Methodology and work packages

In CLIMADEMY, leading European universities are collaborating to establish a network to train teachers on how to teach climate change across Europe. The methodology to achieve awareness and disseminate scientific knowledge to future citizens is structured around scientific evidence and research results and their transformation to educational material for synchronous and asynchronous, informal training tailored to the trainees.

The program is structured in six work packages with several activities guaranteeing the quality of the proposed work. All partners contribute to all WPs under the lead of one of them, while WPs synergies are overseen by the coordinator, assisted by the executive board.

Based on the project objectives and deliverables, the project consists methodologically of five phases which are described in detail below:

Phase 1:
Analysis of existing educational material & literature review

At the beginning of the project, a survey of the existing educational materials and a literature review on climate change and climate change teaching will be conducted. This analysis will update our research team on the most contemporary available materials and methods regarding climate change teaching and will determine the key elements for the further development of such materials and methods.
Therefore, in phase 1, guidelines for effective practices and tools will be formed that will be used in phase 2.

Phase 2:
Development of educational materials, methods and hubs

This phase refers to the design and development of the educational materials on i) The main drivers of climate change, ii) Detecting climate change by analyzing in situ, satellite data and model results, iii) Impacts, iv) Mitigation/adaptation . The educational materials will be developed through the work in a community of practice, which will include experts from the fields of natural science and science education and in-service teachers. This Phase will be completed with a pilot implementation of the developed educational materials with students.

Simultaneously, in order to reach and interact with a broader audience, the CLimate AUDItorium (CLAUDI) platform will be designed and implemented, which will be at the frontline of the project. Through CLAUDI, rich multimedia content will be available and links towards social media accounts of the project. Special emphasis will be given to the contributions of the participants, their own multimedia material describing the experience of participating to one of CLIMADEMY activities and the transformation achieved through this participation. Therefore, 4 national hubs will be developed, which will host the bulk of the developed material, each in the language of the participating countries (Finnish, German, Greek, Italian).

Phase 3:
Large scale teacher professional development program – Teachers’ Network

This phase refers to the design and development of the educational materials on i) The main drivers of climate change, ii) Detecting climate change by analyzing in situ, satellite data and model results, iii) Impacts, iv) Mitigation/adaptation . The educational materials will be developed through the work in a community of practice, which will include experts from the fields of natural science and science education and in-service teachers. This Phase will be completed with a pilot implementation of the developed educational materials with students.

Simultaneously, in order to reach and interact with a broader audience, the CLimate AUDItorium (CLAUDI) platform will be designed and implemented, which will be at the frontline of the project. Through CLAUDI, rich multimedia content will be available and links towards social media accounts of the project. Special emphasis will be given to the contributions of the participants, their own multimedia material describing the experience of participating to one of CLIMADEMY activities and the transformation achieved through this participation. Therefore, 4 national hubs will be developed, which will host the bulk of the developed material, each in the language of the participating countries (Finnish, German, Greek, Italian).

Phase 4:
Evaluation

Through the project implementation, insights into the way teachers are educated to implement educational materials on climate change and the use of real data and informal settings for science teacher education can be provided. Moreover, guidelines for effective teachers training can be developed. Therefore, there is a need to focus on the work that will be carried out within the community of practice in Phases 1 & 2, as well as the impact of the teacher professional development program (Phase 3). In order to analyze the work carried out during the different phases of the project and to subsequently define the impact of the teacher professional development program, the participating teachers will be called to complete at different stages of the project online open questionnaires (evaluation questionnaires), while follow-up interviews about their needs, the difficulties and challenges they faced will be conducted with a sample of them. The analysis of the questionnaires during the different stages of the project will act as a monitoring tool for the progress and quality of project activities, while it provides the research team with the necessary feedback and guidelines for the teachers training program and the developed educational materials.

Phase 5:
Dissemination

The results of CLIMADEMY will be disseminated through actions at national and international levels. Particularly, they will be presented in national and international science education conferences and communicated to the scientific community via at least one article in a scientific journal of science education. They will also be advertised through the School Education Gateway platform and SCIENTIX. Furthermore, a website will be developed – part of the CLAUDI platform – and will be used at every stage of the project to provide useful information and project material. Finally, social media pages (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) will be created to spread the information about the project.

Once CLIMADEMY is established and ready as a network to expand, open calls will be launched within the countries involved, for a wider participation, and to other countries through all dissemination and communication means available. These include channels through the Universities involved and their teachers’ education programs, old and new media focusing on the ERASMUS+ dissemination tools, eTwinning and School Education Gateway.