Nine News.
In October this year, Chang Yan, a junior high school physics teacher in Dongying City, Shandong Province, received a special email from the organizers of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai. She was told that she would be the first young teacher in China to be invited to share her case at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change Education. Organized by UNESCO's Office for Climate Change Education, TeachersCOP collected 386 cases from around the world, and only 5 cases were selected for presentation at the conference. Since 2010, Chang Yan has founded the "Little Feet" team, leading team members to organize and carry out more than 500 environmental protection public welfare activities, check-in more than 2,000 wetland sites, form more than 100 wetland tracks, and write nearly one million words of relevant reports. At the conference, she shared her case study of her educational activities in Dongying City to observe the relationship between biodiversity change and climate change. From the campus to the COP28 stage, Chang Yan was very emotional: "I think our previous activities have infiltrated climate change education, but we may not have realized the importance of this education at the time of the event. In the future, I will guide children to think more, and I hope that more people can use their actions to bring a positive impact on climate change. ”
Chang Yan. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
The following is a conversation between Jiupai News and Chang Yan. [1] I have been observing owls with my daughter for six years, and climate change is reflected in my surroundingsJiupai News: When you received the news of being selected, did you share it with the children in the team?Chang Yan: After I got the news, I shared it with my friends, classmates and children in the team as soon as possible, and they were very happy and felt that our event had been recognized by the organizers. I am very confident in our case, but it was also unexpected to be selected as one of the five cases, and I did not expect that we would be able to represent China's case in such a small number of places. In fact, I was very excited and proud at the time, proud of our efforts and activities over the years. Jiupai News: Can you introduce the teaching case?Chang Yan: Because this is a forum for climate change education, in this case, I have systematically sorted out some of the activities we have held over the years. Many of these activities are outdoor bird-watching activities and "small citizen science practice surveys", and the activities are accompanied by climate change education. The case study is mainly about our one-year "small citizen science practice survey", which is mainly a long-term and series of survey activities in which we select a fixed transect and conduct a comprehensive species survey on it once a month, reflecting the impact of climate change on species throughout the year through the survey of species. Jiupai News: Did any interesting things happen in this?Chang Yan: Zhou Xiqiao, a classmate in our group, who is also my daughter, once rescued a little owl with a longitudinal belly, a little owl, and it turned out that this little owl had settled across from our house. We often observe its behavior every morning, noon, and evening, and it has been more than six years now. In the past five or six years, we have also gradually carried out activities, going to surrounding communities and schools to give lectures, attracting many students to join the "Guardian of the Owl in the City" mission project, so that they know that there are many species around us, and because climate change will affect the change of species, species that were not here before may now exist, so we also encourage everyone to observe nature and protect the environment. 
Zhou Xiqiao and the team members of the Little Feet team popularized the longitudinal belly owl in the community. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Jiupai News: Can you please give us a detailed introduction to the "Little Citizen Science Survey"?Chang Yan: The "Little Citizen Scientific Survey" was carried out in the Lancui Lake Wetland, which is a park on the outskirts of the city, with a very large lake and wetland, a good natural environment, rich species, and a certain regulating effect on the city's climate. At the beginning of each month, we follow a fixed route to investigate, so that there is a certain contrast. We persisted in this way for a year, which is a cycle, and we have plans to continue to carry out such surveys in the future. In the specific process, the plant is relatively easy to observe, and its characteristics are more obvious throughout the year. Birds are uncertain, because there are lakes, wetlands, and plenty of food for birds, plus the impact of climate on them, we can observe different bird species every month, including winter migratory birds, summer migratory birds, and resident birds, so we also use bird watching to make the form of activities more abundant. We also designed and assigned a number of enrichment tasks to encourage the children to identify the species they were most interested in in each survey. After the activity, you can learn more about the characteristics, living habits, and relationship between these species and the climate by consulting materials and drawing nature notes. Over the course of the year, each of them drew 12 nature notes on 12 species. Through their own **, the children deepened their connection with nature and also gained the fun of active exploration. [2] Children have a natural interest in nature and are encouraged to explore on their ownJiupai News: When did you start trying to carry out ecological and environmental education for children?What's the opportunity?Chang Yan: Our team was established very early, in 2010, and it has been 13 years now. In fact, we set up a parent-child club at the beginning, when the children in the team were still relatively young, mainly to play with them in nature, deepen their perception and experience of nature, and let them feel the joy of growing up. In 2017, the China Wildlife Conservation Association, the Dongying Bird Watching Association and the Dongying Municipal Education Bureau jointly organized a training session for "Nature Experience Teachers". Since then, we have been exploring how to systematically carry out nature education activities. Jiupai News: In addition to the daily teaching work, do you feel hard to spend so much time on these activities?Chang Yan: I really don't feel hard, but I still enjoy it. Over the years, my husband and children have been organising the event with me, and my family has been involved in it, which has made me more empowered. Over the years, the classmates and parents in the team have grown together, always supported me, and gave me great encouragement and trust. For example, it is very difficult for me to do the small citizen science investigation activity alone, so we are divided into several groups, including plant group, insect group, bird group and animal group, each group has a parent as the leader, and leads the students to observe and record. The parents of the botanical group will put a lot of effort into looking at the plant illustrated book to study the characteristics of native plants, so that he will not be in a hurry when leading his classmates to observe, or be confused because he does not know anything. To this day, they have become an important part of the team. In fact, many discoveries do not necessarily mean that parents know more, sometimes it is that children have a natural interest in nature, they observe and discover first, and also drive parents to observe. We originally ignored a lot of the good things in life, so we found that children's eyes really have a natural aesthetic, they can find a lot of beautiful things, and we are also willing to learn from children, so that we can learn from each other, encourage each other, and build our team better together. 
Chang Yan (second from right in the first row) led the Little Feet team to participate in public welfare and environmental protection activities. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Jiupai News: You feel like an "encyclopedic" teacher, how do you learn and pass on this knowledge to children?For example, bird watching, monitoring changes in water quality, etc. Chang Yan: Before 2017, I didn't know a lot about nature, and when I grew up with my children, I found that my knowledge about nature was really too shallow and too little, and I couldn't depict the appearance and beauty of nature for children. I wondered if I should learn more and more in order to satisfy the children's curiosity. Learning in nature is different from our usual textbook learning, we must go out, continue to feel, observe and absorb in nature, use curiosity to explore, and then go home and then repeatedly consult various materials and illustrated books, in order to understand more and more. I also share what little knowledge I have gained with the children while learning, and the knowledge that the children have gained through active exploration will also be fed back to us adults. [3] It is hoped that more people can use their actions to bring a positive impact on climate changeJiupai News: Can you share with you the impact of climate change on biodiversity with stories from your own experience?Chang Yan: Actually, we have been observing nature for so many years, and we must have encountered extreme weather changes. For example, when we carry out the "Small Citizen Science Survey", we always conduct the survey on a fixed date at the beginning of each month, and in the winter, we will inevitably encounter severe cold weather. We were also a little worried that the children would not want to go because of the severe cold and strong winds, but the task of "Little Citizen Science Survey" also touched the children to have a sense of responsibility, if we did not have this month's survey, our record would be incomplete, and we would not be able to summarize the relationship between climate change and species. In the process of observation, children will find that with the change of seasons, no matter which season will have a vibrant side, such as winter, even in such a cold climate, plants have withered, insects rarely appear, but there are still many active creatures, they may see winter migratory birds, so as to feel the beauty of nature. Of course, we have also found waterfowl frozen to death near lakes in extremely cold weather, such as the coot, so we have found that climate change does have some impact on species. We will also take this opportunity to educate our children about climate change, telling them that many human activities will affect the climate, and we should start from ourselves and carry out some green and low-carbon behaviors in our families to mitigate the impact of human actions on the climate. 
The Little Feet team observed the habitat and survival of waterfowl in the cold winter at Jinhu Milky Way. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Jiupai News: What do you think education means to climate change, and how can you guide and encourage children to participate in climate action?Chang Yan: Actually, we used to call it nature education or environmental education, but after attending the climate change education conference this year, I was thinking that in fact, all nature education and environmental education are inseparable from climate change education. Because of our activities, even if it is a daily outing, we will definitely look at the weather before going out. The activities of organisms are different in different climates. I also hope that they can experience the impact of our human activities on climate change from this change, and I hope that they can lead their families and people around them in their own lives to bring positive impacts on climate change with actions, rather than causing extreme climate changes. Jiupai News: You are a physics teacher, how do you combine the characteristics of the subject to carry out climate change education?Chang Yan: Physics is the most important thing in life and applied to society, and physics teaching also includes a lot of climate change education. For example, when we talked about the change of the state of matter a few days ago, we talked about the heat island effect, which has a very direct relationship with climate. I will share a lot of the ** photographed in the activity with the students, so that they can experience the impact of the heat island effect on human beings through the process of these ** activities, and compare the better places that Dongying City has done in wetland restoration and other environmental aspects. Jiupai News: How do you feel about participating in this forum?Chang Yan: Participating in this forum gave me a comprehensive overview of our previous activities, and I think that our previous activities have infiltrated climate change education, but we may not have realized the importance of this kind of education at the time of the event, and only carried out activities and took actions, but did not extend them, and did not summarize a theoretical level. Therefore, I think that in the future activities, climate change education will be more obvious and intuitive, and more children will be guided to think about what they can do for climate change and the environment, what problems they can solve, and make them realize that their actions can bring about change. Everyone does their best and does more low-carbon actions, which will have a very huge and intuitive impact on the climate, so I also want to take advantage of this climate change education conference to advocate more green and low-carbon behaviors in our families. Nine News.
Reporter: Dai Mengying.
Editor: Liu Meng, Wu Feifei.