Resources for science teachers and secondary pupils to support lessons about timely and pressing issues related to science and society.
There is an increasing need for future citizens to acquire skills that are needed to grapple with societal challenges such as climate change. Project FutuRISE (Future-Oriented Learning for Inclusive Science Education) based at the Department of Education at University of Oxford focused on future-scaffolding skills needed to construct visions of the future that empower action in the present in a responsible and sustainable way. Future-scaffolding skills include scenario thinking, systems thinking, thinking beyond the realm of possibilities, action competence, risk as well as uncertainty and management of complexity.
Apart from future-scaffolding skills, Project FutuRISE aimed to foster pupils’ engagement in activism, taking pupils’ identities such as gender as well as their career aspirations into consideration when teaching science, particularly in transition from secondary education to tertiary education or employment. To this effect, the lesson resources have been designed to capitalise on such features in enriching the teaching and learning of climate change.
There are four sets of materials on the topic of climate change that cover the causes and effects of climate change, facts about climate change, engagement in an informal learning environment such as a museum and discussion of future scenarios. Each set is designed to engage and empower the pupils. Extension activities are highlighted about gender and career options.
