Climate Action Schools: Empowering the Next Generation through Sustainability Education

Take Action Global (TAG) is delighted to welcome Gaia Learning to the Climate Action Schools community. 

"We are proud to join a global network of passionate and action orientated educators making a commitment to embed and celebrate sustainability education in our learning communities" — Kirstin Coughtrie, Founder of Gaia Learning and Climate Action Champion 

Climate Action Schools is a new global network that connects educators and students ages 5-18 to explore the causes and effects of climate change, develop solutions, and take action together.

Young people worldwide are witnessing climate change and want to take action. They understand the power of collective action and of the integral role that they play in creating change at a global-level. There is an urgent need to provide more opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to come together in cross-cultural exchange for dialogue, shared experience, and action. 

Climate Action Schools seeks to meet this need.

“Climate education has an important role to tackle climate change on a global scale. It informs students, takes away climate anxiety, and brings important skills to a classroom including empathy, creativity, and problem-solving. Through our app we have been able to keep track of efforts as part of our initiatives and we have been able to point out the impact of climate education by amount of tons of avoided carbon. Climate Action Schools will allow teachers to be trained and students to showcase their efforts on a global scale,” shares program co-founder Take Action Global, Climate Action Schools, Koen Timmers.

Gaia Learning will take action during this 10-month, school-wide climate education learning experience, that will include educator certifications and an online Community of Practice, cross-curricular resources, guided schoolwide data collection, school-to-school international virtual exchanges, and a student-led schoolwide climate project. 

As a Cambridge International School online we strive for our learning community to think, communicate and take action globally as well as in their local communities. 

Our goal for our online learning ecosystem this year is to embed Green Life Skills and skills for Green Jobs into and across our curriculum. These skills include environmental knowledge and awareness, entrepreneurship, innovation, research, finance and ICT skills. We aim to equip learners with tools for collaborative thinking, empathy, leadership, negotiation, open-mindedness, and how to cope with emotions and uncertainty with a growth mindset and resilience.

We want our learners to have the ability to analyse unequal systems of power, have interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary thinking, political agency and activism, trans-cultural, trans-spatial and trans-temporal mindsets, to be able to work within complexity, solidarity as well as systems thinking.

These adaptive skills are aimed at transforming unjust social and economic structures and the Climate Action Schools Project gives us a roadmap and a community of support to begin this ambitious but vital journey.

You can sign up to our free Climate Action Schools course in the Gaia Learning Library.

Gaia Learning is a registered online Cambridge International School transforming current systems of education. Our curriculum and live lessons take place through the Gaia Learning Library - our bespoke, flexible online learning e-portfolio and hub. Gaia Learning works with primary and secondary schools, families and specialist educational needs establishments to deliver personalised learning online.
Take Action Global is a leading nonprofit organisation committed to climate action education and equitable educational learning opportunities for global educators and K-12 students. TAG supports the United Nations’ Agenda for 2030 with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with specific focus on SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 13: Climate Action, and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals. During the past six years, TAG has served over 3.4 million students and educators from 149 countries through online learning programs. TAG has established partnerships with international experts and world leaders, including the UN, NASA, LEGO, Cartoon Network, and the Jane Goodall Institute, and 20 Ministries of Education. TAG is a co-author of the Climate Literacy Petition on Earth Day 2022 with the Earth Day Organization and Fridays for the Future.