WeAreEurope SD – A playful Sustainable Development Education Approach for Primary School Level

Abstract

Sustainable Development (SD) has been in the EU’s political Agenda for the past decades. In 2001, the EU established a SD Strategy and more recently contributed to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for SD, reaffirming the political importance it attributes to this pressing matter. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) plays a vital role in pushing forward the Agenda for SD. The WAE-SD project has been designed so as to offer a variety of complementary learning solutions that use active learning, game-based learning, and storytelling, among others. These solutions have the potential to engage children, address more complex concepts in a comprehensive manner, contribute to the development of other XXI century and basic competencies, like literacy, teamwork, social competences, ICT skills, among others. The WAE-SD project addresses the educational needs of children (6-10 years old) at 3 levels: a) Envision the future: depict what might happen if we don’t change our lifestyles, so that they better understand what’s at stake, b) What needs to change: learn about the UN’s SD Goals, so that they better understand what should be addressed/emended to create a more sustainable world, and c) Call to Action: learn what we can do as individuals and as part of a community to reach the UN’s SD Goals, and act. To this purpose, the project delivers three results: a) an eBook to illustrate a future scenario for the Planet if we keep up with our lifestyle, b) A Game Add-on to the pre-existing WeAreEurope Digital Game, to introduce and explore the UN’s SD Goals, thus presenting children with what needs to be changed for a more sustainable Planet, and c) an Action Kit, consisting of guidelines for the implementation of SD projects/activities for schools and other settings, thus promoting real change in behaviours and attitudes. This paper focuses on the designed material and the proposed ways of utilizing them in classroom settings