EDUCLIMAD project: school climate assemblies in Primary Education schools

EDUCLIMAD is an applied research project funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and by the European Union, which seeks to raise awareness and engage children and youngsters in sustainability, through the organisation of school climate assemblies in 25 Primary Education Schools in the region of Camp de Tarragona.

This project offers educational communities a greater involvement and active participation in the search for climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions, through the creation and piloting of school climate assemblies, conceived as innovative democratic processes to learn, deliberate, make informed decisions and search for solutions for climate change and local and regional sustainability, while evaluating their influence on environmental awareness and the development of GreenComp sustainability competencies amongst schoolchildren.

Project aims are:

• To determine the influence of School Climate Assemblies in the co-creation and development of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and solutions.
• To build the ad hoc assessment tools that facilitate timely and effective evaluation of the development of GreenComp sustainability competencies in School Climate Assemblies.
• To implement, test and validate multiple assessment tools for measuring GreenComp sustainability competencies’ development through School Climate Assemblies.
• To determine the influence of School Climate Assemblies in the development of GreenComp sustainability competencies.

The planned activities are organised in 3 phases:

• A preparatory first phase, which includes the design of educational and methodological materials and resources, including the design of competencies’ assessment tools, a methodological guide to run school climate assemblies and the creation of educational resources aligned with the Green Comp: the European sustainability competence framework.
• The second phase of the project comprises the organisation and development of school climate assemblies in 25 Primary Education schools (5th and 6th grade students) and the elaboration of action plans and political recommendations by the participating educational communities to face change climate change and promote sustainability at local and regional levels.
• In the third phase, which focuses on dissemination and evaluation, the project outcomes, the educational resources designed, and the learning derived from the project will be disseminated to stakeholders and social actors, including policy makers and other schools.

The innovative activities and outputs that are developed within this project include:

• Implementation guidelines for organising school climate assemblies.
• Educational materials and resources aligned with GreenComp sustainability competencies’ framework.
• Sustainability competencies’ assessment tools for schoolchildren aligned with GreenComp framework.
• A school climate assemblies report, including action plans and policy recommendations emerged from the assemblies to be disseminated and shared with relevant stakeholders and policy makers.
• Study of the influence of school climate assemblies on the development of GreenComp sustainability competencies.

EDUCLIMAD emphasises the strengthening of environmental awareness and the empowerment of children and youth through education, recognising their potential to become ambassadors and change agents for climate action and sustainable development in their environment by sharing knowledge and experiences with their families, local communities and policy makers.

You can find more info on project's website: www.educlimad.com

Grant TED2021-129854A-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.