Extinction Rebellion Crossword

Introduction

Extinction Rebellion is a group dedicated to saving life as we know it. Their website, from which the video above was take can be found here.

The sheet, pictured right, uses words drawn from the video. Notice that the clues are printed on the back (it is possible to print the sheet with no clues at all). The idea is to divide students into groups of 3-4 and have them use a set of strips to complete the crossword. This actually make the crossword more difficult than usual because clues can not be read together and need to be dealt with randomly. The words used are as follows: biodiversity, breaking, climate, culture, demand, emergency, extinction, extreme, fail, flood, mass, migration, nature, neutral, shortage, wildfire

Suggested Approach

Give each student a sheet and have them divide into groups of 3-4. The first task is to answer the three questions. April 22nd is Earth Day. Dinosaurs and dodos are no longer with us and Americans rebelled against the British in 1776. I often tell my students that a successful rebellion is called a revolution.

Next have the students watch the video and afterwards have a one minute brainstorm and write any words they can recall on the board. Then have the students go through the crossword strips. With large classes either use one set of strips for each group or select students randomly one at a time and have them come to the front and read a strip to the whole class.

After going through the strips if there are any blanks in the crossword repeat the process. Show the video and brainstorm for more words. Keep going until the crossword is complete.

NOTES:

Before playing the video for the first time I usually tell students that the video has no dialogue only text. Unfortunately (or not?) there is a spelling mistake in the video! Biodiversity is misspelt as biodiverity. You'll need to decide how deal with this. The list of clues on the back of the sheet can be used in a pair review some weeks afterwards. One student can define all the across words while their partner checks their definitions by using the clues. Then they reverse rolls using the down words.

If you can think of any better clues for any of the words please let me know.