Carbon+Control+Website

http://www.carboncontrol.org.uk/default.aspa

__Description__ Climate change is one of the greatest problems facing the world, with the potential to cause massive environmental and economic damage unless something is done. This website is aimed at raising awareness among school children that they too can reduce their carbon emissions, and can play their part in heading off the threat of climate change. Even though environmental issues have been prominent in the media recently, the focus has mainly been on what adults can do and what adults should be responsible for by being more energy efficient in the home and when they travel. This website was one of the first to recognize that children also have a role to play - both as influencers on their parents' decisions and in how they live their own lives. The Carbon Control project, saw school children aged 7 to 14 working together to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions in the home. The main point of the site was to get students to generate and post ideas on how to combat pollution with the most popular idea (as voted by other users of the site) winning a "green makeover" for their school from a team of specialists and the runners up winning environmentally-based school trips for their classes.

__Insights__
 * The website is bright, playful, cheerful and easy to navigate with friendly graphics and a dynamic interface which is appealing to children
 * The main function of the site that creates a community especially for children to share their ideas and engage in discussion with other children from across the world is really interesting and it's something that I don't think has been explored enough. Most community-based websites out there right now are geared towards adults even though children use computers just as much, if not more. Children also have a lot of questions and their insights and ideas could be very helpful, especially when it comes to world problems such as global warming.
 * The children sign up, create a login, and then are free to start posting their ideas and commenting on other thoughts made by their peers. Below the navigation are three sections: "popular projects", "latest projects" and "all projects" where the ideas have been organized in three different ways to allow for ease of browsing. The ideas are also categorized as relating to either "travel", "home" or "food" and can also be searched through in this way.
 * Another function of the site is a tool called the "Carbonator" where children can go to calculate their emissions from traveling, food, and at home, This is a nice way of putting things into perspective for a child by giving them tangible things that they can relate to in their everyday life. It also breaks the information down into bite-sized chunks so the information is easy to digest and understand, but not in such a way that it talks down to the child. By making the info easy to learn and relate it to life, the child is more likely to remember it and tell other children or their parents about it.
 * There is also a section of the site that parents and teachers can go to that contains various activities, tips, advice and information that will help them to inform children about pollution and climate change.