Upgrade of the educational and outreach activities of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia

The technical staff of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) has consistently collaborated with schools, organizations, and associations to expand knowledge related to meteorology and climatology. A group of volunteer technicians carried out educational tasks spontaneously, lacking clear organization, structure, or standardized content.

To improve this situation, the SMC developed an Educational Program in 2021. The main goals of the Educational Program of the SMC are to enhance the public's knowledge of meteorology and climatology, to create a ‘learning space’ focused on the acquisition of ideas and values (inclusive material, avoid gender bias, etc.), to form a critical, committed, and active citizenry to develop a better society.

The development of this Educational Program has resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of educational activities. It promotes the definition of objectives, fosters the development of specific pedagogical resources for each age group, clarifies pedagogical goals, defines final assessments, and facilitates the pedagogical task and the dedication of volunteer staff. It also allows for the comprehensive planning of educational activities and engagement with the external public.

Once the Educational Program was defined, voluntary pedagogical training sessions were conducted -open to all technical staff of the SMC- to facilitate the transmission of concepts and values following current pedagogical parameters (importance of emotions, social learning, connectivity between different knowledge, existence of different learning rhythms and styles, evaluation as a tool for constant improvement).

The activities of the Educational Program are structured into three axes: Meteorology, Climate, and Climate Change. In 2022, a public competition was held to find a support company that would facilitate the development of educational activities. Throughout 2023, the deployment of the Educational Program began with the development of twenty-one new educational activities.

Current educational activities cater to all types of audiences, from kindergarten to high school, including the general public. Some activities are designed to be developed by SMC technical staff, while others have been designed to be carried out autonomously by teachers. There is a wide range of activities: experiments, learning scenarios, ‘weather walks’ through Barcelona, games (severe weather phenomena), videos (prevention in dangerous weather situations), etc.