SDGzine Special Edition #04

Investigate, initiate, innovate.

FROM URGENCY TO AGENCY – Sustainability at the Heart of Learning

The UN has called ‘Code Red for Humanity’ in its most recent IPCC report. Students are deeply concerned and while it has been a relatively short time since school strikes made the news, it is undeniable that the urgency behind this global movement demands a response from schools. What makes for a relevant education when the IPCC estimates that the human species has a window of no more than 8 years to drastically reduce its emission of CO2 to avoid irreversible climate change? What role can schools play to address the concerns of their students and to be on the right side of history? Schools can, and should, play an active role in mitigating climate change. Indeed, they should use it as an opportunity to innovate and improve.

Schools should reinvent themselves to become learning communities that go beyond preparing for the future; instead they should help shape that future, by allowing students and educators to prototype solutions for today’s challenges. These challenges include, but are not limited to climate change. The Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs) can be used as a roadmap to display the challenges humanity faces today and they are what we, at La Chataigneraie, have been using as a backbone of our Year 7-9 projects for the last three years. In our view, the SDGs should be more than another list for students to be aware of. After all, the IB Mission is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world. Doesn’t this also mean that IB educators have a responsibility to raise awareness about the SDGs as well as give opportunities to make changes in their own lives and their communities?

By allowing students to actively engage with the Sustainable Development Goals through such projects, they will learn about Systems Thinking, Design Thinking and collaboration, equipping them with the skills and attitudes required to meet the challenges of their times.

This SDGZINE issue is a special school edition with content generated by students of the International School of Geneva.

SDGZINE.ORG is an initiative from the ADDICTLAB ACADEMY and partnerscontributing to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations.

cover image Nicola Curtin (Head of Year 8)

school contact sarah.lalaz@ecolint.ch

ecolint9innovate team 2021 Nicola Curtin and her year 7 mentors, Sonia Eastham and her Year 8 mentors, Paul Grady and his Year 9 mentors, Sarah Lalaz

with special thanks to Jan Dijkstra & Alex Conchard

SDG PROJECT BACKGROUND

The 8 week SDG Projects have been a major catalyst to bring sustainability into the heart of the curriculum at La Châtaigneraie. The projects challenge students in year 7,8 & 9 (11-14 y.o.) to work on real world problems linked to the SDGs.

The 7iNVESTIGATE project equips the year 7 students with a deep understanding of the SDGs, which then enables them to utilise this to bring about awareness of an issue of their choice in their 8iNITIATE Year 8 exhibition. In their 9iNNOVATE project, Year 9 students are presented with a global issue linked to one of six themes. In groups of six, they are required to address this issue and bring about a local solution coached by an ‘expert’ in the local community (who has suggested it) and who is also a specialist in their field.

The 9iNNOVATE project culminates in a TEDx talk where students present their global issue and local solution

to an audience of peers, teachers and experts who in turn give detailed feedback about the feasibility of their ideas and the impact of their action.

Throughout these 8-week projects, students develop a deep understanding of the SDGs, Systems Thinking, Design Thinking and Project Drawdown. In addition, they learn to collaborate, design creative solutions and present their work to a critical audience.

Each project is accompanied by an assessment tool, which identifies the main competencies developed in the course of the project. These are linked to UNESCO’s macro competencies and the CAS learning outcomes.

Seen together, they form a scope & sequence of a curriculum that integrates knowledge and understanding of the world around them on the one hand (sustainability) and of themselves as global citizens and members of a local community on the other (well-being). This curriculum has been named ‘the Continuous Core’, with the vision that it will eventually be substantially developed

Sarah Lalaz

contact info@sdgzine.org

publisher Jan Van Mol