The overarching objective was to promote environmental critical thinking among students. In concrete terms, to give them the skills required to analyse and evaluate environmental issues and problems and to understand the complex relationship between human actions and the natural world. To reach this objective, the project planned to the following objectives: Development of a series of digital microlessons, addressing different climate topics from a critical thinking perspective. Create a comprehensive curriculum aligned with academic standards, providing teachers with guidance and tools on how to effectively teach climate change topics, and incorporating the digital microlessons. Provide professional development opportunities for educators to develop their knowledge of climate change and critical thinking, skills in instructional design, and mastery of the ACCESS2 microlessons and curriculum. Create a community of learners engaged in exploring critical thinking, environmental education, and actions to address climate change. A final desired achievement was to assess the effectiveness of these implementation steps covering critical thinking and climate change awareness using means such as assessments, surveys, and evaluation.
Climate change is a complex issue that affects everyone in society. The ACCESS 2.0 project aimed to educate students on the science and impacts behind climate change, and the actions that people can take to reduce its effects. More importantly, the project aimed to tackle the problem of climate misinformation and development of the critical thinking skills required to recognise it. Climate misinformation is at an unprecedented level, fueled in recent years by developments in AI. Given that there are over 5 billion social media users globally, it is inevitable to come across it online, and it can be difficult to distinguish what is real from what isn’t. The project aimed to help younger students develop critical thinking skills to evaluate the credibility of environmental information they find. Educational innovation was also a core reason for applying for this project. The project harnessed innovative tools and methodologies (digital microlearning and microcredentials) to increase engagement and deliver effective education. These 3 motivations combined aimed to develop young learners who can critically assess climate information, understand causes/effects of climate change, and take action to address the issue.