ADVERTORIAL – Whizz Education
Understanding climate change with maths
By Fiona Goddard, education consultant at Whizz Education and former teacher
Understanding climate change could help children deploy maths skills in innovative, world-changing ways
I
n a number of her speeches, Greta Thunberg makes it clear that climate change should be spoken about everywhere and often with
the kind of gravitas that the earth’s predicament warrants. She marvels in her speech entitled ‘Almost Everything is Black and White’ (2018) that ‘the vast majority [of people] don’t have a clue about the consequences of our everyday life’. This is something that teachers are well-equipped to change. Maths education is essential in
developing an understanding of climate change and that learning will help pupils to deploy their maths in innovative, world-changing ways. This summer, Whizz Education is
partnering with PiXL (Partners in Excellence) to deliver a suite of free summer learning activities across disciplines that will focus on the topic of ‘Building for a Greener Future’. Activities will be based around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 7, 9, 11 and 13. They will encourage children to learn about the environments in which they live and to support the development of a sustainable world with a focus on STEM activities during the summer term and summer break. Without numbers, pupils would
not understand ideals like the carbon budget or the limit of 1.5 degrees of warming at the centre of climate change debates. Without
26 SUMMER 2022
pta.co.uk
using data to think abstractly, our senses and observations alone would not confi rm that climate change is occurring or that we need to act. Discussing climate change,
celebrating World Environment Day, initiating projects for students to improve the sustainability of their own school (for example, by reducing food waste) or starting clubs might be just some examples to help save the environment and could have a profound impact on the future of the planet and can be used to cultivate ever-important mathematical knowledge and skills. Why not get involved and
encourage your school to join in with Whizz Education’s Building for a Greener Future summer activities? For example, students could be measuring rainfall. They will be elevating maths skills by collecting and recording how many millimetres of liquid are captured on a daily basis and discussing how to make the records useful, fair and
impactful in the future? Joining in with Whizz Education’s collaborative summer project with PiXL might provide other inspirations for local interests too! As well as teaching students to
handle numbers, the summer project has the capacity to inspire, engage and empower. Numerous studies have shown that climate change education has the biggest impact when students are encouraged to take responsibility for learning about issues that impact them and their communities. Help make a difference! Whizz Education is an education
partner dedicated to improving learning outcomes. For further information and to access free resources from Whizz Education’s summer climate project please see
whizz.com/summer- challenge-2022/
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