To protect fragile ecosystems and to build sustainable communities that are resilient to climate change, a climate-literate citizenry is essential. It is necessary to raise the awareness and the knowledge about essential principles and fundamental concepts that individuals should understand about Earth’s climate system. Such understanding improves our ability to make decisions that have impacts on climate change and to take precautionary steps in our lives that will help to reduce our ecological footprint. Climate Literacy is an understanding of one’s influence on climate and climate’s influence on oneself and on society. A climate-literate person: • understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system, • knows how to assess scientifically credible information about climate, • communicates about climate and climate change in a meaningful way, and • is able to make informed and responsible decisions with regard to actions that may affect climate. The overall objectives of this project are twofold, • on one hand to raise the level of Climate Literacy through teaching and learning materials that are suitable to be horizontally introduced in schools and in adult and vocational education and empower people to become aware of climate implicatications • and on the other to develop new learning strategies and techniques to educate interetsed citizens effectively towards environmental sustainability and a climate relevant lifestyle This proposal plans to develop a social ICT platform that allows European citizens to be educated about climate, encouraging them to engage in communities related to practices reducing their ecological footprint. This platform will have a pedagogical character based on state of the art methodologies of education, building upon latest developments in the field of adult training and e-learning, namely the project-based learning approach and authentic learning opportunities. This online learning platform will be developed on top of “Climate Literacy ”, an application that makes citizens aware of their ecological behaviour by means of social comparisons with their friends and neighbours. Users will learn and be educated on Climate Literacy and on other ecological aspects, by actually using the platform in their everyday life. Our proposal aims to motivate people to acquire more environmental-friendly behaviours. Overall, this proposal aims to investigate a radical new way of learning, based on modern methodologies and innovative pedagogical approaches, by using ICT and online social media, focusing on the crucial global issue of climate protection and reduction of green house gasses. The projct complises a multi-disciplinary consortium, namely: Flanders Technology International (NL), operating Technopolis®, the Flemish science center, which reaches approx. 300.000 visitors per year, EXPLORADOME (FR), a science centre creating bridges between research and citizens, CARDET Centre for the Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology (CY), an independent research and development organization, WIN Science Initiative Lower Austria (AT) with experience in the design of vocational eduction measures and of ICT communication in virtual environments, INTEGRA Institute for Development of Human Potentials (SI), specialised in social competences and in designing teaching and learning materials, Skåne Energy Agency (SE), SARGA, the Aragonese Society of Agro-Environmental Management (ES), DMSZSZ Transdanubian Association of Farm Advisors (HU). This consortium has a combined network of more than 2000 organizations and experts related to the environmental themes, to whom it will regularly disseminate the press releases, newsletters and information about the project outcomes. It is planned that at least 20000 persons will benefit indirectly from or will be target of the activities organised by the project. All partners of the consortium have a genuine interest to have a new attractive subject for educational offers that they cn incorporate into their mainstream programmes. They plan to offer new measures dedicated to this subject and will include the Climate Literacy curriculum in their educational workshops, design course modules for teachers in secondary schools to enable them to transfer Climate Literacy into their teaching activites, organise adult learning and education activities on Climate Literacy, and organise seminars or workshops for forest workers and for agricultural consultants. This project will contribute towards achieving the key targets of Europe related to climate and energy. Educating citizens about rational energy consumption could help EU to fulfil its climate/energy targets, especially those of the climate and energy policy framework for 2030 of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. .
To protect fragile ecosystems and to build sustainable communities that are resilient to climate change, a climate-literate citizenry is essential. It is necessary to raise awareness of and knowledge about the essential principles and fundamental concepts that underlie Earth’s climate system. Such understanding improves our ability to make decisions that have a positive impact on climate change, and to take precautionary steps in our lives that will help to reduce our ecological footprint. “Climate literacy” is an understanding of one’s influence on climate and climate’s influence on oneself and on society. A climate-literate person: • understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system, • knows how to assess scientifically credible information about climate, • communicates about climate and climate change in a meaningful way, and • is able to make informed and responsible decisions with regard to actions that may affect climate. The overall objectives of this Project were twofold: • to raise the level of Climate Literacy through teaching and learning materials that are suitable to be horizontally introduced in schools and empower people to become aware of climate implications • to develop new learning strategies and techniques to educate interested citizens effectively towards environmental sustainability and a climate relevant lifestyle The Project comprised a multi-disciplinary consortium, namely: - Flanders Technology International (BE), operating Technopolis®, the Flemish science center, which reaches approx. 300.000 visitors per year, - EXPLORADOME (FR), a science centre creating bridges between research and citizens, - CARDET Centre for the Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology (CY), an independent research and development organization, - WIN Science Initiative Lower Austria (AT), an organisation with experience in the design of vocational eduction measures and of ICT communication in virtual environments, - INTEGRA Institute for Development of Human Potentials (SI), specialised in social competences and in designing teaching and learning materials, - Skåne Energy Agency (SE), - SARGA, the Aragonese Society of Agro-Environmental Management (ES), - DMSZSZ, the Transdanubian Association of Farm Advisors (HU). After an extensive Framework Analysis / Needs Assessment, we developed an Online Learning Platform that allows European citizens to be educated about climate from the comfort of their own home, and encourages them to reduce their ecological footprint. At its core it consists of eight self-study Modules on a variety of topics related to climate change: • Introduction to climate change • The ecological footprint • Sustainable mobility • Housing • Household energy • Food and waste • Shopping • Promoting Climate Literacy Each of the Modules combines theoretical background information with a more applied approach, including both practical tips and the reasons why they work. All Modules are self-contained, and can be studied either as a whole or individually in any order, depending on interest, time available, ... They require no previous knowledge, while still tackling all topics thoroughly. At the end of each module, a short quiz allows for self-testing. Accompanying this Online Learning Platform is a “Climate Literacy” app, consisting of 8 short and fast quizzes centered around the same themes as the Modules. Through ten simple but well-chosen questions, the App not only makes citizens aware of their ecological behavior, but also motivates them to make better choices by showing them feasible alternatives. Thus, interest in the topic is garnered and used to direct citizens to the website and the online course, further improving accessibility of the Modules. The third and final component of the Platform, then, are the Teaching Resources. To support teachers in transferring the knowledge they gained from the Modules to their students, 64 exercises were developed, covering a broad range of subjects (biology, social sciences, languages, …) and exercise types (discussion exercises, experiments, crosswords, …) and allowing the Modules to be introduced horizontally into secondary, vocational, and adult education. For all partners, the Climate Literacy Project and its outcomes provided a new attractive subject for educational offers that they have incorporated into their mainstream programs. For example, the Climate Literacy Outputs were included in educational workshops, adult learning and education activities on Climate Literacy, and seminars and workshops for forest workers and agricultural consultants. Thus, at least 16 000 people from all ages have been impacted directly by the project, while many more have and will continue to benefit indirectly. The Climate Literacy project contributed towards achieving the key targets of Europe related to climate and energy. Educating citizens about rational energy consumption will help EU to fulfil its climate/energy tar