Driving Question:

Climatic refugees the Cypriots: A fictional

scenario or a forthcoming reality?

Developed by PROFILES Biology Group (2013), in collaboration with the Biology unit of the Cyprus Ministry of Education
and Culture: Andreas Hadjichambis, Demetra Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, Dorita Demetriou, Baytelman Andreani, Korina Skouridou
PROFILES Working Group Cyprus University of Technology: Dr. Eleni A. Kyza, Yiannis Georgiou

General Information

Stage 1: Motivating students-Socio-scientific scenario

Subject: Biology / Natural

Sciences

Extreme weather phenomena appear all over the world. Devastating typhoon in the Philippines...
Unprecedented drought in Africa ... The cyclone Cleopatra hits Sardinia... Deadly storm in Rhodes

Grade: 9

More than 30 million people worldwide were climate refugees last year due to environmental disasters
and extreme weather phenomena. Predictions for the future are even worst. According to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), more than 200 million climate refugees will search
for a new location to settle until 2050, since their land would either have been covered by the water or
staying in these locations will no longer be feasible. Today most climate refugees come from Asia and
Africa.
What has changed in the world and we has caused all these phenomena? Scientists believe that the
carbon dioxide and the global warming have play crucial role in climate change and environmental
disasters.
Herodotus and Nephele listening for climate refugees, are wondering
whether their classmate Ali, from Somalia, is one of the climatic
refugees, who were forced to flee their homeland. They are
concerned regarding the causes that may have forced Ali and his
family to leave their homeland and migrate. They are concerned on
how extreme climatic phenomena occurring nowadays on our planet,
could affect Cyprus. Could a new tragedy, an environmental crisis,
force us to become once again refugeesthis time climatic refugees?
Could we prevent such an environmental crisis?

Relevance to curriculum:
Climatic changes
Duration: 3 lessons x 80
Kind of activity: Inquiry-based
activities, group discussions and
discussions, whole-class
discussions, debates
Overall objectives /
Competencies: Basic scientific
knowledge about the carbon
cycle, reflective scientific inquiry,
evidence-based reasoning,
decision-making skills,
communication and working in
group skills, ICT skills

You are asked to help Herodotus and Nephele to answer these questions. You are asked to take
an evidence-based stance to the general question: Climatic refugees the Cypriots: A fictional scenario or a forthcoming reality?

Stage 2: Inquiry
During first half of their inquiry-based interrogation, the students investigate a variety of sources (short
texts, tables, graphics, video) to gain information related to the phenomenon
under investigation, such as: What is carbon, where is it and how does carbon circulates on Earth, why
is there much more carbon of dioxide in the atmosphere nowadays rather than
before. Through these sources, students collect all the information necessary to conceptualize and
understand the carbon cycle.
During the second half of their inquiry-based investigation, students collect data with the aim to
understand how human activities can disrupt the carbon cycle as well as to contribute to the increase of
the carbon dioxide, which is related to the phenomenon of climate change.

Stage 3: Decision-making
During the stage of decision-making students are asked to synthesize the data they have collected in combination with new
information given to them about climate change in Cyprus, through interview with researchers of the Institute of Cyprus in order to:
(a) Demonstrate whether Cypriots could become climate refugees in the near future and (b) Report on what they could do to
prevent such a potential environmental crisis.

Project funded within the EC FP7 Programme: 5.2.2.1 SiS-2010-2.2.1

Grant Agreement No.:266589
Supporting and coordinating actions on innovative methods in science education: teacher training
on inquiry based teaching methods on a large scale in Europe