What is ESD?

The topic of education for sustainable development is more urgent than ever, especially in times of the energy transition triggered by the devastating accident in Fukushima. But what does education for sustainable development actually mean? And how can ESD be anchored in schools or lessons?

Education for Sustainable Development is a global educational concept supported by the United Nations. It emphasises the ecologically and economically responsible use of our planet's resources, such as raw materials and energy; and it provides for socially just interaction between people and respectful communication between generations, world regions, nations and cultures. This concept is to be anchored in all types of schools and school subjects, leading away from "disaster education" and enabling the development of a positive future by building pupils' "creative competence". More information at www.bne-portal.de/

PILOT project: bne meets kerncurricilum

From April to September 2012, the pilot project: ESD meets core curriculum was carried out by the Oldenburg Further Education Centre (OFZ) in co-operation with the science, technology and economics subjects on behalf of the BNE Agency Lower Saxony e.V. association. In this test run, criteria for sustainable training programmes were applied and tested for their effectiveness. In particular, the link to the core curriculum, the organisation as a multi-day event with practical phases in between, as well as the opportunity to apply the teaching examples presented in the training course in their own practice and the accompanying exchange with colleagues proved to be a great support in everyday school life.

Training for sustainable development in the school and core curriculum 2013

Contents

The "Training for Sustainable Development 2013" series from the ESD Agency project at the University of Oldenburg draws on the experiences from the 2012 pilot project and aims to support teachers in implementing "Education for Sustainable Development" (ESD) at their school. We want to show tried and tested ways in which the ideas of ESD can be combined with the requirements of the core curriculum and school curriculum so that this is no longer perceived as an additional obligation that is difficult to fulfil "on top of everything else" in everyday school life.

The further education programme has been developed in co-operation with the science and technology and economics subjects as well as with subject teaching and is organised by the Oldenburg Further Education Centre (OFZ) at the Didactic Centre (diz). The training courses in the programme are organised as a series of two to four events so that you can try out the methods and materials with your classes in the meantime and reflect on the experiences in the group. We and participating teachers have had good experiences with this format so far.

From April to June 2013, experienced speakers from the subjects mentioned above will address a wide range of issues relating to sustainable energy supply and use as well as evaluation skills. We will be presenting the concept of ESD, but above all we will be focussing on further promoting the skills of lesson design, further developing existing teaching units and materials and adapting them to the respective classes. The training shows that ESD is not just a "theoretical concept", but becomes very practical in the classroom!

The participation of tandems or small groups from individual schools is welcome so that you can use the new concepts and materials together with other colleagues from your school at a later date - however, this is not a prerequisite for participation. Participation in this programme is exceptionally free of charge, as special funds from the state of Lower Saxony can be used to promote ESD. Further details and information on the training programme can be found in the information letter.

Overview of all programmes

Individual offers

KOL.1315.007: Economics and physics

Energy supply and energy utilisation will occupy us more than ever in the future. This is not just about scientific and technical issues, but also about social, political and especially economic ones. These issues are closely interlinked: one area of knowledge alone is not enough to make a well-founded judgement of the facts. Although the curricula in the subjects of physics and economics offer many points of contact, it is precisely the presentation of different perspectives in one subject that poses the challenge.

The aim of the training course is to use materials, experiments and methods to show how curriculum requirements and energy education goals can be implemented for education for sustainable development in the subjects of physics and economics. The programme is aimed at teachers at secondary, intermediate, comprehensive or grammar schools who teach physics or economics or both in years 9 and 10.

First date: Wed, 10 April 2013, 4.00 pm - 7.00 pm, Wechloy campus of the University of Oldenburg, W02 1-120;

second date in the period 22 - 24 May 2013 and third date in the period 10 - 14 June 2013.

Speakers: Simone Malz and Sebastian Peters

KOL.1317.006: Chemistry

The "Energieparcours-Nordwest", awarded by the UNESCO Commission in 2011, is an association of various regional energy sites. It offers pupils the opportunity to develop, discuss and evaluate different ways of converting and utilising energy using learning trails at the excursion location. The learning trail on the topic of "Energy from biomass" is aimed at pupils in Years 10 and 11, who can explore key questions on the topic of biogas, including biochemical processes, technical implementation and the effects of energy policy, at stations and in discussions with experts from the company.

Over the course of three afternoons, you will get to know the biogas learning trail as an extracurricular place of learning and the accompanying teaching materials. The first meeting serves to prepare for the excursion to the biogas plant. We would like to explore with you your previous experience with extracurricular learning centres and offer links to the topic of "energy from biomass" in your chemistry lessons. The biogas plant and learning path will be visited on the second attendance date. At the third meeting, the experience gained will be discussed in the light of the supportive potential of the learning path and the teaching materials.

First date: Fri, 26 April 2013, 2.30 pm - 5.00 pm, location will be announced with the invitation; the excursion date will be announced at the first meeting, the third date will be agreed jointly.

Speakers: Kerstin Haucke and Verena Niesel

KOL.1315.008: Implementing ESD in science lessons

A pool of practical teaching experiments for the areas of "soil-water-air-climate" is available to be trialled. The necessary specialised knowledge from the fields of chemistry, physics and biology is taught in a realistic, vivid and entertaining way. The training programme is primarily aimed at primary school teachers, but also offers a wide range of suggestions for teachers of all types of secondary school who teach science outside of their subject area. The programme will be tailored to the specific type of school according to the participants. A two-day block event is planned as a compact course and two afternoons on which the resulting teaching projects will be evaluated, presented and discussed.

First date: Sat, 13 and Sun, 14 April 2013, 10.00 am - 7.00 pm, conference centre (will be announced with the invitation, overnight stay possible); subsequent afternoon dates (4 hours each) will be negotiated on the block date, location: University of Oldenburg. Speakers: Ines Oldenburg (activities as a primary school teacher, in school administration, in university teacher training in the subject of Sachunterricht) and Herbert Brüdt (activities as a teacher in the areas of Sek I and Sek II in the subjects of chemistry, physics and biology and in university teacher training in the subject of Sachunterricht).

KOL.1316.008: ESD meets core curriculum

Do you teach the subject of physics as a non-subject in accordance with the core curriculum and at the same time want to implement aspects of education for sustainable development (ESD) in physics lessons? This is a tall order that we would like to help you with. Physics lessons in particular are closely linked to ESD through the topic of energy. But what exactly is energy in physics? What ideas do pupils have about it and which concepts for teaching energy have proved successful? What role do renewable energies play and how can physics be learnt from them?

These questions and the basics of education for sustainability (ESD) are at the centre of the training course. Best practice examples illustrate the practical application of tried and tested materials and teaching concepts. The technical background is prepared in the form of simple experiments for lessons at lower secondary level, adapted to your prior knowledge. You will familiarise yourself with tried and tested teaching concepts and materials and experiment in the group yourself. Between the face-to-face sessions, you will try out the teaching concepts with your classes so that you can report on your practical experiences at the next meeting and we can discuss them together.

First date: Tue, 16 April 2013, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm, Wechloy campus of the University of Oldenburg, W2 1-120; second and third dates to be determined jointly.

Speakers: Michael Komorek and students of the physics teaching programme

With energy in computer science lessons

A central aspect of sustainable development is the future-proof design of our electricity supply and utilisation. Whether it is the integration of renewable energy sources into our electricity grid or the now mandatory "smart" meters, almost every innovation in the energy sector has to do with an IT development for data acquisition, control or data exchange.

In this training course, basic ideas on the topic of energy in computer science lessons will be conveyed and there will be the opportunity to discuss tried and tested materials and to follow the pupils' progress with the materials in practical work. One focus will be on the processing of real data from photovoltaic systems: from analysing system-generated XML files to evaluating data using spreadsheets and querying data from a database. In further sessions, the presented teaching proposal and its materials will then be adapted to the school's own particularities and reflected on the trialled lessons. The main target group is secondary levels I and II.

First date: Tue, 16 April 2013, 9.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m., location will be announced with the invitation; subsequent dates by arrangement.

Speaker: Stefan Moll

Biology

One of the aims of biology lessons is to encourage pupils to treat themselves and the environment responsibly. Biology lessons therefore follow the concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In three workshops, we want to deal with the ESD concept and its challenges and opportunities in a concrete and practice-orientated way. To this end, three topics that are directly linked to the core curriculum will be explored in an exemplary manner so that they can be implemented immediately in schools. We would like to reflect with you on tried and tested, skills- and activity-orientated teaching materials on the subject of the Wadden Sea ecosystem and carry out experiments in the Wadden Sea school laboratory.

In a second block, we will focus on the topic of ecology in the Green School of the Botanical Garden Oldenburg. There we will present learning arrangements and experiments on the topics of insects, flowering plants and soil and try them out for ourselves. The third block is dedicated to the topic of lifestyles of children and young people. Together we will collect teaching ideas, plan lessons and try them out so that after each block you will be able to implement small learning arrangements independently in the classroom. Afterwards, the experiences gained can be exchanged and reflected upon.

First date: Wed, 11 June 2013, 3.00 pm - 4.00 pm for preliminary discussion, campus Wechloy of the University of Oldenburg, W3 2-231; further meetings will be arranged in the group.

Speakers: Corinna Hößle, Holger Winkler and Birgit Weusmann

Technology

In view of global ecological and economic development, every society today has to deal with the problems of sustainable development. The problems of sustainable development are linked to technological developments. In this advanced training course, teaching units for technology lessons for grades 8-10, which address technological developments from a sustainability perspective, will be presented and discussed with regard to the possibilities of their implementation in the classroom.

The topics of the three events are Introduction to the concepts of sustainability, evaluating technology in the classroom; lessons in year 8: sustainability explained using paper production; lessons in year 9: mobility and communication from a sustainability perspective; lessons in year 10: energy from a sustainability perspective.

The event is already running. If you are interested in a follow-up course, please contact Mrs Selle(simona.selle@uni-oldenburg.de).

Speakers: Katharina Dutz, Gert Sudbrack and Reinhard Meiners

Nutrition - "Between resource security and food crisis"

The training course "Zwischen Ernährungssicherheit und Ressourcenkrise" is organised by the Verband Entwicklungspolitik in Niedersachsen e.V. (VEN) in co-operation with the Oldenburger Fortbildungszentrum (OFZ), the Ökumenisches Zentrum Oldenburg and the Regionales Umweltbildungszentrum (RUZ) Oldenburg.

Over three afternoons, "Between Food Security and Resource Crisis" offers action- and competence-orientated approaches from the field of "Global Learning". Didactic approaches for work in schools and at extracurricular learning centres will be presented, developed and tested on issues relating to food production and food sovereignty as well as resource consumption, climate protection and "peak oil". The pupils' own environment is to be linked with global perspectives in order to make options for action clear. The link to the core curricula enables direct integration into your lessons. Suitable materials for the individual subject areas and teaching units round off the training programme. Teaching concepts and materials can be trialled in your own classes between the face-to-face sessions.

ESD training courses in the regular OFZ programme

In order to support teachers in general with issues relating to education for sustainable development, the Oldenburg Training Centre has compiled and developed various training courses that illustrate the breadth of ESD and offer points of reference in various school contexts. Some of the courses draw on the experience of the Energy Education project. For example, the electricity workshop at Staakenweg primary school and the north-west energy course will be presenting two training courses.

Further information can be found at:

Contact

If you are interested in training courses in the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), please contact

Simona Selle
Coordinator for further education and training courses

Oldenburg Training Centre (OFZ) at the Didactic Centre (diz) of the University of Oldenburg

D - 26111 Oldenburg

E-mail: simona.selle@uni-oldenburg.de

Tel: 04 41 / 798 - 58 04

Fax: 04 41 / 798 - 49 00

Further information

Further information on the "ESD Agency" project can be found at www.diz.uni-oldenburg.de/bne-agentur.

You can also find energy education materials for your lessons at www.energiebildung.uni-oldenburg.de/.

Information about the excursion portal Energieparcours-nordwest can be found at www.energieparcours-nordwest.de.