For the average New Zealander, transport contributes 90% of their personal, direct carbon dioxide emissions. People who drive to work or school can reduce their own emissions by around 20% simply by swapping to a low-carbon transport option one day per week.
Local CO₂ measurements
Scientists from GNS installed low-cost sensors at school gates to help with the visualisation of atmospheric concentrations of CO2 during school drop-off hours.
The visual data helped students to action initiatives to drive down the carbon dioxide emissions at their school gate. They were then able to measure the impact of their initiatives to see how their change in behaviour had driven down carbon emissions.
GNS Science partnered with Auckland’s Meadowbank School to measure atmospheric greenhouse gases at the school gate. This inspired the students to organise a ‘drive it down’ campaign and reduce their carbon footprint.
It shocked us seeing the spike in the morning during drop off time and we knew we could take action to reduce this, but we needed to get the whole community involved – we couldn’t do it alone.
Ava, Meadowbank Year 6 Enviro Leader student
Use the Meadowbank School experience as a context to create student-led initiatives to reduce emissions at your own school gate!
In this activity, ākonga read an article, research and graph individual transport methods and then consider what action they can take to reduce the school’s greenhouse gas footprint.
By the end of the activity, ākonga should be able to:
- use literacy skills to read an article
- use numeracy skills to gather and interpret data
- discuss the relationship between transport options and greenhouse gas emissions
- use and critique evidence from the Drive it Down! project as it relates to their own school
- consider ways to use this information to reduce their own school-gate emissions.
Download the Word file (see link below).
Related content and activity ideas
Drive it Down! – a context for learning provides pedagogical suggestions and links to the New Zealand Curriculum. It includes Drive it Down! – the carbon cycle and climate change, which curates resources covering climate change, greenhouse gases, the carbon cycle and climate action.
There is a lot of specialist vocabulary associated with climate literacy. The following resources can be useful for learning about these key terms and key concepts that they underpin:
- The carbon cycle and climate change – key terms
- Climate change – key terms
- Climate change and the carbon cycle – kuputaka
The following resources offer pedagogical assistance when teaching about climate change. It is important that educators also have a baseline of scientific literacy as well as insights to enhance solutions-oriented approaches.
Useful link
This activity uses the GNS Science article Climate science inspires students to drive down school-run carbon dioxide emissions. The article contains diagrams and images that are useful when/if considering your own project.
Acknowledgement
This resource has been adapted from resources created for the Drive it Down! Measuring and mitigating school-gate emissions project. Scientists from GNS Science alongside educators developed the project and resources with funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment through the Unlocking Curious Minds fund and Te Herenga Waka University of Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. Further funding was provided by the Royal Society Te Apārangi Catalyst Fund (2020).
Contributors to Drive it Down!
Scientists from GNS Science developed the Drive it Down! project and resources. Funding was through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Unlocking Curious Minds fund, Te Herenga Waka University of Wellington Doctoral Scholarship and the Royal Society Te Apārangi Catalyst Fund (2020).
