The course presents the concepts of Nature-based Climate Shelters in schools and Urban Nature-based solutions (NBS) through the prism of design thinking. Nature-based Climate Shelters in schools are green spaces in schoolyards accessible to both students and the broader community that help mitigate the impacts of climate change, while offering a space for outdoor learning.
Through Nature-based Climate shelter interventions (CSI), educators engage students in the design of a Nature-based climate shelter in their own school to allow them to develop agency in improving their surroundings, 21st century skills and environmental awareness.
You can follow the course at your own pace. We will open one module at the beginning of each week, and there are only a few deadlines you need to pay attention to (those for the quizzes and/or the peer-review activity).
Join us in the Facebook group or share your thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) using the hashtag #nbsclimateshelters.
The course is developed for practicing teachers with all levels of experience and across all subject areas, as well as for student teachers preparing for entry into the profession. It might also appeal to educational professionals in roles like school administrators or support staff, and/or to community leaders interested in implementing these practices.
To earn a course certificate, course participants need to submit their Nature-based Climate Shelter in School Action Plan and review three action plans of other participants. The final deadline to complete all activities is 08 May 2024, 23:59 CEST. The participation in the in-module activities will amount to 5% of the final grade, the Nature-based Climate Shelter in School Action Plan, together with the peer reviews, will count for 95% of the final grade. The overall passing grade is 95%.
Note to teachers from Portugal: You can get your successful participation in a European Schoolnet Academy course formally recognised as a valid continuous professional development, and thereby acquire the relevant number of training hours, by sending your certificate to the Conselho Científico e Pedagógico de Formação Contínua (CCPFC) at Rua do Forno, nº 30, 1º andar - apartado 2168, 4700 - 429 Braga, Portugal. For more information, please contact the CCPFC.
Note to teachers from Emilia-Romagna: Per i docenti della regione Emilia-Romagna iscritti alla piattaforma regionale https://iscrizioni.istruzioneer.it/ è possibile ottenere, oltre all’attestato rilasciato da European Schoolnet Academy, anche l’attestato rilasciato dall’Ufficio Scolastico Regionale per l'Emilia-Romagna (Servizio Marconi) che attua un'azione di facilitazione ed accompagnamento a questa attività. Maggiori informazioni al link: https://bit.ly/EuroSmooc21.
Note to teachers from Ireland: It may be possible to count the completion of this course as part fulfilment of any discretionary CPD hours, subject to your school management's approval. Therefore, please enquire with your school management if your participation in this course can be formally recognised.
Nikolaos is a COOLSCHOOLS pedagogy expert in the Science Education Department of European Schoolnet (EUN). Nikolaos also engages in pedagogical and coordination activities in the EU-funded projects NBS EduWORLD, OUTSTE(A)M and GenB, as well as moderates and delivers workshops online and in person.
Isidora works as a Project and pedagogical coordinator in the Science Education Department of European Schoolnet (EUN). Isidora currently coordinates the 2023 STEM Discovery Campaign, and the GenB project. She also coordinates the Scientix Science Project Online workshops, including the delivery of some workshops.
Ivelina is a Project Manager in the Science Education Department of European Schoolnet (EUN). Ivelina coordinates the Horizon Europe project NBS EduWORLD and EUN’s participation in the projects NBS Academy and COOLSCHOOLS, (co-)funded by the European Union. She has also coordinated the conclusion of the Nature-based Solutions Pilot (Phase 2), as well as the Scientix Ambassadors, the Scientix National Contact Points, and the Scientix STEM School Label.
Gabriela is an English and ICT teacher at the Primary school: ZS s MS Jarna in Poprad, Slovakia. She has been involved in many international and national projects and has actively worked as an eTwinning and Scientix ambassador for several years. She was also a moderator of the MOOC “Exploring Nature-based Solutions in Your Classroom “(2023). She was the founder of an ERASMUS + project in ten European countries. She has taken part in numerous MOOCs, some of them at European Schoolnet Academy. Apart from her pedagogical degree, she obtained her engineering degree at the technical university in Slovakia. In her professional life, she often gets the chance to evaluate projects and help teachers learn about the European Union's initiatives in Scientix STEM education and training. She has also been a member of the STEM School Label activity and a mentor in its pilot project for schools in Slovakia.
This MOOC is organised by COOLSCHOOLS in partnership with Scientix.
COOLSCHOOLS (March 2022-Feb 2025) is a transdisciplinary applied-research project aiming to analyse the multiple co-benefits of implementing Nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate adaptation, or what we call Nature-based Climate Shelters in school environments.
Our conceptual framework proposes and advances Nature-based Climate Shelters as innovative strategies for urban climate adaptation focusing on school environments. It goes beyond the idea of locally confined, safe cooling centres with air conditioning; instead, our approach leverages the multiple co-benefits of nature-based solutions (NBS), in order to achieve enhanced community health and well-being.
Scientix is the community for science education in Europe (www.scientix.eu) and is an initiative from European Schoolnet.
European Schoolnet (www.eun.org) is the network of 30+ European Ministries of Education. EUN aims to bring innovation in teaching and learning to its key stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers, and industry partners.
This MOOC, coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN), is part of the COOLSCHOOLS project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under GA No. 101003758, the Spanish Research Agency (AEI), Innoviris (Brussels Capital Region), Dutch Research Council (NWO), The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), and Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). The MOOC is supported by Scientix, an initiative of European Schoolnet. The content of this MOOC is the sole responsibility of the organizer and it does not represent the opinion of the European Commission (EC), and the EC is not responsible for any use that might be made of information contained. Original template by European Schoolnet (EUN Partnership AISBL). License CC-BY.
All content on this course unless specified otherwise is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License