March 9th 2021

The Office for Climate Education launches an educational kit "The Climate in Our Hands - Ocean and Cryosphere" intended for primary and secondary schools

The Office for Climate Education (OCE), a foundation created on the initiative of La main à la Pâte and climate scientists (the founding members are ​l’IPSL​ , ​Météo et Climat​, ​IRD​Météo-France et ​Sorbonne Université​), recently become a center under the auspices of UNESCO, aims to promote climate change education in France and around the world. The OCE produces educational resources for teachers and students, thanks to close international cooperation between scientific bodies, NGOs and educational institutions. As of March 9, the OCE is making available a first set of free educational resources: "The Climate in Our Hands - Ocean and Cryosphere".

 

Climate education, a fundamental human right

Mitigating the effects of climate change and adapting to inevitable upheavals requires broad collective action, of which education is an essential aspect. OCE's mission is to support teachers to enable them to deploy quality projects in their classrooms that are scientifically and pedagogically validated . Thus enabling the younger generations to grasp the challenges of climate change, understand its mechanisms, and project themselves in a positive way in a changing world. In order to facilitate their appropriation and the widest possible dissemination, the educational resources developed by the OCE are free of costs, free of rights, multilingual (French, English, Spanish, German), and always accessible on the site ​www.oce.global​.

In addition to these pedagogical resources, the OCE supports teachers through training opportunities and communities of practice that promote peer-to-peer exchange and learning.

« It is essential that teachers around the world have access to free, quality educational resources and professional development based on the best climate and educational research. »

Eric Guilyardi, president of the OCE, climate scientist and IPCC lead author.

 

IPCC reports decrypted for the classroom to understand climate change and take action

In 2019, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a Special Report highlighting the importance of the ocean and the cryosphere (the ice on Earth) for the human species and the biosphere, and the severe disruption they are experiencing as a result of climate change.

In February 2021, the United Nations proclaimed the Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to mobilize stakeholders everywhere around a common framework.

The Office for Climate Education joins the efforts of the international community by offering primary and secondary school teachers a series of educational resources developed from the IPCC report.

Ocean and Cryosphere i​ s the first volume of a collection of educational tools produced in collaboration with international educational and climate experts, entitled The Climate in Our Hands. These resources highlight active pedagogies and interdisciplinarity. They enable students to understand the mechanisms of climate change and its impacts, as well as the importance of the ocean and frozen surfaces in climate regulation and in the development of human societies. They also propose concrete projects for action, at the scale of the classroom or the educational community​.

This first resource kit on the ocean and cryosphere theme includes :
- "The Climate in our Hands - Ocean and Cryosphere", a teaching manual for primary and middle school teachers, offering a complete and modular progression;
- A summary for teachers of the IPCC report, which offers a complete, accessible and richly illustrated scientific documentation;
- a dozen video capsules adapted for classroom use, in which scientists explain different characteristics or phenomena related to the ocean or cryosphere in the context of climate change.
- Interactive multimedia activities allowing students to calculate their carbon footprint, study various ocean ecosystems, visualize sea level rise and discover solutions implemented around the world.

 

Distribution of the Climate in Our Hands kit - Ocean and Cryosphere

 

As part of the launch of the Climate in Our Hands - Ocean and Cryosphere project, the OCE, thanks to its ​partners​, will distribute several thousand paper copies of the teaching manual free of charge to teachers around the world. Thus, this project specially contributes to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

The Office for Climate Education invites all teachers who wish to take up the challenge of teaching about climate change to request their free textbook on the website : ocean-cryosphere.oce.global

 

Partners

Media contact:

Communications officer: Djian Sadadou / djian.sadadou@oce.global / +33 7 49 95 69 93

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Office for Climate Education OCE