Extreme weather phenomena appear all over the world. Devastating typhoon in the Philippines... Unprecedented drought in Africa ... The cyclone Cleopatra hits Sardinia... Deadly storm in Rhodes… More than 30 million people worldwide were climate refugees last year due to environmental disasters and extreme weather phenomena. Predictions for the future are even worst. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), more than 200 million climate refugees will search for a new location to settle until 2050, since their land would either have been covered by the water or staying in these locations will no longer be feasible. Today most climate refugees come from Asia and Africa. What has changed in the world and we has caused all these phenomena? Scientists believe that the carbon dioxide and the global warming have play crucial role in climate change and environmental disasters.

Herodotus and Nephele listening for climate refugees, are wondering whether their classmate Ali, from Somalia, is one of the climatic refugees, who were forced to flee their homeland. They are concerned regarding the causes that may have forced Ali and his family to leave their homeland and migrate. They are concerned on how extreme climatic phenomena occurring nowadays on our planet, could affect Cyprus. Could a new tragedy, an environmental crisis, force us to become once again refugees—this time climatic refugees?

Could we prevent such an environmental crisis? You are asked to help Herodotus and Nephele to answer these questions. You are asked to take an evidence-based stance to the general question: Climatic refugees the Cypriots: A fictional sce-nario or a forthcoming reality?

Stage 1: Motivating students-Socio-scientific scenario

Climatic refugees the Cypriots: A fictional

scenario or a forthcoming reality?

Driving Question:

Project funded within the EC FP7 Programme: 5.2.2.1 – SiS-2010-2.2.1 Grant Agreement No.:266589

Supporting and coordinating actions on innovative methods in science education: teacher training

on inquiry based teaching methods on a large scale in Europe

During first half of their inquiry-based interrogation, the students investigate a variety of sources (short texts, tables, graphics, video) to gain information related to the phenomenon under investigation, such as: What is carbon, where is it and how does carbon circulates on Earth, why is there much more carbon of dioxide in the atmosphere nowadays rather than before. Through these sources, students collect all the information necessary to conceptualize and understand the carbon cycle.

During the second half of their inquiry-based investigation, students collect data with the aim to understand how human activities can disrupt the carbon cycle as well as to contribute to the increase of the carbon dioxide, which is related to the phenomenon of climate change.

Developed by PROFILES Biology Group (2013), in collaboration with the Biology unit of the Cyprus Ministry of Education

and Culture: Andreas Hadjichambis, Demetra Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, Dorita Demetriou, Baytelman Andreani, Korina Skouridou

PROFILES Working Group Cyprus University of Technology: Dr. Eleni A. Kyza, Yiannis Georgiou

During the stage of decision-making students are asked to synthesize the data they have collected in combination with new information given to them about climate change in Cyprus, through interview with researchers of the Institute of Cyprus in order to: (a) Demonstrate whether Cypriots could become climate refugees in the near future and (b) Report on what they could do to prevent such a potential environmental crisis.

Subject: Biology / Natural Sciences Grade: 9 Relevance to curriculum: Climatic changes Duration: 3 lessons x 80’ Kind of activity: Inquiry-based activities, group discussions and discussions, whole-class discussions, debates Overall objectives / Competencies: Basic scientific knowledge about the carbon cycle, reflective scientific inquiry, evidence-based reasoning, decision-making skills, communication and working in group skills, ICT skills

Stage 2: Inquiry

Stage 3: Decision-making

General Information