Climate change is at work all over the world and its consequences are already quite visible. It affects us all and should be a priority for our education systems, as recalled in Article 12 of the Paris Agreement, which emphasizes the importance of climate change education.
The Office for Climate Education (OCE), created in 2018 at the initiative of La main à la pâte Foundation and the scientific community, is an ambitious response to this global need.
The OCE aims to organize strong international cooperation between scientific bodies, NGOs and educational institutions to educate present and future generations about climate change, to equip them with the tools of understanding and action to protect them from preconceptions, ideologies or irrationality, and to prepare them to live in a changing world.
"It is essential that teachers around the world have access to free, quality educational resources and professional development based on the best climate and pedagogical research".
Eric Guilyardi, President of the OCE, climatologist and lead author of the IPCC. The OCE and its partners have a mission to promote climate change education worldwide through :
Based in Paris, the operational OCE team coordinates a worldwide network of national and regional partners. This network is supported by both the scientific community (laboratories, academies of science, IPCC, etc.), NGOs and local or national educational authorities. This community of practice, accompanied by the OCE, ensures that schools get moving to face future challenges in a sustainable and holistic way, deeply rooted in their social environment and local communities.
In 2020, the Office for Climate Education became a category 2 center under the auspices of UNESCO. This institutionalization of the OCE aims to promote climate change education at the international level, with a special focus on emerging countries.
The students carry out an experiment to ascertain how the thermal expansion of seawater contributes to sea level rise.
Through documentary analysis, students learn that climate change has led to an increase in extreme events, which has many consequences for human societies.
The students debate the role played by sea ice in the Earth’s climate and carry out an experiment to understand the importance of the cryosphere as a surface with a high albedo.
Through a roleplaying game or multimedia animation activities, students explore different terrestrial food webs.
The students perform an experiment to understand the link between acidity and pH, and also between CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and ocean acidification.
The students carry out two experiments to determine how differences in the density of seawater (which depend on salinity and temperature differences) can drive ocean currents.
Through a documentary analysis and an experiment, the students learn about the role of the ocean’s thermal inertia (compared to the land) in climate regulation.
Lesson D1 - Consequences of Climate Change on Ecosystem Services MAIN SUBJECTS Natural sciences
The students use a carbon footprint calculator to assess their carbon footprint and discuss what they can do to reduce it.
Through a role-playing game, the students explore polar and marine food webs.
This lesson gives students the opportunity to explore emotions intrinsically linked to the subject of climate change, as well as the idea of a totally different world in the future.
Through a role-playing game, students discover the inequalities between countries with respect to wealth and greenhouse gas emissions.
Through documentary research and / or an artwork / ar- tistic performance, students learn about the cultural importance of the ocean and cryosphere for human populations across history.
The students realise that there are many solutions to deal with climate change, either through adaptation or mitigation, and that many people and organisations are already taking action.
The students use a carbon footprint calculator to assess their carbon footprint and discuss what they can do to reduce it.
The students discuss topics that raise the issue of climate justice.
Through a role-playing game, students discover the inequalities between countries with respect to wealth and greenhouse gas emissions.
The students realise that there are many solutions to deal with climate change, either through adaptation or mitigation, and that many people and organisations are already taking action.
The Office for Climate Education (OCE) launches an innovative online course: an opportunity for teachers all over the world to learn how to teach about climate change online and for free.
A special day on a specific topic related to a climate change issue and focused on a local concern is organised.