My 8th grade classes are very excited to be a part of this project!