Our Well-Being in a Changing Climate
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Health
What it is
This digital wellness tool helps students identify and manage their thoughts and feelings about climate change.
Students use a Climate Emotions Wheel, check in on their mental health with a mental health continuum, reflect through journaling and creative writing, try guided meditations outdoors, and build their own toolbox to feel hopeful and resilient.
A wellness page provides links to emergency and non-emergency phone numbers and to positive mental health programs and services.
Teaching tips
Preparation:
Ensure students have a notebook or journal to respond to the prompts throughout the resource.
Because the tool was built for Nova Scotia, teachers elsewhere should check whether the listed support services apply locally and share local alternatives.
If doing this in the classroom, consider having students bring headphones for the guided meditations.
Part 3 asks students to head into nature for guided meditations, so plan for time and access to an outdoor space.
Classroom Implementation:
Use this tool alongside a climate science unit to give students space to process difficult information.
Broken Links:
Some of the play buttons for the audio components may not work or may take a few tries to work.
The link to Project Drawdown is broken. Use this link instead.
On the Wellness Page, some of the resource links are broken. This doesn't impact the tool's implementation.
Related Resources:
Use this activity to counter negativity bias, which is addressed in the resource.
Have students search through Project Drawdown's Solutions Explorer to find solutions they can help to support.
Extensions:
Begin a weekly practice of sharing good news stories about climate action.
Ready to use it?
Hosted on resources4rethinking.ca
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