A guide to our free online resources, designed for classroom environments to provide original, proven and fun lessons that support our Goal of speeding up carbon drawdown by helping the inactive become active.

See Through Education is a collection of free-to-use online teaching resources, developed with communication and teaching experts, tried and tested many times over in classroom situations.

These resources can be used with various age groups, and in a variety of environments. They’re all guaranteed to generate thought-provoking, enjoyable, interactive sessions, that will leave participants better informed, and ready to learn more. They are:

See Through Education: Learning for Real

Three x 20min documentaries on the topic of the education benefits of giving children of all ages real responsibility, and dealing with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.

These award-winning films, which have been licensed by universities and pedagogical institutions around the world for teacher training, are all available for free.

They can be screened individually, as single classroom lessons, or together, in a 2-hour interactive screening with audiences of children, parents and teachers.

See Through News Superhero & Supervillain Drawing Competition

Pick a Briefing Card with details of your super, then draw your image of them based on the information. Often deployed in primary schools or as a kids activity at public events, this fun drawing challenge also has a serious purpose.

All 8 superheroes have superpowers that involve rational, fact-based debate. All 8 supervillains have superpowers that involve rhetorical bluster. An engaging way to provide children of all ages with the tools to spot media manipulation and appreciate evidence-based argument.

See Through Education Languages Speech

In many parts of the world, speaking multiple languages is taken for granted. In others – particularly the Anglosphere – learning a foreign language is seen as hard, and hard work, and people believe themselves to be ‘bad’ at learning languages.

This inspirational 15min speech proves languages can be fun, even for 1,000 British teenagers first thing in the morning, who will also go home knowing more about effective climate action than their teachers and parents.

If you’d like to know more, or enquire about inviting a See Through News volunteer to deliver one of these projects at your school, company, institution, organisation, conference or event, email:

education@seethroughnews.org

Here’s an example of a popular programme for evening events, the Learning for Real screening.

So far it has usually been delivered by the films’ director (and See Through News founder) Robert Stern. Robert, or other See Through News volunteers can present the evening screening, but this is an open source free resource, so anyone is welcome to use it.

Here’s a rough outline and sample script.

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[Suggested format: 2-hour session, perfect for parent-teacher association evenings, teacher training classes, but actually most rewarding with mixed audiences of children, teachers and parents.]

The presenter starts by asking this simple question:

What do 5-year-old Norwegians, 10-year-old Hungarians and 15-year-old British have in common?

Three apparently diverse stories turn out to share a powerful educational message; kids not only know the difference between pretend and real responsibility, but the latter can work miracles.

See Through Education’s Learning for Real, is now an open source See Through News project to stimulate public discussion about what education is for, how we learn, and how we should teach.

These three apparently diverse films about 5-year-olds climbing mountains in Arctic Norway, 10-year-olds running a railway in Hungary, and 14-year-olds conserving critically-endangered orchids in rural England, explore what it really means to teach and be taught.

These films have been licensed for use as teaching materials in higher education courses around the world.

The documentaries were originally made by See Through News Gift Horse Distributor Robert Stern for Litmus Films.

See Through News is pleased to offer these three films for free, as part of our Goal of Speeding Up Carbon Drawdown by Helping the Inactive Become Active.

Every screening leaves as much time for audience discussion as for the films. The composition of the audience means no two screenings are the same, but they’re always stimulating and fun.

But here’s the challenge – what links the three 20-minute documentaries we’re about to see?

Here’s the first film…

Arctic Outdoor Preschool

[Here’s a taster (full film available on the See Through News YouTube channel See Through Education playlist)]

[Leave a few minutes for Q&A, encouraging the audience to talk to each other, not just via the presenter, and invite children to contribute too for their thoughts on the philosophy and practice exemplified by the Tussenladen Outdoor Preschool.

Inter-audience dialogue usually comes quite naturally, and it’s an early opportunity to elicit the different perspectives of teachers, parents and children.

After 5-10 minutes, move on to the next film, with a short introduction saying we’re now moving south across Europe to Hungary, and up a few years to 10-14 year olds.]

The Budapest Children’s Railway

Here’s the taster for The Budapest Children’s Railway, full film available on the STN YouTube channel.

[Some more Q&A, and this is usually a good time for a coffee break, and more informal conversation and interaction.

After the break, feed back some of the ‘offline’ comments you may picked up during the break, and encourage some responses.

It’s now time for the final of the three films.

Sir’s Happy Little Greenhouse World

We move to rural Somerset, and up a few years to 14-15 year olds. Here’s the taster, full film on the YouTube channel Playlist.

[After this film, the audience usually needs no encouragement to seek the connecting theme of real responsibility, but do elicit that if necessary.

Other free documentary resources

Sustainability

Unravelling the Vikings

A sustainability story using oral history to solve an ancient mystery, to teach us how to live within our means.

Ben Law’s Woodland Year

A year following Britain’s greatest living woodsman, whose sustainable lifestyle makes living within your means look like and aspiration, rather than a sacrifice.

How To Live Without Plastic

Our media literacy, multi-generational project to

Feel free to share this article, and the resources, as widely as you like!

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If you’d like to know more about organising a screening, email: education@seethroughnews.org

To find out more about our goal and methodology, visit www.seethroughnews.org, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.