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Scientix: NBS Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom

Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom


Scientix
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Welcome to the Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom MOOC

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"If we destroy nature, nature will destroy us" - Wangari Maathai

We are increasingly becoming aware of environmental issues, and its impact on our societies and everyday life. Teachers are trying to form informed and active students, who will work and build with nature, instead of in separation from it. However, the educational potential of nature-based solutions (NBS) remains largely unexplored, whilst innovative programmes and resources around NBS are currently missing from formal and informal education programmes for children and families.

This course aims to bridge that gap by exploring the implementation of nature-based solutions in classrooms through the connection with contemporary research and NBS practitioners, including ready-to-use learning scenarios.

The learning scenarios presented in this course promote critical thinking, collaboration, and project-based learning, and can be easily adapted for an array of subjects. Furthermore, the learning scenarios include suggestions for online implementation.

By joining this course, teachers can introduce such NBS initiatives to their school communities. Moreover, they could initiate discussions about risk reduction and building resilience to crisis, which in result, would make their students and their families aware of the benefits of NBS for society.

Join us in the Facebook group or share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #NBSMOOC

Learning objectives

  • Learn what nature-based solutions are
  • Get to know a range of resources, tools, and strategies for integrating NBS in your school community such as Oppla and Naturvation 
  • Find NBS projects in Europe and practitioners near you that can help you create your NBS learning scenario
  • Explore NBS learning scenarios, created by 15 teachers from 7 different countries and 2 European Schools
  • Reflect on your professional practice, and engage with teachers and NBS practitioners from all over Europe
  • Create your NBS learning scenario and review the works of course peers

Prerequisites

This course is open to anyone willing to take it, but the main target audience are primary and secondary school teachers from Europe and beyond.

Modules

  • Module 1: What are Nature-Based Solutions? opens on 11/01/2021
  • Module 2: Pedagogies supporting NBS implementation in your classrooms and the formation of an active youth opens on 18/01/2021
  • Module 3: Addressing NBS in Your Classroom as a Response to Real-World Problems opens on 25/01/2021
  • Module 4: Submit Your NBS Learning Scenario! opens on 01/02/2021

Certification

To earn a course certificate, course participants need to submit their NBS learning scenario and review three learning scenarios of other participants. The final deadline to complete all activities is 17 February 2020, 23:59 CET. The participation in the quizzes will amount to 5% of the final grade and is not a requirement for receiving the course certificate. The learning scenario, 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 Castilla y León: Si eres profesor de Castilla y León, y además del certificado de la European Schoolnet Academy, quieres recibir un certificado oficial de parte de la Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León inscríbete en la página web del CFP Idiomas de Castilla y León http://cfpidiomas.centros.educa.jcyl.es/sitio/

Course Staff

Jelena Milenkovic - course coordinator

(International Education & Policy / Coordination and Pedagogy) Jelena works as a Project Officer in the FCL-SEG Department of European Schoolnet (EUN). She is the coordinator of the European Schoolnet Academy. Since joining European Schoolnet in 2018, Jelena worked as a web editor and MOOC creator for numerous projects, such as Scientix, TIWI, STE(A)M IT.

Verdiana Fronza - course moderator

Born in Trento (Italy), Verdiana is a Project Management Trainee at the Science Education Department at EUN. Verdiana is pursuing her Master of Science in Sustainable Development and she holds a Bachelor’s in International Studies.

Vasiliki Katsikerou - course moderator

Vasiliki is a project management intern at EUN. She specializes in instructional design, pedagogy, and education analysis. Her work with EUN involves curating learning scenarios; designing MOOCs and classroom activities for NBS, BRITEC, and STE(A)M IT; and event organizing for the BLOOM project.

Gabriela Krizovska - course moderator

Gabriela is an English and ICT teacher at Primary school ZS s MS Jarna in Poprad, Slovakia. She has been involved in lots of international and national projects and has actively worked as an eTwinning and Scientix ambassador for several years now. She was the founder of project ERASMUS + of ten European countries. She has taken part in numerous MOOCs, some of them on European Schoolnet Academy. She always uses her newly acquired knowledge in the development of learning scenarios for her students to improve the quality of teaching and gives them new perspectives for their future career. Apart from her pedagogical degree, she obtained her engineering degree by studying at the technical university in Slovakia. In her professional involvement, she often gets the chance to evaluate projects and help teachers learn about the European Union's initiatives in the field of STEM education and training.

Behind the course

This MOOC is part of the NBS pilot phase 2 initiated and funded by the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and coordinated by VO EUROPE in collaboration with European Schoolnet (EUN).

VO EUROPE is a leading producer of tailor-made communication services and memorable experiences for European and international organisations and are a pioneer in ‘hybrid’ event management and a master in audience engagement, crafting authentic experiences and lasting impressions with unrivalled impact in every campaign. VO EUROPE is a member of VO GROUP, an internationally renowned Belgian comms agency and award-winning event organiser.

The MOOC is based on the EC-fudned Learning Scenarios developed by EUN with the support of PPMI (www.ppmi.lt/en), a leading European research and policy analysis centre, aiming to help public sector and civil society leaders from around the world, presenting evidence in a way that is simple, clear and ready to use.

European Schoolnet (www.eun.org) is the network of 34 European Ministries of Education, based in Brussels. EUN aims to bring innovation in teaching and learning to its key stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers, and industry partners.

The MOOC is also supported by Scientix, funded from the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation programme – project Scientix 4.

Find out more about nature-based solutions: https://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/index.cfm?pg=nbs and all the NBS Learning Scenarios created in this project as well as the overall reports can be found at http://www.scientix.eu/pilots/nbs-project.

EUN logo      Scientix_logo      EU_flag      VO_EU

Disclaimer

This NBS MOOC, coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN), is part of the NBS pilots initiated and funded by the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. The MOOC is based on the EC-funded Learning Scenarios developed by EUN (www.eun.org) with the support of PPMI (www.ppmi.lt/en), and organised with the support of VO EUROPE (https://www.vo-group.be/en). The MOOC is also supported by Scientix, funded from the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation programme – project Scientix 4 (Grant Agreement N. 101000063). The content is the sole responsibility of the organiser 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.

 

The course image used was taken from Adobe Stock: 229326336 by Marina Zlochin

Creative Commons License

All content on this course unless specified otherwise is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

  1. Course Code

    NBS

  2. Classes Start

  3. Classes End

  4. Estimated Effort

    4.5 hours (18 in total)
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