Operation Climate Change provides integrated learning experiences for students in Years 5 to 10 to explore the issues of the 'footprint' of their community.
The Operations are structured learning experiences exploring Climate Change, Purchasing and Waste, Biodiversity, Transport and Air, Energy and Water. Each Operation has three missions integrated across subjects, provides critical thinking strategies and useful assessment tools to map understandings in key areas.
The students can complete the website material independently, in small groups or whole class work. At the end of a mission the students earn 'good' greenhouse balloons to use in the 'My Home' game. This reinforces the learning about greenhouse footprint issues and a certificate is gained to show parents they have the knowledge to live sustainably.
 | [top] |
Step 1. Registration and Login
The step in using the Operation Climate Change Website is to Register. There are two ways for students to participate in this website:
- As a Standalone Student
- As a Student within a Class
A Stand Alone Student is a student who is registering without a teacher or parent. This student can still participate in the website, however they will not accrue "balloons" for completing missions. They will only be able to accrue "balloons" be completing the checklists and debriefs. Stand Alone Students can register to use the website here. It can take up to 1 working day for accounts to be activated.
A Student within a class should be added by a teacher or a parent. This allows Teacher's and Parents to have access to the Learning Management System which in turn allows them to assign grades (balloons) to the each student. The Learning Management System allows teachers and parents to manage their students as a group within a class list. Teachers and parents must first Register Here and then add their students individually within their Profile. For more information on how to add students to a class list please see the following documentation:
Adding a Class NameAdding a Student to a Class
Account registrations are moderated manually for security reasons and it may take up to 1 working day for an account to be activated. If you require your account to be activated urgently, please email us at support@operationclimatechange.com.au.
You will receive an email once your account has been activated allowing you to login here.
Step 2. Checklists and Debriefs
Once a student has logged in, they will be directed to their profile where they are able to change their details such as username and password.
Within their account they are able to access the six different Operations within the Missions tab in the menu. The students are initially taken through an Introduction to Operation Climate Change instructing them on how to use the website. After they have concluded the Introduction they are directed to a Checklist. This is a Multiple Choice Checklist consisting of 10 questions is designed to help establish how much the students already know about Climate Change and also allows them to earn their first Balloons. These balloons are later used within the game, My Home, to make better choices within the home to reduce their carbon footprint and earn certificates.
After the students have completed the 10 Question checklist, they are then able to choose 1 of the three missions within the Operation Climate Change Module (please see more information below). Once they have completed a mission, the students are then required to completed a 22 question Debrief which is designed to reinforce concepts learnt through the mission they have recently completed.
Step 3. Operations and Missions
There are 6 different Operations within the Operation Climate Change Website to choose from:
- Operation Climate Change
- Operation Purchasing and Waste
- Operation Biodiveristy
- Operation Transport and Air
- Operation Energy
- Operation Water
Each Operation includes 3 Missions. The students need to complete only one of these missions in each operation and grades for completed work can be added by the teachers within their own Learning Management System Profile. These grades are then converted to Balloons which the students can then use in the My Home game.
Students must Complete Operation Climate Change before the rest of the Operations become available.
Step 4. Game
Once the students have completed the Operation, they are able to use the Balloons earnt via Checklists, Mission grades (allocated by the teachers) and Debriefs, within the My Home game. This game allows the students to make various choices within a house to reduce their carbon footprint.
 | [top] |
What is climate change?
Many scientists believe that the Earth is warming as a result of human activities. Climate change involves a steady rise in the Earth’s temperatures and more extreme weather, such as severe droughts, violent storms and more powerful cyclones.
Read more about climate change at: http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/cc.html .
To understand climate change, you need to know about the greenhouse effect. If you go to the Greenhouse Effect page on the same site you just visited: http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/greenhouse.html you will see the animation of the greenhouse effect on that web page. Click on animation at the bottom of that page.
There are many activities ahead of you to learn about climate change and your teacher will be able to help with that journey.
How is climate change related to the other operations?
It is important that you understand about climate change before you begin the other operations. Climate change paints the big picture about what is happening on our planet Earth. The first operation involves learning about climate change and introduces the idea that the other operations (Purchasing & Waste, Biodiversity, Transport & Air, Energy, Water) are all connected. Each operation (or system) interacts with every other operation (system) and this impacts on our climate system in an endless cycle. See the diagram below.
A change in one system will impact on all the others. For example:
- an increase in coal production (energy system),
- may increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (air system),
- which may cause a decease in rain in a particular region (water system),
- and this may result in the extinction of local plant and animal species (biodiversity system),
- which may mean that packaged food has to be imported (waste system),
- which could result in increased transport demands with impacts on air quality and energy requirements …
- all interacting with our climate system.
You will be exploring the inter-relationships between all of these systems and what they mean for you and your family. What a great challenge … go for it!
 | [top] |
There are three missions in Operation Purchasing and Waste. Your teacher may tell you which and how many you have to complete, but you can choose to finish them all in your free time. The missions are:
- Mission All Wrapped Up - is about the packages your family food is put into at the shop. The challenge is to create your own sustainable package for one of the foods your family buys each week.
- Mission Earth Master Chef - is about how you can create healthy meals for you and your family without creating lots of greenhouse gases.
- Mission Toys! Toys! Toys! - is about getting creative and making your own toys from recycled materials. Learn about children in other countries and what they have for toys.
 | [top] |
There are three missions in Biodiversity. If you are doing this work as part of your class work your teacher may tell you which one you have to complete. If you are doing this work out of the classroom, you can choose your own to commence. The missions are:
- Mission Web Master - great if you like making up games. Find out how we are all linked together!
- Mission Under my Feet - for those who like getting grotty, digging up things and using magnifying glasses.
- Mission Ant Antics - an expedition to find out how ants live and survive.
 | [top] |
There are three missions in Operation Transport &Air. Your teacher may tell you which and how many you have to complete, but you can choose to finish them all in your free time. The missions are:
- Hug a Tree - is about using a tree carbon calculator to work out how much carbon is stored in a tree and is especially good for kids who like maths and art.
- Bad Gas! - is about using a gas emissions calculator to work out your car's greenhouse gas emissions and is especially good for kids who like the Captain Planet cartoon, maths and art.
- Chemistry Capers- is especially good for kids who like doing experiments and playing games.
 | [top] |
Your teacher may tell you which and how many you have to complete, but you can choose to finish them all in your free time. The missions are:
- Cooking Without Gas- is about building a solar oven and is especially good for kids who like experiments and building models.
- Wind in My Hair - is about the power of the wind to do work and is especially good for kids who like science, building models and giving demonstrations.
- Cosy House- is about the how to keep your house cool in summer and warm in winter and is especially good for kids who like science and creating advertisements.
 | [top] |
There are three missions in Operation Water.
Your teacher may tell you which and how many you have to complete, but you can choose to finish all of them in your free time. The missions are:
- Turn Off - is about water at your place and is especially good for kids who like maths and computer games.
- Run Off - is about rivers and is especially good for kids who like science, mud and liquorice!
- Splash Off - is about the ocean and is especially good for kids who like art and performing.
 | [top] |
In order to gain the best experience from the Operation Climate Change Website, we recommend using one of the following browsers and ensure that your Flash Player is the most recent version (version 10):
Internet Explorer 8+
Mozilla Firefox 3+
Apple Safari 3+
FlashPlayer 10
Please ensure that cookies and javascript option is also enabled.
Resolved Issue: Flash Module Issues with Internet Explorer 8 |
We are aware that some Flash 10 components of the site became unavailable if viewing www.Operationclimatechange.com.au within the new Internet Explorer 8 browser. Recent patches have rectified this issue and all Flash 10 modules should work correctly with Internet Explorer 8. However, if you do still experience issues please let us know via email: support@operationclimatechange.com.au and use the following Firefox Browser in the meantime or refer to solution number 2.
1. Firefox Browser. It is free from security and compatibility issues and can be downloaded for free, here:
http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/
2. If you are required to use Internet Explorer 8 please click the "Compatibility View Icon" beside the Address Bar within the IE8 Broswer when you experience issues with view flash 10 content on the Operation Climate Change Website (please see the image below). This will change the browser to IE7 Compatibility mode which allows you to view Flash 10 Content.
