This video shows the people of Bhutan working to prevent flooding from an outburst of a glacial lake in the country's Lunana region.
This video is 10:41 mins
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»Grade Level
Regional Focus
Online Readiness
Topics
Climate Literacy
This Video builds on the following concepts of Climate Literacy.
Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- Highly recommend for classroom use.
- This video is a good length to interject into a variety of lessons.
- It does not include a teacher's guide, but background information about this project is easily obtainable through a web search and the supporting science can be found in a quality high school or college textbook.
- It might be helpful for students to review where this area is in the world (although there is a map shown briefly of the region).
About the Content
- This video provides the geologic and climate context for the issue of glacial lake outburst.
- It tells a story about a community and its actions to adapt to climate change in mountainous Bhutan.
- This is a compelling and memorable video about a community coming together to solve a challenge and protect its future.
- It is a great video to show mitigation efforts in action and the hard work that goes into it.
- This video emphasizes how the mitigation efforts create jobs. It is important to note that this is because the government is taking advantage of opportunities from a bad situation - not that climate change is good for the economy.
- Comments from expert scientist:
Scientific strengths: Describes potential hazards associated with outburst floods from glacial lakes. Highlights how community/government action was mitigating the hazard. Provides an vivid example of a local climate change impact.
Suggestions: The title is misleading, as tsunamis are very different physical phenomena. It would be necessary for educators to clarify this difference and explain why the producers chose to use this terminology.
About the Pedagogy
- This video could be used in the beginning of a unit on climate science or at a point in a climate unit when mitigation is discussed.
- The video does not follow up with an update on the effectiveness of this project, and it is suggested that the user of this video research this topic before using the video since students will have questions related to the effectiveness of this project. More information on the project can be found here: https://www.thegef.org/project/reducing-climate-change-induced-risks-and-vulnerabilities-glacial-lake-outbursts-punakha.
- It does not have a teacher's guide.
- The video was created in 2010, and an update is warranted; however this should not be a deterring factor as it is still very relevant today.
- This video shows cultural diversity and establishes the fact that climate change is not just a US issue.
- This is a great resource, but would be best used with other material describing glaciers and glacier change. This recent CNBC piece provides useful background: https://www.cnbc.com/cop26-the-growing-climate-risk-of-glacial-lake-outburst-floods/
Technical Details/Ease of Use
- This is a YouTube video, which may not be accessible at all schools.
- It is also advised to skip the ads at the beginning.