Climate Education for high school students in the municipality of São Vicente-SP Brazil: development of teaching materials and teaching-learning strategies

• Grant number: 25/03867-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Sylmara Lopes Francelino Gonçalves Dias
• Grantee: Sylmara Lopes Francelino Gonçalves Dias
• Host Institution: Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Gisele da Silva Craveiro ; Manoel dos Santos ; Pedro Henrique Campello Torres ; Rylanneive Leonardo Pontes Teixeira ; Wânia Duleba
• Associated research grant: 23/10280-2 - Co-planning for climate justice in São Vicente: a decision-making toolkit based on territory with, community and scientific evidences, AP.PP

Abstract

Because of global warming, climate change has generated a series of socio-environmental impacts, such as rising sea levels, for the most diverse social groups and territories, especially those most vulnerable, such as those located in coastal areas. Coastal municipalities such as São Vicente, in the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista (RMBS), in the state of São Paulo (SP), are examples of territories with populations highly susceptible to climate change and its effects. In this context, we can see how climate change is a cross-cutting socio-environmental issue, involving various social, environmental, territorial, biological and economic challenges, among others. For this reason, education is seen as a potential tool in the process of learning about the causes and threats of climate change, especially for empowering children and adolescents to confront climate, socio-environmental and territorial injustices. Encouraging youth education is urgent and essential for communities to be responsive and resilient to climate change. Despite this, educators still face several challenges and knowledge gaps when it comes to including this topic in their lessons. Current teaching on climate change generally adopts a globalized approach, with examples and content far removed from the reality in which students are inserted. In this sense, "climate literacy" emerges as an intersection between climate science and climate and environmental education approaches and strategies, to understand the climate emergency - its facts, drivers, impacts and urgency - which focuses on the development of values, attitudes and behavioural changes. For schools, the issue of climate change has been given even more attention by Law 14.926 (Brazil, 2024), which ensures that the issue of climate change (and others such as the protection of biodiversity) is included in the National Environmental Education Policy (PNEA), thus making it compulsory to debate the issue in classrooms in Brazilian schools from 2025. In the context of secondary education, in the current configuration of the National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC), learning about climate change and related issues is strongly linked to the proposed content of the area of Natural Sciences and their Technologies, in an interdisciplinary way between biology, physics, and chemistry. Climate literacy is thus seen as a fundamental strategy for strengthening ties with the local community and encouraging society's participation in achieving climate justice. However, although it is a relevant guideline, it must be considered that strategies for tackling climate change must take into account the specificities of the context. Given this scenario, this proposal seeks to develop a set of teaching materials for teaching and learning about climate change and its influence on the daily lives of high school students in coastal environments. Based on the production, revision and improvement of teaching materials such as a Climate Detective kit for coastal environments, an educational game (Dengame), a podcast on the impacts of macro and microplastics on beaches and oceans, and a teaching sequence for citizen monitoring of exotic organisms in the context of a climate emergency, it is hoped that this proposal will, among other results, (i) contribute to the diversification of the content repository of the co-educa platform; (ii) co-create support material with teachers from state schools in São Vicente; and (iii) contribute to the BNCC based on its competencies and skills by teaching stage and school year. (AU)