Can Awe Help Students Cope With Climate Change?

On occasion, we’ve got the uncommon fortune to expertise transformational moments that change how we see ourselves and the world round us. This was the case for me in early 2023. 

The Caribbean is gorgeous and one of the fascinating areas of the world. But it’s disproportionately susceptible to pure disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes which have been exasperated by the impacts of local weather change. As a Nationwide Geographic–licensed educator and explorer specializing in oceanography and local weather science, my fieldwork takes me throughout the Caribbean to assist restore marine habitats and coastal resilience. Research finds that the psychological well being of youngsters within the Caribbean can be disproportionately susceptible to the impacts of local weather change.

When time permits, I make it a degree to go to native colleges to assist college students perceive the significance of defending our ocean and the science behind local weather change. Over the course of that yr, I had gotten to know one group of ninth-grade college students on the island of Jamaica fairly properly. One morning throughout our class, an intense hurricane was brewing within the Atlantic Ocean, and, for the primary time, I witnessed childhood trauma. Their webcams have been principally turned off, which was uncommon; those that saved them on have been visibly despondent.

With some fast pondering, I made a decision to forgo my lecture on rising sea ranges, which included pictures of floods and decimated coastlines. As an alternative, I confirmed college students underwater footage of the coral restoration work my staff and I not too long ago accomplished off the north coast of Jamaica. I additionally shared quick video clips of the plush landscapes surrounding the island’s beloved Blue Mountain vary. After the movies, I shared a number of affirmations and defined how I take advantage of each day affirmations to assist conquer my concern of swimming within the ocean’s deep blue waters and mountain climbing up steep mountain trails. 


What occurred subsequent was miraculous. I noticed college students’ eyes start to lighten as their cameras turned on. Their faces softened as they sat transfixed, watching the video. They cheered with amazement as they watched an area cliff diver carry out a backward triple somersault earlier than plunging right into a hidden waterfall. After the video, we mentioned our human connection to the ocean and pure landscapes.

Later that night, I mirrored on how the iridescent blue ocean scenes and wealthy landscapes appeared to awaken their senses and create in them a way of calm and ease. Astonished by what I had witnessed, I combed the web for phrases to assist describe my pupil’s transformational expertise. That’s how I stumbled upon the idea of awe!

The presence of one thing huge

“The epiphany of awe is that its expertise connects our particular person selves with the huge forces of life,” writes psychologist and GGSC cofounder Dacher Keltner in his newest e-book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. “In awe we perceive we’re a part of many issues which are a lot bigger than the self.”

He defines awe because the “feeling or an emotion of being within the presence of one thing huge and mysterious that transcends your present understanding of the world.” Keltner additional explains that the vastness we understand challenges our present information and compels us to hunt a higher understanding of phenomena. Awe attracts our consideration away from the self and turns our consideration to different phenomena and to that which is bigger than life. If that isn’t sufficient, analysis finds that awe improves our well-being and psychological well being within the face of uncertainties. Awe helps us to find meaning and a purpose in life.

With just some quick video clips and the chance to share what I discover so fascinating in regards to the ocean and different pure landscapes, I used to be astonished to see how impressed my college students have been to study extra about conservation. Their faces have been aglow as they requested a barrage of questions and shared their ideas with one another. One pupil expressed how he felt uplifted and powerful when he noticed the towering Blue Mountains. One other shared that she had been feeling depressed these days, and the video “made me really feel like I could make a distinction in my group by studying to do restoration work, too!”

Motivated by my college students’ expertise, I spent most of 2023 immersed in Dacher Keltner’s analysis on the science of awe, and I additionally took the Higher Good Science Heart’s course Awe in Education: Creating Learning Environments That Inspire, Motivate, and Heal.

With beneficiant funding from the Nationwide Geographic Society, my staff and I curated extra participating actions integrating multimedia content material from my exploration fieldwork. These actions have been designed to encourage awe and therapeutic areas to assist counter the stress, anxieties, and trauma that susceptible college students typically face as a consequence of local weather impacts. These trauma-informed and culturally responsive actions shift the main target away from pure disasters and catastrophes, which are sometimes overemphasized in local weather training, and assist college students perceive their connection to the huge and wondrous world round them.

By cautious statement and pupil suggestions, I discovered that when positioned in a protected, nurturing atmosphere and engaged in significant, expressive, and guided actions, a lot of the kids who participated within the workout routines said that they have been capable of expertise awe. Listed here are two favorites.

1. Awe-inspiring affirmation apply

The “Awe-Inspiring Affirmation” practice helps foster resilience by cultivating inside voices of happiness. To assist foster deep connections to nature and common belonging, college students view pictures and movies of huge and awe-inspiring landscapes and hearken to motivational speeches, music, poetry, and performing arts that exude transformation.

After this, college students create their very own inspiring affirmations (written or spoken optimistic phrases) to lift their awe vibrations and affirm their self-worth. Once we continuously have interaction in optimistic self-talk, we open up a brand new approach of believing in ourselves and what we will accomplish. On this apply, awe-inspiring pure landscapes encourage college students to write down private affirmations that convey out the most effective of human functionality and goodness. 

To construct deeper connections with my college students, I share with them how I take advantage of affirmations to assist me keep centered on optimistic outcomes and engaging in private objectives. I then give college students a listing of affirmations that different college students created from earlier lessons. After reviewing the checklist, I ask them first to observe an awe-inspiring video after which take a quick second to mirror on how affirmations is likely to be useful of their lives. Working alone or with companions, college students craft their very own affirmations and share them with the category to encourage one another. 

Incorporating actions that encourage awe and affirmations within the classroom is a superb solution to foster deeper connections along with your college students and promote a optimistic classroom tradition. Affirmations have been discovered to assist college students succeed and set a optimistic tone for the day. Like adults, younger individuals additionally want time to mirror on what’s significant and expertise moments that encourage awe. By giving college students alternatives to floor themselves in optimistic affirmations, we may also help them discover objective and obtain their objectives. Most significantly, creating house for reflection may also help college students decelerate and discover consolation throughout instances of uncertainty.

2. Looking for connection to vastness

Research finds that reflecting on vastness may also help negate college students’ stress and assist them achieve a brand new perspective on life. On this apply, college students watch a video in regards to the vastness of the universe and are invited to share the way it made them really feel about their existence and interconnection with all dwelling issues. This practice can be modified by integrating an awe-inspiring video and related questions for a particular lesson or curriculum exercise.

For my college students, I changed the urged video with drone footage I captured whereas exploring the huge landscapes of Dominica, the Caribbean’s “Nature Island.” College students have been captivated by its magnificence. Many had by no means traveled to different Caribbean islands and have been awestruck to see Dominica’s resilience within the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017. The apply helped my college students remember that they’re linked to one thing bigger than the concerns and stress they typically really feel.

Within the face of a global mental health crisis and unprecedented local weather change impacts all over the world, we have to be keen to consistently adapt and refine our instructional practices to satisfy the evolving emotional wants of our college students. By doing so, we will supply college students moments to pause, construct emotional resilience, and be impressed by the awe and great thing about the world round them. I hope all kids will know they’re an intricate a part of an unlimited universe of prospects.