Climate changes and well-being (LS-PT-720)

Introduction

From the theme Climate Change, it is proposed to the students to look at pictures/paintings/posters present on the Europeana platform as elements that cause climate change as well as its effects. From this research, students try to develop ideas for building web/mobile applications that help the planet and at the same time are effective for our well-being.  

This is intended to be the motto for the design of a Cross-Curricular Project for a Domain of Curricular Autonomy having, therefore, a strong multidisciplinary component that extends to subject areas that make up the syllabus of the 9th grade of elementary school.

Each subject fulfills an essential task for the good execution of the project, from the conception of ideas and their execution in the creation of posters and prototypes to the development of applications, even in prototype form, and also the knowledge of natural sciences about this theme.

Students acquire and cross knowledge from various areas, and develop skills in collaborative work, critical interpretation, written expression, and artistic representation, in addition to practicing active citizenship and encouraging the community to practice it.

I am an ICT teacher however there has been collaboration with teachers of other subjects such as Visual Education and English. My students are between 14 and 16 years old.

Learning process

The students were divided into small groups, and students with special needs were also included.

The students analyze the existing images in Europe and based on them reflect on the causes and effects of climate change. Consequently, the students develop in groups ideas of applications that can solve some problems related to climate change and promote well-being.

In small groups, they draw a poster and a logo for their ideas. Finally, they develop a prototype of an app that can help the planet.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this project, I would like the students to create an idea for an application for good that has climate change as its central theme. This learning must be reflected not only in the value given to knowledge but also in the exercise of citizenship. Another goal is to stimulate collaborative work in smaller and larger groups, promoting sharing and building learning in a more autonomous way, mainly through the use of digital tools and resources.
Finally, one of the main goals of this project is also the development of applications.

Final thoughts

I planned nine lessons divided across the four subjects. In ICT, the students had five lessons, where they chose pictures, paintings, drawings, and images of Europeana and discuss the causes and effects of climate change. The activity went quite well and the students were very enthusiastic.

Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:

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• Nurture Mother Nature created by Alexandra Duarte

CC0 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Statens Museum for Kunst.