We recommend that you use the 10 steps to set up a plan for your school. Try to think through and plan how you will carry out each step of CO2nnect.
Write down the activities you will do with your pupils, what subjects and teachers will be involved, who you will cooperate with and how you want to present the results. See the other help sheets such as project work and other activities for more ideas!
Below is one example of how you could organise the 10 steps and activities of CO2nnect at your school.
1. Plan and prepare for CO2nnect
- Teachers and staff hold a preliminary planning meeting, decide to join and decide on a time frame
- Teachers meet with pupils in the classes that will participate. Pupils and teachers discuss what they want to do and make a plan for their work from start to finish
- Teachers and pupils get familiar with the website, the approach and activities
- Decide what issues you would like to explore locally, see Questions for discussion for some ideas
- Find local partners or school partners and plan how you will cooperate
2. Teachers sign up the school and their classes to participate
- This could be done in the classroom or by the teacher alone
3. Introduce topics of climate change, CO2, school transport and sustainability
- Many methods can be used to get pupils working actively with the topics, such as group work, excursions, drama, discussion, debates, reading and reporting on internet links of interest, or inviting guests from the transport or energy sector to the school. See the help sheet Other activities for ideas.
4. Collect data on distance to school and means of transportation and enter it into the international database.
- One or more class hours could be used to measure the way to school on maps or using other methods and enter the results into the CO2nnect database.
5. Complete a short online questionnaire on climate- and transport issues
- It should only take a few minutes to complete the questionnaire. Why not also pick one or more question to discuss and debate, after completing the questionnaire?
6. Analyse and discuss your results; compare your CO2 emissions from transport with that of other schools and countries).
- This topic could be done in a few class hours by using the results analysis tools on the webiste, or it could stretch over some weeks to give pupils more time to work with the material or make a local project.
- In addition to using class time, pupils could be given homework or create projects related to the analysis, or to one or more of the Questions for discussion .
7. An important part of CO2nnect is to think about how systems can be changed to reduce CO2. We encourage you to work closely with local authorities, parents, businesses, organisations or other stakeholders.
- In this phase of the campaign the pupils will get more involved with the reasons why their transport situation is the way it is, and what can be done to increase sustainability.
- Set up a meeting or visits with local decision-makers. That could mean school or town authorities, parents, businesses, other schools or any other stakeholder interested in cooperationg.
- Present the results of the campaign and the pupils’ analysis and conclusions. This can be a great starting point for discussing what can be done to improve transport sustainability and reduce climate gas emissions locally.
8. Develop ideas for reducing climate emissions from transport. Upload your climate idea and photos from your work.
- Pupils will need time to work with their ideas on how to reduce climate emissions. Getting together with local authorities, parents or others in the community may be the clue to a successful climate idea or activity!
- Explore alternative ways of getting to and from school and the climate impact
- Once the class has discussed and decided on a ”climate idea,” upload it to the website
- Check out and discuss other schools’ ideas by browsing the website
- Be sure to document the work with photos, videos, models, etc. as well as in a written report.
9. Submit a project report (optional).
- Write a short report about how you've worked with CO2nnect. Describe activities, collaboration with others in the community, the goals and achievements, learning outcomes and effects on school development. Upload the report to inspire others!
- Check out other schools’ projects!
10. Evaluate CO2nnect and become a SUPPORT school (teachers, optional).
- This is for the teachers to do by themselves. A meeting of the most involved teachers could be a good setting for completing the evaluation.
- It is important for your school’s development that you take some time to reflect on what happened and give feedback about what the pupils learned and what the school learned. We also would like to hear what worked well and what was difficult.
- Your school is now on the way to developing Education for Sustainable Development and will receive a diploma for being a SUPPORT school.
- At the same time, by completing the evaluation module you have made an important contribution to international research on ESD.