Climate Detectives Projects 2020-2021

Project title: Climate Change in Badajoz

Team: Detectives del SanFer II  Highly Commended Project

IES SAN FERNANDO   BADAJOZ   Spain   17 13Student’s age: 12-13 years old

To what extent can one perceive the effects of Climate Change in Badajoz?

During this first semester we have conducted several activities in class aiming to understand both the causes and consequences of climate change on our planet. At the same time, we have tried to understand if this problem is really affecting our region.
In order to better understand this topic we have designed two experiments. The first one allowed us to explore whether or not an increase in CO2 in an atmosphere is able to increase the temperature of that same atmosphere. Secondly, the second experiment enabled us to inspect the impact of climate change on the sea level. In order to deepen our understanding of the Antarctic, we have participated in an IBERCIVIS initiative of civic collaboration in Science titled “Desafío Bajo Cero”- in collaboration with Spanish scientist we have obtained these satellite pictures from Deception Island https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1yTX6F-4eHf58-YQmx1qp9NzL9sbdO-Af?usp=sharing.
Since we could not use a weather station, we asked the AEMET (State Weather Agency) to provide us with information about precipitation and temperature of our city. We analyzed the historical weather data of Badajoz from 1991 to 2020, calculating statistical measures and drawing graphs.
Finally, we have conducted several advertisement campaigns in our school center, encouraging our students to recycle and a radio program presenting the UN’s campaign Act Now (https://radioedu.educarex.es/sfradio/2020/12/18/actua-ahora-1oeso-a/)

Through our experimental models we have seen how the melting of the Antarctic is going to contribute to an increase in the sea level. We have conducted an analysis of the climate data from the past 30 years in our city (1991-2020). Our team has focused mainly on the study of precipitations . After conducting some calculations and graphing our data we have observed the following signs:
Precipitations show a very irregular pattern in our city. We have encountered extremely dry years, like 2005 and others like 2010 in which it rained almost four times more than in 2005. FIGURE 2
In 1997, precipitations during the month of November were 269.7 mm — the mean precipitation for this month in the years studied is 59.8 mm. FIGURE 3
In the Mediterranean climate, dry months are usually the summer months; however, some of the climograms made in this time series show a very irregular pattern in this sense, as can be seen in the attached graphs. Some years dry months appear outside of the summer season. FIGURE 1

We can therefore conclude that extreme weather events related to precipitations are becoming present in our city. In 1997, the November’s rains caused a flood so intense that it flooded one of the city’s neighborhoods, causing serious personal and material damage (https://especial-riada.hoy.es/grafico.html). Likewise, we can conclude that the distribution of dry months is showing a change in the region and they are no longer focused on the summer months.

Since the very first moments of the project, we wanted to guide our students to become real change makers. They will start to help to reduce the impact of climate change in the world starting in their homes, their school, their region… We clearly saw that it was extremely necessary to spread the word among their classmates, families, and political figures involved in this challenge, so we started to work on it. We installed a recycling site in each class where we can separate waste collection and recycle– plastic and cans go in the yellow bin, paper in the blue bin and food waste in the brown one.
We also have an eco point in the hall of our high school for batteries, lightbulbs and small electrical items. Moreover, we have collaborated with a regional business called La Hormiga Verde that actively works in improving the planet through recycling practices (https://www.lahormigaverde.org/es/nosotros)
Additionally, we started different campaigns among our colleagues with concrete ideas so every person can initiate their own change. We have become UN ambassadors in our school center, collaborating with the campaign ACT NOW (https://www.un.org/en/actnow) We have conducted different workshops to foster the re-use of daily materials and goods.

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