Chasing the Curlew’s call was created by UCC as part of the TRANSLATE Project and follows Lou and her grandfather as they search for the disappearing Curlew near their home in County Kerry. The story interconnects generations of Lou’s family with generations of the curlew: a bird that has been woven into Ireland’s cultural memory for many years. The story explores how shifts in weather patterns are impacting the bird’s survival, urging readers to care about climate change and feel inspired to help.
In the learning trail below, you will find the full set of downloadable resources for teaching this work in the classroom, including the graphic novel, the accompanying animation and teacher packs for primary and secondary schools. These packs include lesson plans and short surveys, which play an important role in helping us understand how engaging and effective the materials are for students.
Open Secondary School Teacher Pack PDF
Open Chasing the Curlew graphic novel
Open Primary School survey form
Open Secondary School survey form
Climate Storylines
The TRANSLATE project is a Met Éireann lead initiative to develop standardised future climate information and services for Ireland. A key part of this is communicating the information in a way that people across society can clearly understand. ‘Climate storylines’, like the Curlew novel described here, are one of the approaches used within TRANSLATE to support this.
A climate storyline is a simple story about how climate change could affect people, places, or systems in the future. It explains what might happen, why it happens and what the effects could be. They are not a replacement for scientific data but a way of translating climate knowledge from abstract data into meaningful, imaginable futures tailored to particular audiences – in this case 8 to 16 year olds.
Storytelling Workshops
