The Climate Detectives school project
Climate Detectives is an ESA school project for students between 8 and 19 years old*. Students are challenged to ‘make a difference’ in understanding and protecting Earth’s climate. They will identify a climate problem by observing their local environment and be tasked to investigate it as ‘Climate Detectives’. To this end, they will use available Earth Observation data or take measurements on the ground. Based on their investigation, teams will propose a way to help reduce the problem. The students will learn about climate on Earth as a complex and changing system and the importance of respecting our environment.
The project aims at developing and reinforcing the students’ STEM skills and at stimulating their creativity, critical thinking and initiative to improve their understanding of climate issues and positively changing behaviours that can have an influence on such issues.
A set of curricular classroom resources has been developed to encourage student's participation and motivation and to improve their understanding of Earth's climate. These resources cover the topics weather and climate, seasons, Earth and atmosphere as well as natural and human-made disasters.
The project objectives are:
- To promote the teaching and learning of STEM competences and skills, including scientific methodology, data collection, visualisation and analysis;
- To improve the younger generation’s awareness and knowledge of Earth's climate, both as a global issue and in local environments, and prepare them for the climate challenges of this century.
Starting in 2022-2023, Climate Detectives is also open for school students up to 19 years old.
