Every drip counts: Manchester school children respond to stories of melting Arctic ice

Manchester Metropolitan University’s contributions to the Economic and Social Science Research Council’s Festival of Social Science kicked off last week with an online event about Drip, an inter-disciplinary climate science education and arts outreach project, conducted in two primary schools in Greater Manchester.

The project was inspired by the research of Manchester Met’s Dr Kathryn Adamson, who investigates how climate change affects glaciers and meltwaterThe project was inspired by the research of Manchester Met’s Dr Kathryn Adamson, who investigates how climate change affects glaciers and meltwater.

Over the course of her research, she has seen dramatic changes in Artic ice, as glaciers shrink and permafrost thaws.

The Drip project, coordinated by PhD candidate Gail Skelly, drew on Dr Adamson’s findings and experiences to help schoolchildren explore both emotional and practical responses to stories of far-off melting ice.

With visual artist Fiona Smith, the project team worked with 200 Year 4/5 children in two primary schools.

The children learned about the science of climate change and how increasing global temperatures affect glacier melt and sea level rise.

They responded by making art works and recording their personal pledges of climate and environmental action, for example by mending clothes, giving old toys to charity or planting a tree with their grandad.

Framed as solutions to climate changes, the children’s pledges were drawn from a mixture of ideas to reduce emissions as a solution to using less energy, as well as many issues of environmental degradation, particularly the use of plastics and the need to clean up plastic. 

Gail Skelly says that the project gave space for children to think about the place where they live.

She said: “That’s pretty much all they know, so how do they connect these global examples to their own lives, and how do they understand how their own country’s circumstances are changing, going beyond the headlines. 

Fiona Smith, artist, added: “Primary school age group are under-represented in climate change research, and the Drip project in its own small way, is still part of the myriad ways that can enact change, even from a very young age. Learning through the medium of the visual arts can be an evocative tool with which to both deepen understanding, and, from which change can flow.”

The importance of action is emphasised by Dr Adamson, who has seen how climate change is transforming the Artic landscape.

She said: “Since I started going up to Greenland and Iceland I have seen such big changes. What is important at this stage is to take individual action - something in our lives which we can change, and if everybody changes something little then that would all add up.”