[Draft syllabus] Theme 1 - contribution of science

Dear Colleagues in Education,

I taught a very much alike course on the University level, as well as earlier on (in parts, where applicable) on Secondary, hope my (initially brief, general) observations can be of use. I am available to dive and advise in more detail, also with regard to the applicable pedagogy and didactics.

Building on students' feedback, I advise to obverse a logical order i.e. starting out from the 'Ist'-situation of Earth (geology, weather system, ocean currents, soil, etc.) and not from a problematic/dramatic perspective. IPCC and alike can best be kept for later discussion and opinion development.

Especially if the course is also aimed at students more comfortable with Social Sciences, it is important to first recapitulate basic physics first (warm body radiation, atmosphere, carbon storage in oceans and rocks, etc.). Only then bring in the human component, our social-economic activity, not leaving out our geographical pressure, and population growth.

Will now first comment on the other Themes/Blocks.

I will add in Fundamental concepts:
Clima versus Health and Wellbeing ( social system, immigration..)
Happy to explain it more in detail

Dear colleagues - thank you for the initiative - we live in a data rich society relying on data to make / encourage good decision-making - I therefore suggest that transversally across the 4 modules there should be an attempt to introduce data and data collection approaches with respect to climate change - globally (such as satellite imagery) and locally (by pupils undertaking surveys).
This should also be connected to digital skills and the DigComp 2.2 Framework https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/digcomp/digcomp-framework_en
You can find some key ideas on the use of open data for schools at https://d3.youthmetre.eu/toolkit/ - see the lesson blueprints and open data examples.

Hello! Maybe it would be good that this part of the course contain a chapter about Climate Scientist as profession. It could be used as a part of professional orientation.

Dear colleagues, I think it is a very interesting initiative. I couldn’t identify that the course content include practical elements. From the university we also teach at secondary level during school holidays. We conduct small experiments with children to teach basic principles. E.g. we use very simple experimental boxes for wind and pv to explain the fundamentals of renewable electricity production. This enhances the understanding, motivation and fun significantly. I suggest to prove if this could also make sense in this course.

I gladly support the proposal of Philipp Riegebauer to include practical elements, if possible, in a structural way. However, as we found, such works best once integrated in a school's daily life instead of stand-alone projects and activities.

Practical work is always a welcome activity and can be very simple and useful. For example, students can interview elderly fellow citizens and relatives about the climate changes they have observed in the past decades. It would be interesting to compare the observed changes and their interpretations by non-scientists in different regions and ecosystems. The use of simulations is also useful in this topic and it would be good if they were widely available as like an example here https://authoring.concord.org/activities/281/pages/1748/7d0a3a52-4e43-4…

What a pleasure to see someone else is interested in a climate change taxonomy of topics. I have been working in this area for a long time. Here are the topics I think should be included in this section, along with some supporting links. Sadly comments are not allowed to add hyperlinks, so I created a separate page with this material.
https://uncensorednews.us/additions-to-contricutions-of-science

Dear colleagues, I think some learning objectives may also be add in content : melting continental glaciers, melting permafrost and sea level rise, ocean acidification for example.

Some issues that may be worth adding:

1. Contribution of scientific panels:

- add International resource panel and the links between climate change, biodiversity loss and resource overuse,
- add reference to importance of trans disciplinary science

2. Fundamental concepts:

- carbon offsets and their limitations,
- need to reduce GHG emissions and existing concentrations in the atmosphere,

4. Climate change:

- need to consider links between climate change and the others dimensions of the planetary emergency, e.g. nature, health, social etc.
- pitfalls of silos and carbon tunnel vision

Which group year of secondary level?. Need to categorize in learning objectives and key competencies level....

Do we consider the theory of panarchy a scientific theory? Some could say that It is not a scientific theory in the traditional sense, but rather a conceptual framework that can be used to guide research and analysis in various fields. It's a framework for understanding the dynamics of complex adaptive systems.

Should it be included in chapter I.3 "the science of complexity?"

We have been moving towards defining and describing a university undergraduate curriculum - not a school curriculum. While the discussion is interesting I believe we need to be careful not to deal with these important issues in a trivial way. Schools are not equipped in terms of time and expertise to address such topics. So I am very very wary of the discussions in all the modules.
Far better would be to have practical, hand-on approaches than intense philosophical debate.
François Jourde - I taught a university course seeking in part to consider and assess the impact of nature versus the impact of human activity more than 25 years ago - the challenge was a struggle for all but the brightest 20-22 year olds who had been given 10-12 weeks to address the topic!!

Concerning practical work - I would suggest also encouraging teachers to use citizen science approaches with their students. Citizen Science would be highly suitable - connecting to impacts into the local community and involving gathering survey data using specialised digital tools such as Survey123 https://survey123.arcgis.com/ or indeed Google forms
The potential would then be to.present the findings and engage democratically with decision makers and society leaders seeking to encourage them to advocate for change..

Karl DONERT I totally agree! learning by doing is much more interesting for students in this age and indeed sustainability and climate change topic is way much about doing by common consensus than discussing and building up more theories and models that students can find difficult to apply into real world. In my opinion - what we are missing in this whole debate about sustainability is not only that this is a complex issue but state of sustainability differs from one place to another. First to understand how complex it is - we need to show pupils how difficult is to resolve one problem or challenge from their own , close environment . We will also save our time and energy to explain why some issues are sometimes not that easy to find a concrete solution, but at the same time we: teachers - adults would be able to pass this impetus for engaging into more complex issues in the future- when they will enter into adult life with this wider range of capacity and decision making. This kind of course should not be very academic - it is more about changing mindset- so I would also appreciate in this part of syllabus some activities presenting general, psychological side of our concerns, beliefs and choices, awareness, sensibility and empathy and citizen science, entrepreneurship and civil society. Christopher Lozinski already shows good practices from around
world- particular case studies that were successful might be more powerful than discussing about older/newer models- I want to be sure that nobody feels hurt - I do much appreciate researches and scientists work and sacrifice - but on this educational stage- that scientific knowledge it might be to much load and could bring opposite effect on students ' motivation to participate in this course.