From February 19th to 26th, the CHOICE Consortium gathered in Larissa, Greece, for the project’s Joint Short term Training Event – JSTE, during which 15 teachers from partner schools received training to enable them to deliver the CHOICE Educational Paths and foster citizenship competences relevant in the fight against climate change.
Erasmus+ CHOICE project aims to support the development of the citizenship competences of EU primary and secondary school students by providing school teachers and educators with the necessary knowledge, methodology and tools to create and foster new awareness, competences and skills to actively and knowingly engage students in climate change mitigation actions, as well as make them take a central role in the fight for environmental protection and sustainability. In this context, CHOICE organised a week-long JSTE Train-the-Trainers event in Larissa, Greece: hosted by associated partner University of Thessaly, the CHOICE Train-the-Trainers lasted from February 19th to 25th, totalling 6 days of training on topics ranging from climate change and sustainability, to STEM education methodologies, integration of digital tools in class, to videomaking, and engaging 15 teachers from the five CHOICE school partners, and 5 trainers from the project’s technical partners.
STEM Education, Sustainability and Teaching methods at the CHOICE JSTE
Each day of the 6-days long CHOICE JSTE Train-the-Trainers event focused on specific topics that were identified by the CHOICE Consortium during the first part of the project, when partners gathered feedback from stakeholders within and outside the Consortium regarding which knowledge, attitudes, skills and competences are linked to sustainability. When acquired, these knowledge and skills would give students the means to understand independently the environmental impact of their lifestyle choices, hopefully also pushing them to opt for the more sustainable practices and habits.
During the CHOICE JSTE, the trainers from Deep Blue, CTI and Consorzio Ro.Ma delivered 5 days of training in different topics.
Day 1 was mainly held by Deep Blue, who invited the R&D Director Alessandra Tedeschi to discuss STEM and STEAM Education, as well as how to conduct a scientific discussion, and specifically, how to organise a Junior Science Café, a very engaging and innovative way to engage teenager students in organising themselves an open scientific roundtable open to the public. Also held by Deep Blue, Day 2 focused on climate change, such as basic notions about climate and weather, the physics behind global warming and greenhouse effect, but also how to communicate effectively climate change- and environment-related concepts.
Day 3 was held by CTI, and focused on the use of digital tools and how to integrate them in lessons on climate change. In fact, the use of simulators, games and carbon footprint calculators can help enhance students’ engagement, showing them how certain habits can have a heavy toll on the environment. Furthermore, the use of digital tools, such as simulators and calculators, can give a more tangible idea of how our lifestyle burden the climate and the environment as a system.
Guided by Consorzio Ro.Ma, Day 4 was centred on mitigation and adaptation strategies regarding climate change and environmental degradation, featuring the role of policy makers in guiding the common front against climate change.
Finally, Day 5 was all about video making: teachers learned the basics of cinema framing (shots) and camera movements, as well how to design a storyboard and video editing in the post-production phase. Deep Blue shared its knowledge and expertise in Dissemination & Communication of scientific research results.
The last day of the JSTE was dedicated to a Final Assessment test, during which participant teachers were tested on the knowledge, methodology and techniques discussed during the Train-the-Trainers. The Final Assessment confirmed the teachers’ acquisition of the JSTE contents and the CHOICE Online Training sessions, held from November 2022 until January 2023 as part of the Train-the-Trainers itself.
On the way to the piloting phase: CHOICE Educational Paths in the schools
The CHOICE JSTE Train-the-Trainers was also a nice opportunity for the partner school teachers to test themselves on how they would deliver the Educational Paths developed in CHOICE. Specifically, participant teachers from each school took turns into guiding the rest of the group to implement some experiments from the Educational Paths.
Each school chose its experiment and performed it in front of the partners, involving them in the process, while explaining the theory behind the experiment itself. Scoala Gimnaziala Metropolitana ARC conducted a well-functioning, small scale water irrigation system from recycled items (i.e. plastic bottles and straws), IMS Giordano Bruno showed a simple and effective way of water filtration utilising materials like cotton, pebbles and soil. Turkish partner school TEK focused on a more theoretical experiment: calculating the annual power consumption of our electronic devices with the use of an online calculator. This experiment showed in a concrete way the environmental impact of our use of electronic devices. Devices such as laptops and smartphone may seem not impactful at all on climate change, but differences on how we use, charge and keep our devices can make a huge difference in terms of emissions (and light bill).
16th Dimotiko Larissa prepared an activity in between an experiment and a call to action: by making the participants think about their daily habits and using a online carbon footprint calculator to measure the impact of their lifestyles, the group was asked to list a series of mitigation actions that could substitute less sustainable habits. Lastly, SPJP teachers showed an inventive way of recycling: using exhaust coffee powder and oil, they made homemade skin scrub, giving new life to what otherwise would be waste.
Indeed, it was a good exercise and chance to see how to best conduct the experiments with students during the pilots, as well as effectively show each other how to properly conduct such experiments.
Next Steps
The CHOICE JSTE Train-the-Trainers event not only gave the opportunity to give teachers the necessary tools (both methodological and practical) to properly deliver the Educational Paths in their schools, but also gave them a chance to implement and try some of the knowledge acquired during the online and in-presence CHOICE trainings.
The next big activity for CHOICE would be the beginning of its pilots in the five partner schools. Each will deliver one or more Educational Paths to their classes, ranging from elementary (8 years old) to high school (18 years old) students. The pilots will also be crucial to fine-tune and adapt the Educational Paths to their target audience, as well as integrate relevant missing knowledge, methods and tools in the Educational Paths’ activities.
Watch the video from the JSTE Train-the-Trainers where we ask participant teachers about what did the Train-the-Trainers give them as a training and what will they apply in their job.
