Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom Rerun

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

"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 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.

You can follow the course at your own pace. We will open one module at the beginning of each week, but 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 Twitter using the hashtag #NBSEduWORLDMOOC

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
Explore NBS learning scenarios, created by 15 teachers from 5 countries
Reflect on your professional practice, and engage with teachers from all over Europe
Create your NBS learning scenario and review the works of course peers

Prerequisites

This course is open to all but predominantly valuable for teachers in primary and secondary schools wishing to explore Nature based solutions and sustainability education with their students in class and in schools.

Modules

Module 1: What are Nature-Based Solutions? opens on 13/02/2023
Module 2: Pedagogies Supporting NBS Implementation in Your Classrooms and the Formation of an Active Youth opens on 20/02/2023
Module 3: Addressing NBS in Your Classroom as a Response to Real-World Problems opens on 27/02/2021
Module 4: Submit Your NBS Learning Scenario! opens on 06/03/2023

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 22 March 2023, 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%.

If you have completed this MOOC and you want to become a Scientix Ambassador, please read more details about the Call and the application procedure here: https://www.scientix.eu/in-your-country/ambassadors-call.

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.

Course Staff

Ivelina Ivanova - Course Coordinator

Ivelina (Public Sector and International Relations / Project Management) 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 COOLSCHOOLS project . 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.

Eddy Grand-Meyer - Course Coordinator

Eddy (Science communication and climate change science and policy/ Project Coordination and pedagogy) works as a Science Outreach Officer in the Science Education Department of European Schoolnet (EUN). Focusing on Sustainability Education and Nature Based Solutions dissemination, he coordinates the Career Advisers Network and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Environmental Studies and a master’s degree in Climate Change Science and Policy from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).

Gabriela Krizovska - Course Moderator

Gabriela is an English and ICT teacher at the 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 also a moderator of the former NBS MOOC: Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom. 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 the Scientix STEM education and training. She has also been a member of STEM School Label activity and been a mentor in its pilot project for schools in Slovakia.

Behind the course

The NBS MOOC on "Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom" coordinated by European Schoolnet is rerun thanks to NBS EduWORLD, Scientix and Trane Technologies.

The overall objective of NBS EduWORLD is to nurture an NBS literate society, supporting a just transition to a sustainable future. For this, NBS EduWORLD will create an NBS community that facilitates synergies between NBS professionals and education providers and ensures free and easy access to NBS knowledge and resources for all.

Scientix is the community for science education in Europe (www.scientix.eu).

European Schoolnet (www.eun.org) is the network of 34 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.

The MOOC is based on the EC-funded Learning Scenarios developed by European Schoolnet (www.eun.org) with the support of PPMI (www.ppmi.lt/en).

NBS

Disclaimer

This NBS MOOC, coordinated by European Schoolnet, is part of the NBS EduWORLD project and is funded by the European Union (Grant Agreement No. 101060525). The MOOC is based on the EC-funded Learning Scenarios developed by European Schoolnet (www.eun.org) with the support of PPMI (www.ppmi.lt/en), and is supported by Trane Technologies (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en). The MOOC is also supported by Scientix, funded by the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation programme – project Scientix 4 (Grant agreement No. 101000063). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Copyright

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

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

Scientix: NBS Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom Rerun