School of Sustainability - Second edition

School of Sustainability is an initiative aimed at lower and upper secondary school. School classes are actively involved through a challenge-driven education approach in order to generate a tangible impact on their territory.

Students will work in teams to imagine and design solutions for:

• 💨 reduce the impact of human activities on air quality
• 🌱 introduce new green spaces in urban areas and school zones, thus improving the environmental quality and well-being of the people who reside and live in that place
• ⛈ adapt city areas to the effects of climate change through the inclusion of bodies of water, shaded areas, green walls and permeable paving
• 🔌reduce their school's energy consumption by analyzing the most relevant uses of energy and creating a project to produce energy from renewable sources.

Each theme is developed in an educational pathway and presented to school teachers during a dedicated training course. Each pathway deals with different topics:

• air quality, sources of pollutants and applicable measures to reduce air pollution
• ecosystems, ecosystem services and their role in mitigating the negative impacts of human activities on the environment
• adaptation to climate change in urban settings, focusing on reducing the urban heat island effect and managing extreme precipitation
• energy transition, from savings actions to actions to increase the efficiency of energy use and the production of energy from renewable sources

After the training course, the teachers present the educational content of the pathway in class and propose activities for the students to carry out through group work. The activities are developed from the study of real cases, from the analysis of data published by research bodies and institutions or from observation of the territorial context. The activities are aimed at promoting the acquisition of STEM competences, as well as language and soft skills.

At the end of the course, students are invited to take up an educational challenge to redesign a part of their own city or territory, or to propose new models of behaviour aimed at fostering ecological transition.

School of Sustainability has been presented in a dedicated webinar last week. It can be seen on YouTube.

Registrations to partecipate close on October 1st. Visit our website and send your application to participate with your class!