Climate Education with Hands-on Science at School

Children and young generation are facing the adverse effects of climate change (CC) today and frequently exposed to news and information about it. Education is a vital agent to cope with climate change. Climate education (CE) can encourage children to change their attitudes and behaviour, equip children with green skills, and helps them to make informed decisions. Therefore, CE should be part of the school education system to tackle the problem that the young generation is facing. Teachers must have the capacity and strong skills to understand the CC and provide appropriate pedagogy and tools in their class so that they do not cause eco-anxiety or apathy in children. One of the best ways is to focus on scientific facts instead of catastrophic speech, and to provide CE by both promoting inquiry-based learning and considering children's emotional needs. An important study1 covering 100 countries indicated that 47% of the national curriculum made no reference to CC and in the curricula where climate change has a place, the scope is not very deep. Also, 95% of teachers believed climate education is important, but less than 40% were confident in teaching it. In October 2021, Teachers COP 26 was held for the first time with the participation of more than 500 teachers from 35 different countries, and teachers demanded that climate education be included in the curriculum. According to a survey conducted with 3259 pupils in Belgium in October 20192, only 13% of students understand the greenhouse effect and its mechanism. Thus, teachers’ competencies in teaching CC need to be improved; more importantly, adequate educational and in-class resources on CC need to be presented to the teachers. In order to draw children's attention to the subject, attractive, easy to- follow and interactive content with appropriate pedagogy should be developed. Our target groups: 1. Teachers at upper primary and lower secondary schools in Belgium and Türkiye 2. 8-12 years old upper primary and lower secondary school children in Belgium and The objectives of this project are as follows: - Establishing an education program that enables children to higher climate literacy, be equipped with long-green skills, and supports climate-friendly behaviours - Designing of digital and hands-on science instructional materials and tools based on UN SDGs that can be implemented in the classroom for upper primary and lower secondary school students - Implementation of the developed educational programs to the students in the schools in the consortium via the teachers - Increasing the knowledge, competencies and literacy of teachers on climate change