Climate Stories Project www.climatestoriesproject.org

Using Climate Stories Project in the Classroom

Climate Stories Project (CSP) is an educational and artistic forum for sharing personal and 

community responses to climate change and has been used successfully in many high school and college 

classrooms. Using Climate Stories Project in your classroom has many benefits, including: 

• Students augment their studies of climate change science by learning about real human impacts and 

responses to climate change 

• Students learn how to speak directly about their own responses to climate change 

• Students learn how to plan, carry out, record, and edit interviews 

• Students learn to communicate with people from different generations and cultures 

• Students develop empathy for people already responding directly to climate change 

• CSP fulfills Common Core education grade 6-12 standards for communication skills and speaking/

listening

How it works: 

You should plan for at least two class 

periods for the CSP workshop. Ideally, 

the project should extend over several 

weeks in order to get the most out of 

the workshop. 

Setting up interviews should take place 

before the start of the classroom CSP 

workshop. Interviews can be arranged 

with local people, scientists, elders, 

farmers, etc, and can take place in 

person, on Skype, or on the phone. It is great to have students arrange interviews, but the teacher can 

help arrange interviews for the students. Make sure that interviewees understand the scope and goals of 

project and that they are OK with being recorded and having their interviews edited and shared. 

1) To prepare for the workshop, students should listen and take notes to some recorded audio or 

video interviews on climatestoriesproject.org and write down answers the following questions 

about the interviewee they listen to from the website: 

• What is the interviewee’s name? Where do they live? What do they do (work, school, etc)? 

• What do they value in their local environment? What changes have they seen in their environment? 

• How are they responding to the changes around them? How is their community responding? 

• How do they feel about the climate change happening now or in the future? 

• What are their hopes and vision for the future? How are they working toward creating a better world? 
Climate Stories Project www.climatestoriesproject.org

2) The teacher (or workshop leader) leads a classroom discussion with the students on personal and 

community responses to climate change, including the following questions: 

• What types of observations or measurements can we make in order to see climate change in our 

communities? 

• How can people respond/adapt to climate change? 

• How are you (the students) responding to climate change (emotionally or intellectually); what are your 

hopes for the future? 

3) Working in groups, students make a list of five questions that they would like to ask an interviewee 

about their personal and community responses to climate change. Students can also choose from 

the questions they answered for the recorded interviews on climatestoriesproject.org, but at least 

two questions should be their own. 

4) Model good/bad interview techniques for the students; solicit feedback. 

5) Students practice interviewing each other or the teacher, making sure they practice note-taking, 

asking for more details, and asking follow-up questions. 

6) Students practice setting up and using recording equipment. Students can use smartphones, video 

cameras, Skype recording apps, or the school radio or TV station, if available. A tripod is 

recommended for video recording. High-quality microphones and proper mic placement will ensure 

good sound quality. 

7) Remind students of what they learned about good interview technique. Conduct and record real 

interviews with the interviewees who were arranged previously, either with small groups of students 

or one-on-one. Make sure to remind interviewees about scope of project, get permission to record, 

and take photos of interviewee if not recording video. 

8) Following interviews, students reflect on what they learned about people’s responses to climate 

change and their own responses to the interviewing process. 

9) Students edit video/audio interviews using computer software. Interviews can then be turned into 

digital storytelling, art, or music projects using photographs, music, or video footage. 

10) Share student interview projects - at your school, online on blogs, websites (send to 

jason@climatestoriesproject.org) or on social media. 

11) Have students lead discussions in their school and community about personal responses to climate 

change. 

These steps can be adapted depending on available time and resources at your school. Feel free to be 

creative with the project - there are many ways to carry out CSP classroom work and the steps are just 

guidelines. 

Please contact jason@climatestoriesproject.org if you have any questions or you’d like to arrange an 

official workshop at your school with CSP staff. 
Climate Stories Project www.climatestoriesproject.org