Stars and STEM Stories
GLOBE Czech Republic Autumn Climate Challenge Provides Practical – and Inspirational – Education on Climate
Last Autumn, between 01 September and 30 November, GLOBE Czech Republic hosted the Autumn Climate Challenge, which, they believe, is just the “first step” in realizing success in motivating teachers and educating students on the impacts of climate change in an inspirational and practical way.
“Climate is changing, and that has a significant negative impact on the weather, water, soil, carbon cycle as well as flora and fauna,” Csilla Barkász, GLOBE Country Coordinator for the Czech Republic, said. “Therefore, our priority for the upcoming years is to raise awareness about climate change among GLOBE students and teachers and to provide them with meaningful tools and activities for exploring the impacts of climate change in the place where they live. We began this effort by launching the Autumn Climate Challenge in September 2022.”
“As part of the campaign, we organized a webinar for teachers with soil expert Monika Hradilová from the GLOBE scientific council on the impact of climate change on the soil. The interest exceeded our expectations: there were as many as 168 registered participants!”
During the challenge, school teams could choose from 12 challenges related to the GLOBE research areas of phenology, hydrology, pedology, meteorology, carbon cycle and land cover. “Some challenges were easier (for younger, less experienced students), others required knowledge about GLOBE tools and measurements,” Barkász said.
“In each area, there was one easy challenge that did not require complex measurements or sophisticated tools, like exploring where the rainwater flows around the school. Does it end up in the sewage or is it captured and used in a meaningful way, such as for watering plants? Students were prompted to think about the importance of water retention and adaptation to drought, as well as to come up with practical ways to retain rainwater. Older and more experienced students could go one step further and realize a measure for retaining water in practice.”
“Students could choose as many challenges as they wanted, and had three months to complete them and publish their results on Padlet. Those who accomplished at least four challenges were included into a drawing and had a chance to win useful research tools.”
“We were impressed how active students were and that some of the school teams went as far as implementing their proposed solution (such as planting trees by their school, retaining rainwater in the school garden).”
“The results of the Climate Challenge were truly inspiring,” Barkász said. “By 30 November, the end of the campaign, we counted as many as 65 contributions from 16 schools on the Padlet. Some school teams really made a change: took measures to retain water, such as creating a small swamp on the school yard to retain water and increase biodiversity, planted trees on the heat islands around their schools, or committed themselves to reducing their own carbon footprint.”
“We were happy to receive positive feedback from teachers as well: ‘I think the challenge was very nicely prepared and it was methodologically processed for me as a teacher, so that I could use it right away,’ one teacher said. And ‘Children enjoyed all outdoor activities – measuring, estimating, observing, collecting data,’’another teacher reported,” Barkász said.
“This challenge showed us, that the topic of climate change is important to teachers as well, so we are motivated to support them further in this field. We believe that our story could inspire GLOBE coordinators/educators in other countries who also aim to motivate teachers to educate their students about the impacts of climate change in a practical way and are looking for ideas on how to do this.”
“And what’s next? We will soon start preparing our next climate-related challenge to be launched in spring 2023!”
Star Story submitted by GLOBE Country Coordinator, Czech Republic, Csilla Barkász