On Sept. 3, the Treehouse Group led 30 international high school students in an evening of activities at MaRS. The students were part of the Cape Farewell project, and traveled to the Arctic for two weeks to raise awareness about climate change through art and science projects.
After an introductory activity of “speed-networking for ideas”, the students engaged in a round of climate change treaty negotiations by acting out the roles of different stakeholders in the climate change crisis. US government officials went toe-to-toe with environmental scientists, and Chinese government representatives argued with the CEO’s of import/export companies over what to do about the problem of climate change. At one point the corn farmers went on strike, and the citizens threatened to form a coalition to unseat the government if they refused to subsidize green energy alternatives. All the while, journalists reported on the progress of treaty talks, sending headlines to the editor to be posted on the news-feed.
We wrapped up the evening by teaching 30 kids about to be enclosed in a metal ship how to do a drum-roll. Check out the video below: