North East Valley Normal School teacher Theresa Bowen presented her experience learning about the carbon neutral government programme with her peers at the teachers’ Enviroschools hui at Jubilee Park yesterday.
She said the resources provided by the programme were incredibly useful.
The resources included data on how much carbon each individual school produced, and how they produced it.
She said she often had pupils asking her questions about climate change that she would not have the answers to.
"We’re not scientists.
"We don’t know enough to develop that framework.
"What we have been panicking about is what you teach kids at what age about climate change."
She said the new tools provided by the government condensed teaching about climate change into four useful lessons, which were easy for teachers to adapt into the curriculum.
Part of the teaching process also included collecting data from pupils which would be submitted to the Ministry of Education to get an even better idea of schools’ carbon emissions, Ms Bowen said.
At the hui, teachers also heard from experts including Organics Unearthed educator Michelle Ritchie.
