Our goal in carrying out this project was, at its core, to help increase public awareness of climate change—its causes as well as its potential impacts. By providing behavioral changes in participants' daily preferences (consumption, transportation, waste management, reducing, reusing, recycling, water, and energy use), we also hoped to develop more environmentally conscious individuals who take action and use green alternative ways to save our planet. Other goals of this project were to build key competencies like scientific knowledge and skills, mathematical literacy, creativity, learning autonomy, ICT skills, English use, peer cooperation and communication skills, and intercultural communicative competence.
The IPCC report (2022) highlights the impact of climate change (CC) on ecosystems and human civilization. By adopting sustainable lifestyles and implementing necessary infrastructure, technology, and laws, it is possible to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40-70% until 2050. This report calls for immediate human action. Therefore, our primary motivation for initiating this project was to increase public awareness of climate change so as to actively participate in changing and fortifying our resistance to CC and encourage students to adopt climate-conscious behaviors. Besides, we desired to fulfill our responsibilities as teachers, students, and citizens. With this endeavor, we contributed to this worldwide effort with extra-curricular activities by collaborating internationally. This project also advocated for a CC workshop curriculum plan at Science and Art Centers so as to raise more awareness and encourage more sustainable behavior change in daily preferences. Finally, we wished to be positive role models for educators, parents, students, and community members, encouraging them to contribute to the solution of CC.