Secondary school students discuss climate issues with experts from Risø DTU

The conference was the end of a lesson plan called Science con sensus developed by Experimentarium in cooperation with the Danish Energy Association, Energy Minds and Danish Energy Industries Federation (a part of DI).

During the first months of the year, mini conferences on climate issues had been held in the participating schools with students acting as citizens asking questions and discussing with experts – in fact not quite ‘real’ experts, but young students who acted as experts and had prepared contributions on their behalf.

Three students from Roskilde University acted as the ”alter ego” of Kirsten Halsnæs, Head of Programme and lead author of the IPCC reports. They expressed her views on climate matters and on their economic consequences, while two physics students acting as Director Henrik Bindslev told about all the available technological solutions.

After the conferences the students were going to agree on what they would advise the politicians to do in order to address the problems.

And on 3 April, the experts, their substitutes, students and teachers met for the final conference where selected students were given the opportunity to discuss their recommendations with the real experts. They were immensely committed and had many exciting ideas; it was evident that the students had learned something.

To watch the webcast with both expert speeches and debate from the conference visit the website of Climate Minds (in Danish)