on the links on the top to reach the available resources collected
by INFORSE-Europe members !
& Climate School Resources" is a
project realised in cooperation with INFORSE-Europe
The school education
activities have been added to the INFORSE - Europe Work Program since
These were realised because a number of NGOs are actively involved
in sustainable-energy education at schools and colleges.
Some of the activities
particularly focused on sharing practical information including the use
of models, mobile exhibition units, and IT-based
energy-education materials. Participants research the most effective
ways of engaging school pupils in various western European and CEE
countries, as well as sharing experiences of cross-cultural barriers
in the use of energy and climate change education resources.
activities in many former CIS countries,
and are increasing in more counties.
In the last years there were also increased
educational activities to school children in
Educational materials have been
regularly added to this school resource database.
In 2010, six
creative international school projects, supported by Intelligent Energy
Europe (IEE), were added under
In 2007, INFORSE-Europe
extended its activities through:
activities in many former CIS countries, and are increasing
2007, INFORSE-Europe member organisations prepared to launch
SPARE in Romania (Earth Friends) and Portugal (Almargem).
- SPARE activities in many former CIS countries. In 2007 it
is also under introduction in Romania and Portugal.
- Climate Change Science for
the NGOs and School Teachers
Climate Change issues are presented widely in media these days and frequently
the same messages (facts) are used by NGOs in their campaigns or school teachers
in their teaching process. CC related campaigns or teaching are sometimes ending
with a bit of frustration (another bad news issue) or reluctance how the public
can stop the CC or influence the whole process. INFORSE member NGOs have the
unique position here because their activities are primarily oriented on sustainable
energy development and are offering the solutions to the threat of CC. What is
really needed for NGOs and teachers is to get the scientific knowledge of CC
in a relatively simple way which can be used as the support for argumentation
towards sustainable energy development. This report is targeted at exactly this
goal: providing the NGOs and teachers with the CC knowledge based on latest scientific
data which can be helpful in their daily work. The content of this document is
based on The IPCC 4th Assessment Report.
Download report: (266
kB word doc)
where there was a model building workshop in October 2007.
- Members made educational activities,
which are publish in the Sustainable Energy News, and in the INFORSE-Europe
In 2006, INFORSE-Europe
extended its activities through:
Activities in 2005:
In 2004-2005, the
project was co-ordinated by the West Wales ECO Centre, which has 20
years’ experience of energy-related and environmental educational
work with schools. The INFORSE-Europe secretariat has managed the web-based
school resource web site was redesigned with new categories. Besides INFORSE
members' activities, other valuable resources were added including English
reviews of Spanish, French, and Hungarian materials.
During the second half of 2005, 4 worthy projects secured full or part
funding to pursue their educational work from 4 countries:
· Romania: Building more practical
models or demonstration kits for sustainable
energy solutions from Prietenii Pamantului (Earth Friends), and 4 film
scripts (solar cooker, wind, solar
· Greece: Climate change and sustainable energy solutions Publication from
Mediterranean SOS Network.
· Poland: 2 films: Biomass and Small
Hydro Power Plants from the Polish Ecological
Club Upper Silesian Branch.
· Hungary: Translation and introduction of 25 practical 1-page descriptions
of energy and climate experiments from
E-misszio/EKA. (The original
page material was developed and used with success by the Danish School
Forum and the Danish Organisation for Renewable Energy. 25 of them have
been translated to English and 15 have been translated
Workshop and Conference
In June 2005, INFORSE-Europe made an
exhibition at the EU Green Week. The web site of the school resources
including the review of Spanish
material was a big success. The national Spanish television company
did a report about it. See more on the INFORSE-Europe the exhibition here.
- In September 2005, at the INFORSE-Europe seminar in Romania Sharon
Bannister delivered a presentation and organised a workshop. This meeting
provided an ideal
to talk through
the issues NGOs face in trying to develop educational material, not least
the lack of awareness of successful programmes.
Bearing this in mind it would be very useful if all INFORSE members who
have done or are doing work with schools could send a brief outline
of their activities in their own language and English to firstname.lastname@example.org,
and/or email@example.com for website
inclusion. Please see proceedings of the Seminar here.
Activities of West
Wales Eco Centre
Since the start of September 2004, the school activities of West Wales
Eco Centre have worked with 2644 people from: 24 schools- primary (3-11)
and secondary (11-18), 3 colleges. Sharon Bannister, the school officer
of the West Wales Eco Centre, has presented climate change and sustainable
energy solutions at 3 teacher training events as well as 3 child focused
events. One such event was ‘Into the Future Festival’ organised
by Carmarthenshire County Council on 30th June and 1st July 2005.
The Centres’ mobile
unit joined many other organisations that
have sustainability of the Earth as a core activity, to work with classes
of pupils from 15 schools.
During 2005, the Eco Centre celebrated its
silver jubilee with a full week of events from 16th - 21st May 2005.
As education has always had a high
priority there was also a strong focus on activities for children with:
A climate change poster competition - 2 individual children won
solar powered caps and the winning school, Pembroke Dock Community School,
received small solar panels for electricity investigations and some books.
· A bilingual display at a reconstructed Iron Age fort that examined energy
use in relation to the past, present and future.
A visit to a secondary school with the Eco Centre’s mobile exhibition
unit. Hands on sessions with years 9 and 10 and busy lunch and break
times proved to be very successful.
· Building alternative energy cars with the local primary school, Ysgol
Bro Ingli. The winning team created a balloon-powered vehicle and everyone
enjoyed chocolate crispy cakes made with solar cooker melted chocolate.
Pembrokeshire schools that are aiming for
the county’s Sustainable
Schools Award contact the West Wales Eco Centre when they want to examine
their energy use.
The presentations and workshops are tailored to specific
age groups however they always start with talking about climate change
and using a picture with Danish illustrations to emphasise that no matter
what language people speak the problem is universal. Once the problem
has been identified solutions are sought; firstly the group examines
energy efficiency, as this is within everyone’s capability and
then they move onto to looking at alternative technologies. Wales has
a number of wind farms and is often a subject up for debate, especially
with older teenagers and adults. In the county there is one community
wind turbine that classes can see to make up their own minds about harnessing
power from the wind.
Documents have been created to support energy work for the Sustainable
Schools Award Scheme and these are all on www.ecocentre.org.uk.
As well as this ongoing work, the Centre
has been asked to support the Darwin Science Festival in a project
where energy efficiency is to be
promoted. A web quest was devised as the input involves pupils using
the Information Technology bus from Pembrokeshire College to research
advertise their own energy efficiency messages. The target is to work
with 40 schools!
In the long term, the Centre would like
to deliver a comprehensive, interactive climate change project
focuses on energy efficiency,
alternative energy and global energy issues. This activity is
still at the fund raising stage.
Following previous co-operation on educational activities, INFORSE-Europe members
(Earth Friends, Romania and West Wales ECO Centre) made a proposal to include
sharing information, resources, and experience on sustainable-energy education.
Small projects were prepared by INFORSE-Europe member organisations an these
can be seen on the web site of the resources.
A new school education section on the INFORSE-Europe website was designed and
created. On the site, there are educational resources and descriptions of climate-
and energy-related projects and programs.
Meeting and Conference
Representatives from INFORSE-Europe member organisations participating met
on September 20, 2004 in Copenhagen immediately before a European Sustainable
Energy Education Conference (September 21-22), which the representatives also
attended. Sharon Bannister from the West Wales ECO Centre delivered a presentation
about the INFORSE-Europe activities. See more about the Conference here.
- Judit Szoleczky: firstname.lastname@example.org
- A 2-page
Brochure of the Work Plan in 2004. [page
1/2 185 kB] [page
2/2 252 kB8]
special thanks to the INFORSE-Europe Secretariat's trainees in 2005 for
contribution in developing
this school resource website: Guillermo Martin Cenizo from Spain,
- 2004 Report of West
Wales Eco-Centre [115
kB pdf file]
Jeppe Petersen from Denmark, and Magalie Séron from France.
Drawing & Animation