Animation Guide for Educators
Buddhism Series
Episode 5 :
Life of Mother
Recognizing that faith leaders have been a driving force behind some of the most important and successful environmental movements, WWF-Malaysia partnered with Soka Gakkai Malaysia to produce an animation series called When We’re Friends (WWF) with Nature. Inspired by the teachings of Buddhism, the faith based animation series carries the message of, ‘It starts with one’ and uses the ‘Learn, Reflect, Empower’ approach which is aligned to WWF-Malaysia’s Education for Sustainable Development’s objective.
Think & put your brain to work!
Dig Deeper
We Are Connected
Everything in our world is interconnected. We cannot survive without clean air, clean water or food that provided by the plants and animals. Every living and non-living thing play their roles to sustain life on this planet.
External Link: Interconnectedness of life that sustains our planet
Before It's Too Late
In this technology age, we use lots of energy to power our electrical appliances. The problems arise when our energy source comes from fossil fuels. Combustion of fossil fuels leads to climate change, which threatens all lives on this planet. We have to start using renewable energy sources before it is too late.
External Link: WWF Climate
Global Warming & Climate Change
Global warming and climate change are often used interchangeably, but they are different in meanings. Global warming is the upward temperature trend across the entire Earth since the late 1970s, due to the increase in fossil fuel emissions. While for climate change, it refers to a broad range of global phenomena as the results of burning fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuel causes the increase of heat-trapping gases trapped in the Earth's atmosphere. These phenomena include global warming, the rise of sea level, ice mass loss, shifts in flower/plant blooming and extreme weather events. Therefore, we can say that global warming is one of the phenomena of climate change.
When the temperature of the Earth increases, the ice glaciers in Arctic and Antartica melt. The sea level will then increases, and the sea water would submerge some of the lowland areas. It increases the risk of flooding to low-lying communities and high-risk coastal properties. The other consequences of global warming include longer wildfire seasons, more frequent heat waves, growing health impacts, increase in extreme weather, more severe droughts, disruption on food supplies and destruction of coral reefs.
External Link:
Natural Resources on Earth
A natural resource is something that is found in nature and can be used by humans in their daily lives. Earth’s natural resources include light, air, water, plants, animals, soil, stone, minerals, and fossil fuels. Without natural resources, humans wouldn't be able to survive. Humans use natural resources for their daily needs and development. For example, humans need soil and water to grow their food and burn fossil fuels to generate electricity.
However, some natural resources that are found on Earth are not renewable, which means that they will deplete in future. These natural resources are fossil fuels, oil, natural gas, and coal. They will run out, and our future generations might not be able to use them if we don't appreciate them right now. Therefore, we should use them wisely in our daily lives because they are too precious to be wasted.
External Link:
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is replacing non-renewable energy nowadays to reduce the burning of fossil fuel that causes global warming. Renewable energy comes from an energy source, which is rapidly replaced by natural processes. Most of the renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun.
There are many types of renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectric power, bioenergy that produced from biomass, geothermal energy that comes from the Earth's internal heat and also tidal energy. On the other hand, the examples of non-renewable energy are the energy produced from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Using renewable energy helps in reducing our carbon emission, improved public health and also provide jobs and other economic benefits. Therefore, we should change our lifestyle by using renewable energy!
External Link:
Prompt your audiences
Why?
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Why do we need to plant more trees?
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Why do we need to reduce our energy consumption?
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Why do we need to use more public transport instead of driving?
How?
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How can we reduce our carbon footprint?
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How can we reduce our electricity bill at home?
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How should we appreciate the natural resources on the Earth?
What?
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What is climate change?
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What is renewable energy?
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What are greenhouse gases?
Activities you may want to try
Discussion 1
Title:
Negative impacts of climate change
Objective:
To discuss the impacts of climate change on living things.
Description:
First, briefly explain the meaning of climate change and what causes climate change. Instruct participants to list down the impacts that caused by climate change.
Materials Needed:
Mahjong paper, marker pens
Expected Outcomes:
Students will be aware of the impacts caused by climate change.
Discussion 2
Title:
Steps to combat climate change
Objective:
To raise awareness about the ways to combat climate change in our daily lives.
Description:
Divide 4-5 students in a group. Then, ask them to discuss and present how are they going to combat climate change in their daily lives.
Materials Needed:
Mahjong paper, marker pens.
Expected Outcomes:
Students will be able to write and voice out their thinkings.
Games 1
Title:
Match The Pairs
Objective:
To raise awareness about the effects of climate change in other countries.
Description:
There are a total of 32 cards.
The cards cover eight different countries. Each country card shows:
• The impacts of climate change on the country.
• A solution that helps the people to tackle the effects of climate change.
• A personal story.
• A map of the world with the country marked on it.
Steps:
1. Spread the climate change problem cards (sad smiley) face down on the table.
2. Then, spread the solution cards (happy smiley) face down next to the problem cards.
3. Players pick up one of the problem cards and read out loud, and describe the country and their problems.
4. Next, the same player has to pick a solution card for the country.
5. If the cards match one another, the player has to read out the solution and keep the pair.
6. If the cards do not match each other, the player has to replace both cards face down in the original position.
7. Lastly, the player with the most pairs wins the game.
Materials Needed:
The cards (which provided in the link)
Expected Outcomes:
Students will be able to match the problems and solutions of climate change for each country.
External Links: Cards, Teacher's Notes
Games 2
Title:
The Clean Air Fortune Teller
Objective:
To increase knowledge about air pollution.
Description:
Divide the students into pairs and let them play the game (in the link) with each other. It's a guessing game, so they have to take turns reading and guessing, everyone wins by learning about Air!
Materials Needed:
The folding game (which provided in the link)
Expected Outcomes:
Students will be able to learn more and understand about air pollution.
External Link: The Folding Game
Work Group 1
Title:
The Systems Game
Objective:
To enhance the student's imagination on what's happening on Earth and what will they do if they are the scientists.
Description:
In this game, students either are a part of a system or serve as scientists tasked with observing and making sense of the system moving in front of them. It's like a role-playing game, and some students will play as the greenhouse gases, some play as the disaster and so on.
Materials Needed:
Role-playing cards (which will be used to stick on each student's shirt).
Expected Outcomes:
Students will be able to imagine and realize what is happening on the Earth.
Discuss
Please start your discussion related to the animation series at the comments below. Do share with us your ideas or suggestions to make the teaching experience even better & for all to try it!