A training course on climate change was held in July with Further Education and Training (FET) teachers from Cape Town and surrounding areas. The course was well attended by 21 enthusiastic FET Geography teachers as well as representatives from WCED and DEA. The course was run by Susan Brundrit and Andrew Petersen from the University of Cape Town.
Given the timing of the course (ie. July), the content focus was shifted to third and fourth term topics such as:
- The impact of climate change on the water cycle, which focused on teaching about the environment and environmental issues in the CAPS.
- Non-conventional and conventional energy management in South Africa: the topic was facilitated by Therese Lambrechts from the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies at Stellenbosch University and Kent Buchanan from the Climate Change Mitigation Energy Sector Directorate of the Department of Environmental Affairs. Therese presented on the use of renewable energy sources in South Africa, and Kent presented on the My2050 Calculator, an interactive tool that displays impacts of different energy source scenarios for South Africa.
These activities were followed by a consideration of the world energy and carbon emissions crisis through a solutions-scenario game. The focus then shifted onto sustainability issues and fair trade. The last part of the training was devoted to planning and assessment where teachers worked in grade groups to map out a teaching plan for a series of lessons on one of the covered topics.
Article by Sue Brundrit