Fridays For Future! After The Strike How Do You Take The Conversations Back Into The Classrooms?
As a response to the current climate crisis, I thought I would republish this article on my personal blog as well. Lifestyle choices, understanding consequences, sustainable development, becoming soluntionaries, and environmental advocacy, all need to be taught at schools. NOW!
Millions of students around the world gathered on the 21st and the 27th of September to join Greta Thunberg and other climate activists to voice their anger and demand action to prevent further global warming and climate change. While students are taking to the streets, we believe educators have a role to play in their classrooms. These innovations from our Spotlight on Sustainability are just some of the resources that can make a difference!
The School Strike for Climate, also known as Fridays For Future, is a global movement of school students who have been leaving their classrooms on Fridays for demonstrations to demand action that could prevent further global warming and climate change. The demands include the abandonment of fossil energy sources, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to zero, climate justice for the peoples of the world, and trust in science.
It began in August 2018 by Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, who at the recent United Nations Climate Summit warned leaders:
“If you choose to fail us we will never forgive you.”
Along with this inspiring video by Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot highlighting the need to protect, restore and use nature to tackle the climate crisis, we would like to share some educational resources from the HundrED innovators that can help educators to take the conversation back into schools and classrooms.
Through the HundrED Spotlight on Sustainability in partnership with MUSE School (CA), we highlighted 10 global innovative practices that promote sustainability education and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Suzy Cameron, Co-Founder of MUSE School (CA) shares,
“Teaching, applying and advocating sustainability in schools is crucial to the future of our children’s lives as well as the future of our planet.”
Project Everyone: World’s Largest Lesson introduces the SDGs in a meaningful and purposeful way to bring about actionable change, reaching over 130 countries and millions of children since its launch in September 2015. They produce free and creative resources for educators to teach lessons, run projects and inspire students to use their creative powers to support and take action.
Designathon Works from Amsterdam is another resource used in over 40 countries to unleash the creativity of students and educators to help them become designers and changemakers of a better world. During a Designathon workshop, participants learn to ideate, design, prototype with electronics and present their solutions aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, thus co-creating a better world.
Germany’s Go Global part of the ESD Expert Net gives learners the possibility to share their experiences and thoughts on different topics beyond national borders through a virtual school exchange program. Learner’s sustainable actions, grounded in the SDGs are shared with peers across the world, for example, on topics like school gardening, food production, waste disposal and recycling.
Talking about food waste and healthy sustainable food, Yes to Taste, No to Waste (Small Change Big Difference) is a food-focused curriculum-linked program created and designed by teachers (via a teacher panel), for teachers. The aim of the program is to raise awareness of food waste and encourage healthy and sustainable eating where students have the opportunity to ‘learn through doing’. Green Educator Course from the Green School in Bali is another initiative committed to making schools and teaching sustainable and holistic by promoting environmentalism in classrooms worldwide.
If you are looking for a well-described step by step methodology, the one followed by Eco-schools has impacted nearly 19 million children, making them the largest global sustainable schools program encouraging young people to engage in their environment by actively protecting it. Additionally, Lebanon Organisation for Green Schools (LOGS) believes that school is the natural and ideal place for children to learn, to raise environmental awareness, build sustainable local communities and nurture citizenship values. They are one of the first initiatives specialized in working with local schools to integrate environmental awareness in the Lebanese curriculum, as well as extracurricular activities.
Technology and STE(A)M education innovations are also coming through to promote sustainability education like Engineering Brightness from Colorado, United States, and Kids Can! Innovation Camp from Manila, Philippines. Engineering Brightness helps students gain confidence in engineering, electronics, and philanthropy by creating lanterns that impact a real-world problem, light poverty. Kids Can! Innovation Camp, on the other hand, provides students empathy-driven design-thinking and the use of Makerspace and ICT tools to empower students to create and design SDG solutions in the form of projects and products.
Finally, how could we forget the power of students?
With trailblazers like Greta Thunberg and Kehkashan Basu, inspiring millions of children worldwide to stand up for what is right and what is needed, we know the planet will be protected. Green Hope Foundation by Kehkashan Basu is a youth organisation working on Education for Sustainable Development, children’s rights and environmental protection by empowering young people and helping to build effective partnerships with all stakeholders of civil society.
Click on the links to read our Sustainability report and watch the selection innovation videos here! These innovations are pushing the boundaries of sustainability education and hope they inspire you to do something similar!
Originally published at https://hundred.org.
