A teacher at a middle school in Minnesota used a group of rappers and musicians to teach sixth graders why man-made global warming is bad and fossil fuels should be left in the ground.
Kate Lewandowski, a sixth grade teacher at Blackhawk Middle School in Madison, Minnesota, invited six hip-hop artists into three of her science classes to work with students to craft rhymes and create songs on science-related issues like greenhouse gasses and global warming.
“It’s been a huge motivator,” Lewandowski told reporters. “I have students that haven’t cared much about science and haven’t put in much of an effort, even though they’re very capable. With this project, I’ve seen so many students like that turning in their assignments, raising their hand in class and asking questions — I haven’t seen that all semester.”
This is the second year that Lewandowski has collaborated with the Urban Community Arts Network, or UCAN, to work on teaching kids about science, or climate science. She said it is also important to reach black students as well as white ones, and get them interested in topics like global warming, as well as other scientific topics.
“The kids I’m seeing more engagement from are the black and multiracial students,” Lewandowski added. “A lot of my white students are really into it too, as are the students of other culture. But the white students are really into school anyway.”
The rappers are paid through Dane Arts and the city’s Emerging Opportunities program, which receives funding through the city of Madison.
“It was hard coming up with raps,” about climate science at first, sixth-grader Abubacarr Darboe, 12, said, adding that the project helped him understand how oil and fossil fuels in general is causing man-made global warming.
One of Lewandowski’s favorite rhymes includes lyrics such as, “Malaria, West Nile, Lyme disease / If we fix these things we can live at ease” and “H2O, or you can call it water / doubles the temp of CO2, it gets hotter.”
It appears training citizens to be climate justice warriors is a growing fad, as former Vice President Al Gore showed Wednesday when he explained his decision to travel to China and teach citizens how to be so-called Climate Reality Leaders.
“The Paris Agreement — which could not have been achieved without China’s global leadership and determination – lays the foundation for countries, businesses, investors, and citizens around the world to support and work toward the sustainable growth of a clean energy economy,” Gore said in a press statement on Wednesday.
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