Category Archives: teaching

Celebrating World Open Data Day

March 27, 2023climate change, conference, environment, Project News, teachingKarl Donert

Open Data Day (ODD) was celebrated by the Open Data Charter this year on March 23rd 2023 . Open Data Day is an annual celebration of open data all over the world, where groups and communities gather to reach out to new people and build new solutions using open data.

Creating awareness around open data and its benefits aims to encourage governments, businesses, and civil society initiatives worldwide to adopt open data policies and inspire others to do the same.

Since 2015, the Open Knowledge Foundation – in cooperation with other NGOs from the open data world – has offered mini-grants to support the facilitation of events around the globe. This year’s Open Data Day gave out mini-grants for communities that work on: environmental data, tracking public money flows, open mapping, data for equal development, and ocean data for a thriving planet.

ODD is a chance for people around the world to support and encourage the adoption of open data policies by local, regional and central governments.

The Open Data Charter is a collaboration between over 170 governments and other organisations working to open up data based on a shared set of principles. EUROGEO has been a signatory of the Charter since 2019. It promotes policies and practices that enable governments and CSOs to collect, share, and use well-governed data, to respond effectively and accountably to the following focus areas: anti-corruption, climate action and pay equity.

The Teaching the Future project was presented by the project coordinator Karl Donert at the Open Data Charter series of events. EUROGEO has been involved in promoting access to open data through its projects and publications. The Teaching the Future data dashboard takes open climate data and makes it accessible to teachers and learners. Try out our open data climate dashboard.

Testing the TTF Climate Data Dashboard

March 14, 2023climate change, Project News, teachingKarl Donert

Teaching the Future is an initiative to address the need for reliable authoritative climate-related data for students and teachers.

The Teaching the Future project has reviewed teacher needs, discussed the data issues with climate experts, teacher educators and climate scientists and invited responses from the wider educational community through involvement in the European Commission Education for Climate initiative.

Data dashboards manage information to visually track, assess and displays a range of indicators, metrics and key data points to monitor the situation of a specific process.

Pilot testing of v1 of the Teaching the Future climate data dashboard is under way

A number of errors have been identified and bug fixes have been applied.

We have launched a second version of the data dashboard which is ready for testing – now there are 2 separate data dashboards
D1 – historical climate change data
D2 – predictions of future climate

Please support the project by helping us test the dashboard

You can access the latest version (v2) of the dashboard from
https://teachingthefuture.eu/climate-dashboards/

Download the guide/manual for data and dashboard functions

Once you have explored the data, we kindly ask you (including teachers and their students) to complete the short usability survey to help the dashboard development.

Did you find it easy to access?
Was the data easy to navigate?
What features did you like?
What was most challenging?

Here are some activities you could try out

Historical data
Zoom in to your area/city/region country
Notice how the dashboard information changes
Now find a place nearer the pole – has it changed more or less?
What about the equator or Sahara desert?
What about mountain areas like the Alps? Or Seas like the Mediterranean?
Note you can expand each box and even download the data you selected and export it into Excel for further analysis

Prediction data
These are modelled data for the future based on low, medium or high greenhouse gas emissions
This is explained at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_Concentration_Pathway
Again the likely impact of climate change in the future can be explored using the maps and data

These modelled predictions are the basis of much of our policy developments – the class could discuss the challenges of decision making with future uncertainty

Hoping you find it interesting

Earth Map shows climate data

February 15, 2023climate change, environment, teachingKarl Donert

Earth Map (https://earthmap.org/) is an innovative and free application developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. It was designed in the framework of the partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and Google. Earth map facilitates the visualisation, processing, and analysis of land and climate data.

Earth Map allows everyone to visualise, process and analyse satellite imagery and global datasets on climate, vegetation, fires, biodiversity, geo-social and other topics.

It was created to support countries, research institutes and even farmers with internet access to monitor their land in an easy, integrated and multi-temporal manner. It is an interesting tool which can be used to help with teaching about climate and climate change.

Users need no prior knowledge of remote sensing or Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Look at the video embedded here to find out more.

Earth Map’s data is divided into different thematic segments, including Climate, Geosocial, Vegetation, Land Degradation Neutrality, Water, Satellite images, Land maps, Forestry, Fire, Geophysical, Soil and Biodiversity.

The data allows users to visualise different layers of information to create maps and to generate statistics to describe the areas of interest.

These layers include data from the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative, the Copernicus ECMWF Temperature and Precipitation ERA5 data and Global Forest Change tree cover loss.

Earth Map allows users to access and display information from different time periods. It thereby gives both a temporal (accessing time series data) and a spatial (visualising places) perspective to their areas of interest.

Find out more – Visit Earth Map

Changes in Global Ocean Circulation

January 9, 2023climate change, environment, ocean circulation, teachingKarl Donert

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a large system of ocean currents that carry warm water from the tropics northwards into the North Atlantic.

It acts like a conveyor belt, driven by differences in temperature and salt content – the water’s density. As warm water flows northwards it cools and some evaporation occurs, which increases the amount of salt. Low temperature and a high salt content make the water denser, and this dense water sinks deep into the ocean.

The cold, dense water slowly spreads southwards, several kilometres below the surface. Eventually, it gets pulled back to the surface and warms in a process called “upwelling” and the circulation is complete.

This global process makes sure that the world’s oceans are continually being mixed, and that heat and energy are distributed around the earth. This, in turn, contributes to the climate we experience today.

Oceanographers have been continuously measuring the AMOC since 2004. These measurements have shown that the AMOC varies from year to year, and it is likely that these variations have an impact on the weather in western Europe. However it is too early to say for sure whether there are any long term trends.

Before 2004 the AMOC was only measured a few times, and to go back further into the past we need to look at indirect evidence (for example from sediments on the sea floor). The indirect evidence doesn’t always agree on the details, but it seems likely that there have been some large, rapid changes in the AMOC in the past (for example around the end of the last ice age).

Some scientists believe the changes to this ocean circulation poses a huge risk for Europe. The devastating droughts last summer were caused by the AMOC being at its lowest point in 1200 years, and now they say it is the weakest it has been in the last 1600 years. Watch the video which explains findings from recent research.

An example of their

However, according to the UK Met Office, climate models suggest that the AMOC will weaken over the 21^st Century as greenhouse gases increase. This is because as the atmosphere warms, the surface ocean beneath it retains more of its heat. Meanwhile increases in rainfall and ice melt mean it gets fresher too. All these changes make the ocean water lighter and so reduce the sinking in the ‘conveyor belt’, leading to a weaker AMOC. So the AMOC is very likely to weaken, but it’s considered very unlikely that large, rapid changes in the AMOC, as seen in past times, will happen in the 21^st Century.

Educators need to be careful not to exaggerate the impact of such processes as teachers should try to keep to the facts and data, as AMOC has only been measured regularly since 2004 – we simply do not know, nor can we yet predict with any accuracy, what the future will bring. But it is an important issue that we ought to teach about and its impact on the development of previous ice ages for example as polar ice melted.

Find out more about the AMOC

Second partner meeting in Serbia

October 28, 2022climate change, Project News, teachingKarl Donert

On Friday, September 16, International School hosted experts, teachers and representatives of different partner organisations with the aim of making another step towards the establishment of effective and comprehensive climate change education.

This meeting was held in Belgrade, as part of the Teaching the Future project, which aims to implement education about climate change and the environment in teaching and learning programmes in all partner countries participating in this project – Belgium, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Greece and Cyprus.

During the meeting, the results of the research conducted were presented and clear recommendations for the implementation of climate change education were established, taking into account the development of students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as the development of teachers’ competencies. In addition, current initiatives to reduce the consequences of climate change and protect the environment were also presented.

At the end of September 2022, a comprehensive report on current climate change education practices was published. Download the report

The Report: Teaching the future – climate, citizenship and digital teaching – curriculum and pedagogical guidelines included an extensive literature review of different methodologies in climate change education as well as research findings conducted by project partners in their own countries. Through this research and focus group discussions, the report offers comprehensive recommendations and pedagogical guidelines for educators, organisations and governments from around the world.

We are convinced that only through quality education, which is focused on the scientific study of today’s world, for the sake of a better future, can we nurture students to become citizens of the world.

The next phase of the project will be to create, pilot and evaluate a digital data dashboard aggregating climate information, data and resources which will be easily accessible for schools and teachers.

Webinar: the Universalisation of Climate Education

October 11, 2022conference, environment, teachingKarl Donert

A webinar hosted by UNESCO was held on 10th October I 15:00-16:30 CEST to look at the importance of quality climate education.

In this webinar, participants heard from leading organisations and departments in the field of climate change education, including UN agencies, ministries, and global NGOs. You will learn about the many efforts already being taken to secure universal climate education – and the obstacles we still need to overcome.

Speakers

Pramod Kumar Sharma – Senior Director of Education, Foundation for Environmental Education
Deirdre Hodson – Policy Officer, School Education Policy, European Commission
Won Jung Byon – Programme Specialist, Section of Education for Sustainable Development, UNESCO
Ewurasi Nnadozie – Head of International, Comms and Events, Sustainability and Climate Change Unit, UK Department of Education
Fleur Newman – Unit Lead, Action for Climate Empowerment, UNFCCC
Kathleen Rogers – President, Earthday.org

Visualising The Earth’s Ice Loss

September 29, 2022environment, protection, teachingKarl Donert

Visualising Earth’s Global Ice Loss Between 1994-2017

Visualising the amount of ice that is being lost from the Earth is very difficult to consider. Especially when it is estimated that nearly 70% of the Earth’s freshwater is locked up in glaciers and ice caps, ground ice, and permafrost. This ice is melting at an unprecedented rate.

This news item looks at different forms of visualisation to help improve our understanding of the significance of these changes.

Based on data from a new scientific survey (slater et al., 2021), this visualisation shows that 28 trillion tonnes of Earth’s ice has been lost between 1994 and 2017.

Over half (58%) of the ice loss occurred in the Northern Hemisphere, from Arctic sea ice and also grounded ice previously trapped in the Greenland ice sheet.

While rising temperatures lies behind most of this historical global ice loss, it’s worth being aware that lower levels of ice results in a positive feedback loop. Less ice means less of the sun’s heat is reflected away from the Earth, instead being absorbed back and further amplifying the global warming effect.

How does a glacier melt?

Change in the Arctic (European Space Agency

Global Ice Loss Visualised Over Paris -a visualisation of one year’s global ice loss

Reference: Slater, T., Lawrence, I.R., Otosaka, I.N., Shepherd, A., Gourmelen, N., Jakob, L., Tepes, P., Gilbert, L. and Nienow, P., 2021. Earth’s ice imbalance. The Cryosphere, 15(1), 233-246. https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/233/2021/

One step closer to comprehensive climate change education

September 23, 2022Project News, teachingKarl Donert

On Friday, September 16, the International School hosted experts, teachers and representatives of renowned organisations with the aim of approaching another step towards the establishment of effective and comprehensive climate change education.

The meeting was held in Belgrade, as part of the project Teaching the Future, which aims to implement education about climate change and the environment in traditional teaching and learning programs in all partner countries participating in this project – Belgium, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Greece and Cyprus.

During the meeting, we presented the results of the conducted research and established clear steps for further implementation of climate change education, taking into account the development of students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as the development of teachers’ competencies. In addition to the aforementioned advancements to the project tasks, current initiatives to reduce the consequences of climate change and to protect the environment were also presented.

The partners are convinced that only through quality education, which is focused on the scientific study of today’s world, for the sake of a better future, can we nurture students to become the citizens of the world.

Green Flag for one of our school partners!

July 5, 2022environment, Project News, teachingKarl Donert

One of the Teaching the Future project partners, Doukas School, and more specifically its primary school, received once more, this year the Green Flag from the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature.

The objective of this Programme is to change the behaviour of everyone within the school community so that the school will become a real “Eco School”.

This is achieved through the formulation and implementation of:

– an “Eco-code” (a set of environmental behaviour standards), and the implementation of
– an Environmental Action Plan (which involves all the surrounding area of the school and its conversion into a clean, attractive, and friendly space).

In every school, students and teachers establish an Environmental Committee, which addresses issues of energy, waste, and water. (later on, they can deal with other subjects such as transport, healthy living, biodiversity, consumerism, etc.).

At the same time, the Committee oversees the implementation of the “Action Plan” and the “Ecocode” with the participation of the whole school community. Finally, in order to achieve links with the local community and ensure the raising of public awareness, the school organises activities and events in cooperation with the local government and authorities.

Educational material is provided for all subjects dealt with by the Network.

Doukas Primary School was evaluated positively for the set of actions and the Eco-code that was implemented. Among others, it was awarded for the Actions “I learn about forests” (2nd grade) and “Recycle-Reuse” (3rd and 4th grade).

Doukas School contributes to all aspects of the Teaching the Future project and will develop internal and external evaluation of the results of the project:

– a report on Teaching the Future
– a digital data dashboard for accessing climate data / information
– a teacher training course

Find out more

TTF presented at EUROGEO 2022

May 25, 2022conference, Project News, teaching, UncategorizedKarl Donert

Teaching the Future was presented at EUROGEO 2022, a conference held on Lesvos island, Island, Greece on 5-6 May 2022.

The event attracted more than 120 educators and researchers from over 35 countries. Over 90 presentations, 5 workshops and 6 posters were presented.

EUROGEO conference Lesvos 2022 took the theme “RE-VISIONING GEOGRAPHY FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE POST-COVID ERA”. The following were the Conference Strands:
– How do geographers, universities, companies and education respond to Sustainable Development Goals and complex challenges in the context of the COVID pandemic?
– What is the role of Geography in the landscape of spatial technologies and open data and how can these assist in achieving SDGs?
– How new eco-social challenges are positioned in the face of a post-pandemic Global Change?
– How can we explore novel educational contexts and resources to transform towards sustainability of socio-ecological systems?
– What conceptual frameworks and strategies can contribute to the construction of societies based on human welfare and the care of nature?
– What are the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals, international migrations and refugees?

See the Full conference programme

The Teaching the Future presentation can be viewed here or downloaded from Slideshare.