At Inquiry Hub Secondary we had the privilege of getting Richard Campbell to present to us. He did 4 topical presentation, chosen from a list of 20 by our students, as well as an AMA – Ask Me Anything session. Here was the day’s schedule:
9:10am-9:40am
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Overpopulation & Food
Can we make enough food to feed the world population? What’s the maximum number of people the world can feed?
9:45am-10:05am
20 minutes
Student Presentation: Maiya – How to train a dog
10:10am-10:40am
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Climate Change & Alternative Energy
Are solar power and electric cars the answer to climate change?
10:45am-11:05am
20 minutes
BREAK
11:10am-11:20am
10 minutes
Student Performance: Koen – Piano
11:25am-11:55am
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Future of the Internet
How will the internet evolve and how will that impact us?
12:00pm-12:10pm
10 minutes
Student Presentation: Agata – LARP Announcement
12:10pm-1:00pm
50 minutes
LUNCH & Student Performance: Colin – Bagpipes
1:05pm-1:35pm
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Jobs of the Future
With technology becoming involved in more and more jobs, how will jobs evolve? How will the workforce be affected? What jobs will be eliminated?
1:40pm-1:50pm
10 minutes
Student Performance: Mari – Singing “Part of Your World” in Japanese
Student Performance: Maiya – Singing & Piano “Try Everything”
1:55pm-2:15pm
20 minutes
Student Presentation: Jazmine – Designing and Building a Model of a House
2:20pm-2:50pm
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Ask Me Anything!
What questions do you still have? Do you have questions about topics not covered today?
2:55pm-3:10pm
15 minutes
Debrief and Feedback
I’ve written a few thoughts on the future here on my Daily-Ink, but when I look back at these I see some dystopian views, and conversations about how we won’t see time travel and we won’t holiday on Mars any time soon. Yesterday I got to hear a lot of promise about the future ahead, and it was really refreshing.
Yes, the population of the world is growing, but that growth has slowed and the global population will likely peak at less than 11 billion. Advances in food production will continue and we will be able to feed the world.
Yes, energy production is a problem, but currently the two cheapest ways to produce energy are wind and solar, and their financial viability will make them more desirable. Also while fusion reactors are decades away, small modular nuclear fission reactors are an amazing technology far safer than current nuclear reactors. So the future of energy production holds a lot of promise.
Yes, climate change is one of the biggest concerns today, but in the coming decades we won’t just have the technology to reduce carbon emissions, but in the process we will develop the technology to the point that the byproducts of this process will be economically desirable. Richard posed the challenging question of how low do we take the carbon levels because if they are too low, that could create weather issues with more dangerous storms and shorter growing seasons… the problem won’t be too much CO2, but rather how much is too little?
It was so fascinating to have a futurist come to the the school and share with our students (and adults) the promise of a better future. I think that we often get the message that there is nothing but doom and gloom ahead. Having someone share a big picture view of a future that holds promise, new kinds of jobs, and exciting advances, was absolutely refreshing.
