C3SS Interacts with University of Ghana Basic Schools Pupils

C3SS team in a pose with some students

The Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies (C3SS) has held its first engagement with pupils of the University of Ghana Basic Schools (UBS) at the UBS campus, Legon, on Friday April 5, 2019.

The interaction which was dubbed “Climate Change & Sustainable Living: The Role of Young People”, was part of the Centre’s Public Education Campaign (C3SS-PubEd). The C3SS team led by research fellows, Dr. Yaw Agyeman Boafo and Dr. Robert Manteaw, included Mr. Roland Apambilla, a Graduate Assistant and four Research Assistants namely; Evans Eumabe, Andrew Cofie, Melissa Forson and Jocelyn Oppong.

The event which started at 2:00 pm on the UBS premises, began with the screening of a short video explaining the state of the earth with regard to global warming & its accompanying ramifications if humans continued living carelessly without taking drastic actions against the menace.

Students paying attention to the presentation

This was followed by a brief presentation by Mr. Evans Sumabe, a National Service Person attached as a Research Assistant at C3SS. In his presentation, the concepts of weather, climate, the greenhouse effect and how negative anthropogenic contribution of greenhouse gases has accelerated climate change were explained.

Evans Sumabe explaining a point to the students

The pupils, who were all at the Junior High School level (JHS 1-3), were taken through some everyday activities and simple yet sustainable lifestyle changes they could make, to help mitigate and adapt to climate change effects. Some of these include turning off light bulbs and appliances when they are not in use, planting trees and reusing and recycling products (especially plastics) whenever they could, and riding bicycles where possible among others.
A student offering a contribution on the positive role of greenhouse gases

During the Q&A session, the pupils asked very intriguing questions, some of which are still being debated at higher levels of academia & policy making. Examples are whether family planning was being considered as part of global climate action; a query on how, in the same instance the team asserted that global rainfall was reducing in some areas and increasing in other areas; whilst another pupil questioned if there was any threshold beyond which the earth could not recover from the negative climate change effects among other intelligent questions. Mr. Evans Sumabe with support from the presentation team, duly answered all the questions appropriate for their level.

Question & Answer Session

Delivering the closing remarks, Mr. Andreas Sunuh, a teacher at UBS, reechoed some of the key terms from the presentation and discussed their relevance to the society. He also expressed Management’s appreciation to the C3SS for organizing such an educative event.

Mr. Andreas Sunuh making the closing remarks

C3SS on the other hand extended their gratitude to Mr. Desmond Tweneboanah, the teacher in charge of coordinating extra-curricular activities at UBS and all other supporting teachers; Mrs. Christiana Armah, the Deputy Headmistress (JHS) & the entire management of the school for the immense support.