The Cool It! Climate Leadership Training program develops and empowers young sustainability champions in schools in British Columbia. 

Cool It! is an interactive environmental workshop and contest for students in grades 4 to 7 and for high school students. In each workshop, our Environmental Educators use videos, games, quizzes, and discussion to build on students’ knowledge of climate change.

Following the workshop, students take home the four-week Cool It! Challenge that encourages families to make easy but important changes to their energy consumption. Through this activity, students and their families are challenged to initiate life-long behaviour changes in order to reduce their carbon footprint.

After four weeks, the contests are collected and the results are converted into measurable greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. Students and classes have the opportunity to win prizes and receive acknowledgement for their achievements at City Council meetings in their community.

Cool It’s Fall 2020 program review

The Cool It! Climate Leadership Challenge successfully delivered 82 virtual workshops in classrooms across the province during the Fall 2020 semester. 42 of which were delivered in elementary classrooms in the City of Vancouver, the City of Delta, the District of Central Saanich, and the District of Squamish. The remaining 40 workshops were delivered in high school classrooms in the City of Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and the Capital Regional District.

Our programming this Fall reached over 1,500 students whose collective actions contributed to the reduction of over 150 tonnes of GHG emissions.

The Cool It! Team now turns its focus to the Winter and Spring 2021 semesters where we expect to deliver another ~100 workshops in elementary and high school classrooms across the province.

We would like to say a big thank you to all our wonderful Environmental Educators delivering Cool It! program this year despite the many challenges caused by COVID-19. I would also like to thank the sponsors of our Fall 2020 programming for their generous support: The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the City of Delta, the District of Central Saanich, the District of Squamish, and First Things First Okanagan.

COOL IT 2020/2021

In 2019/2020 the Cool It program has received sponsorship from these wonderful supporters who are dedicated to climate education and supporting their communities to take action:

• The Capital Regional District, the District of Saanich, and the City of Victoria to support workshops in the CRD for grade 4-5 classes
• The City of Richmond
• The District of West Vancouver
• The City of North Vancouver
• The City of Nelson
• The City of Port Moody
• The City of New Westminster
• The City of Delta
• The Township of Langley
• The District of Central Saanich
• The District of Squmish
• The District of Summerland
• Translink
• West Coast Seeds
• Environment and Climate Change Canada
• North Family Foundation
• The City of Penticton
• First Things First Okanagan

If you are in these areas we would love to work with your school!

Teachers – Interested in booking a workshop for your class or learning more about the program? Contact us at cool-it@bcsea.org

COOL IT OVER THE YEARS

Since 2007, BCSEA has:

• Delivered 2,727 workshops in BC
• Reached over 70,000 students & their families
• Lowered greenhouse gas emissions in the province by 43,907 tonnes

Here is what some of the teachers are saying about the Cool It! program:

“My students really enjoyed this challenge and I heard only positive comments from parents.  I have participated in many of the former Climate Change Showdown challenges in the past and it is always a highlight of the year.  A very worthwhile program.”

“As a school we had National sweater day and asked teachers to turn down the heat for one day in their classrooms. We learned about landfills and how food waste contributes to greenhouse gases. As  individuals in the class we should be trying harder to use the compost and reduce food waste. I also developed an art activity to connect to their actions.”

“Great program and Kelly is so resourceful and a delight to work with. I really hope you continue!”

“Thank-you for the opportunity and please keep me on your email list for next year”

“Thank you to Manon for her support and help in the classroom. I enjoyed the Cool It! Program. I hope I can participate in the program again.”

“Manon was a wonderful host as she also speaks French and I have a French Immersion class so she made sure she incorporated some French in her presentation. I would also like to say that Manon is a highly educated instructor in this field. There wasn’t a question she wasn’t able to answer as she is very well informed, and she gave my students lots of new information in the subject area. I would love to welcome Manon in my classroom again. Thank you.”

“Great program! Students loved it.”

“I found this to be a very well organized and supported unit. I would love to participate with my grade 6’s next year!”

“Manon is terrific which is why I requested her. After 4 years of being out of the classroom I am stunned by how sheltered students are about real world, life and climate change… hence the value of having BCSEA to enrich their learning experiences. Thank you”

“My students had fun! “

“My students really enjoyed participating in the challenge and learning a lot through the process.”

Want to support BCSEA’s Cool It! Climate Leadership Training program?

Potential sponsors – interested in developing young sustainability champions in your community?  Click here for more information.

Teachers and Parents – looking for ways to inspire your students/children to become sustainability champions throughout the Cool It! program and beyond? Check out our resource page.

Kids – check out our resource page with links to lots of cool information on how to reduce your carbon footprint!

Please consider sponsoring Cool It!: email cool-it@bcsea.org to chat about sponsorship opportunities.