C. Mapping Bureau
STAGE 3: take the HighWaterLine to the streets A. Climate Change TV
B. Climate Change Design Lab
Create and host a talk show focused on your town/ city and issues related to extreme weather, and climate change. Choose an area in your school, home or community to setup a mock television set using found materials, fabrics and available furniture. Use a phone, flipcam or video recording device to capture each episode, and plan for little or no editing by keeping the length of each episode to 2-3 minutes. With your production team, decide on roles like news anchor, correspondent, production assistant, lighting and cameraperson etc.
Using research collected from Stage 1 and maps created from Stage 2, create a series of brochures and materials that help you, your peers and friends understand climate change and its local impacts. You can create these materials by hand, use digital design tools like Adobe Creative Suite, or ask graphic design students or community members to assist. Some materials to develop may include:
Next, create the concept for your first episode. You can invite people to be guests, and ask them to share what they know about climate change, and what they can do to curb consumption and carbon emissions. Create visuals for your TV program that explain climate change; for example: where do most carbon emissions are coming from, what these sources are and how they impact local ecologies? With your team, develop a series of Climate Change TV segments that may include: extreme weather reporting, streetside interviews, news from around the world, undercover investigations from places along your HighWaterLine route and adaptation plans. You can also conduct an unofficial survey that asks people about the weather in their neighborhood and what they know about climate change. Finally, bring Climate Change TV to the streets for site-specific investigations and streetside encounters. If you have access to iMovie or other editing software, add some brief titles and graphics once you’ve shot your segment. Post to YouTube and upload to your HighWaterLine blog for public enjoyment and education. Use #highwaterline to tag any media generated. (If you want to keep it lo-fi, you can make a fake microphone and connect to an audio recorder and create podcast episodes for easy listening)
Supplemental Activities
• Mapping Guides: A collection of maps that mark the 10-feet above sea level line and local landmarks, utilities and other important locations. • Info Cards: A series of cards focused on climate science, diagrams of Co2 and greenhouse gas production, list of regional and local impacts. A list of things people can do to curb C02production, steps for emergency preparedness, and key information from local adaptation plan, and a list of resources and ways to get involved in local politics and projects like HighWaterLine.
EXAMPLE: Eve Mosher designed action cards, which she printed handed out to the public while marking the HighWaterLine. Use these as a guide for designing your new updated takeaways to carry with you. • In your home Recycle glass, plastic, metal and all paper. New Yorkers throw away an average of 4.5 pounds of trash per day. Learn about all the different things you can recycle at NYC.gov/html/nycwasteless
Create a physical and digital portfolio of maps created in Stage 2 to showcase to friends and family, and add them to your HighWaterLine blog. Ask them to physically mark where their homes/ workplaces are on the map. Determine if they‘ll be underwater according to climate change expectations and the flood maps gathered in Stage 2. Include your town/city’s emergency preparedness maps and plans as well. Once you have these all gathered and posted online, develop a way to bring these maps out onto the street when you begin to scout out the best location for your
STAGE 4: ADvocate for climate change a. Potluck Dinner
B. Story Bank
Host a potluck dinner gathering and invite friends, family and neighborhood partners to join the project and talk about local climate change issues, including adaptation and emergency preparedness. Unveil your maps and ideas for performing the demarcated line in your community. With the help of interested participants, determine the ideal path to walk and mark. Next, determine the best date, and send out a press release to invite conversation and participation. (ie. The HighWaterLine was in several television spots found in the resources section. Make sure to send a press release to writers, TV stations, blogs, etc.)
Share and collect the many stories of your HighWaterLine project by creating a StoryBank of experiences from participants and local communities involved in the project. To create your Storybank, you’ll need an audio recorder and physical place to meet. Advertise a day to collect stories, invite friends and participants and lure them with treats and free coffee/tea. Ask them to reflect and share their stories. Limit each to 4-5 minutes and create an archive of the recordings online using free tools like SoundCloud.com
Common Core Standards Alignment
• In your government Ask your representatives for improved transit, more greenway, priority for bikes and pedestrians, sustainable and local based development. Find your representative at Vote-Smart.org and NYC.gov • In your business or school Campaign for cleaner buses. Most buses run on diesel, learn about cleaner fuels and get your school to switch. You can get facts and information by checking out NRDC.org/GreenSquad
30
performance and walk. To do this, create a “Mapping Bureau Suitcase” that gathers maps and information in one place. On one side of the suitcase, you can install your papier-mâché topographic map created in Stage 2 so that people on the street can easily visualize the sea level rise or other impacts of climate change. On the other side of the suitcase, create an easy to pull out display that has your maps, climate change visuals and sitespecific information ready to showcase and explore with others.
Activities outlined in this guide represent opportunities for educators to meet K-12 common core Standards in Science, Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies among others. The guide can also be adapted for University level students and life long learners.
Subject
Grades K-5
Grades 6-8
Grades 9-12
Language Arts
CCSS.ELA-Literacy. SL.1.1b; SL.1.2; SL.1.5; SL.5.1d; SL.5.4; L.1.5c; L.1.6
CCSS.ELALiteracy. WHST.6-8.1a; WHST.6-8.6; WHST.6-8.9
CCSS.ELALiteracy. WHST.9-10.10; WHST.9-10.9; WHST.9-10.6
Mathematics
CCSS.Math.Content.5. MD.B.2; 5.MD.C.3; 4.MD.A.1; 3.MD.D.8
CCSS.Math.Content.7.SP .A.2; 7.SP.C.6; 6.SP.B.5; 8.SP.A.2
CCSS.Math.Content.H SG-GMD.A.3; HSSID. A.1; HSSMD.B.5; HSS-MD.B.7
Science
N/A
NA CCSS.ELALiteracy. RST.6-8.1; RST.6-8.3; RST.6-8.7
CCSS.ELALiteracy. RST.9-10.9; RST.9-10.5
Social Studies
N/A
CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RH.6-8.7
CCSS.ELALiteracy. RH.9-10.7; RH.11-12.9
Supplemental Activities
31