Resources for teachers on “Climate Change and Land” and research on eco-anxiety

The essential role of education in addressing the causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change is increasingly being recognised at an international level. The Office for Climate Education (OCE) develops educational resources and proposes professional development opportunities to support teachers, worldwide, to mainstream climate change education.

Drawing upon the IPCC Special Report on the Climate Change and Land, the OCE has produced a set of educational resources that cover the scientific and societal dimensions, at local and global levels, while developing students’ reasoning abilities and guiding them to take action (mitigation and/or adaptation) in their schools or communities. These resources include:

• Ready-to-use teacher handbook that (i) target students from the last years of primary school to the end of lower-secondary school (aged 9 to 15), (ii) include scientific and pedagogical overviews, lesson plans, activities and worksheets, (iii) are interdisciplinary, covering topics in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and physical education, (iv) promote active pedagogies: inquiry-based science education, role-play, debate, project-based learning, (v) followed by 7 examples of inspiring projects of actions to either mitigate or adapt to climate change impacts, or take part of the science or disseminate climate change knowledge.
• A specific attention is drawn to tackle eco-anxiety with the development of a class activity focused on emotions.
• A Summary for teachers of the IPCC Special Report, presented together with a selection of related activities and exercises that can be implemented in the classroom.
• A set of 10 videos where experts speak about a specific issue related to the link between land and climate change.
• A set of 6 multimedia activities offering students the possibility of working interactively in different topics related to climate change.

An important concern for climate change education is to assess the impact of the required pedagogy for transforming students’ behaviour to face climate challenges. Therefore, the OCE is conducting an evaluation research project on activities around the emotions related to climate change.