Climate science has grown in interest in recent years. This is also the case with young people, just think of the various climate marches. Unfortunately, there is often still a lot of incorrect information to be found online. There is a great demand from education for correct and easy to implement information about the climate. The Global Change Ecology Center (GCE) of the University of Antwerp wants to do something about this. They attach great importance to correct communication about climate science to young people and want to integrate this in primary and secondary education.
Combined forces
From this idea, Climate Link arose, made possible part by the University of Antwerp and the cities Antwerp and Sint-Niklaas. Climate Link is an initiative that aims to form the link between science and education. Scientists have all the correct information about the climate and teachers know perfectly how to convey this topic to their students but often lack the right input. So why not join forces? This gave rise to the idea of developing teaching packages that teachers can easily handle. In this way we combine the strengths of scientists and teachers.
Teaching packages, blog posts and workshops
Climate Link's offer currently consists out of two theoretical teaching packages, with up-to-date information about climate problems, and two practical teaching packages in which students conduct and evaluate a scientific experiment themselves. These teaching packages can be downloaded for free from the 2023 – 2024 school year for all schools in Dutch education.
Climate Link also writes interesting blog posts (Blog - Scientists4Climate) and they give workshops about climate change at schools and events.
Care about the climate
Climate Link is a unique project in Flanders and even within Europe. Climate Link wants to continue to evolve and form a sustainable interaction center between scientists and education that grows with the climate changes of tomorrow. Attention is also paid to social media, events and all kinds of actions in the schools themselves. Your financial support is needed to continue building the future of tomorrow.
Learn more about Climate Link
Find out more about this project? Contact Arne Ven, project coordinator at Climate Link: arne.ven@uantwerpen.be