Project-based learning for climate justice
Frameworks for justice-oriented project-based learning
- Article, Educational resource, Research
Project-based learning allows for active, inquiry-based learning and the real-life application of knowledge – moving from learning about something, to creating, acting, doing and sharing. In this section, we will explore ways that the concepts explored in this document might be combined to develop project-based learning opportunities for climate justice projects within a learning ecosystem.
There are numerous approaches and frameworks for equitable, project-based learning in science, STEM, and STEAM, with various orientations and theoretical underpinnings. A number of these have served as the inspiration for the LEVERS Learning Framework and are introduced here to support the move towards place-based, justice oriented and transdisciplinary challenge-based learning, which includes science learning as a major component.
Project-based learning has been iteratively developed in recent years, and the framework presented contains the major features of a project-based learning cycle.
All of the frameworks in this section suggest cyclical phases of instruction and development, and remind us of the importance of student voice, authenticity, iteration, reflection and outward communication to share learning.
Challenge-based learning provides a simple framework and set of guiding questions to move from big ideas to an essential question and challenge that can be investigated and acted upon.
Resource: Challenge Based Learning
- ENGAGE phase: Learning programme should provide enough inspiration and structure to move from a big idea (abstract) to a concrete, actionable, relevant challenge through collaborative questioning.
- INVESTIGATE phase: Learning programme should support learners to develop contextualized learning experiences and conduct rigorous, content and conceptbased research to create a foundation for actionable and sustainable solutions. They should generate guiding questions related to the challenge, and generate and use guiding activities/resources to answer the guiding questions and work towards innovative, insightful, and realistic solutions. Examples of guiding resources include workshops and presentations from local experts, online content and courses, databases, textbooks, and social networks. Examples of guiding activities include simulations, experiments, projects, problem sets, research, and games.
- After answering the guiding questions and identifying insights, the learners analyse the accumulated data and identify themes.
- The INVESTIGATE phase concludes with reports and presentations demonstrating that the learners have successfully addressed all the guiding questions and developed clear conclusions, setting the foundation for the solution.
- ACT phase: Initially, learners develop a range of solution concepts (campaigns, products, changes to the local environment, arts-based interventions, or other activities). They develop prototypes, experiment and test potential evidence-based solutions or responses to the challenge. Finally, they implement their ideas by sharing them with an authentic audience and evaluating and reflecting on their outcomes.
- Throughout the project or challenge, all stakeholders document their experiences using text, audio, video, and imagery (drawing / digital art / photography). These provide source material for collective reflections on the process.
Inquiry cycle for Youth Participatory Science taken from Morales-Doyle and Frausto (2021)
Youth Participatory Science builds on traditional inquiry-based science learning (Bybee, 2006) but introduces a critical component, and reminds us to identify a local “social justice science issue (SJSI)” as the challenge or learning context for the inquiry cycle.
The STEAM practices from the Fostering STEAM project and the STEMS2 framework remind us to introduce a transdisciplinary lens to the investigation stages, introducing the arts, and social sciences. LEVERS recommends an even broader integration which incorporates the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) alongside the STEM disciplines.
The STEMS2 framework , developed by O’Neill et al. (2023) for use in Hawai’i draws further on community knowledge and sense of place to foster student engagement and achievement via real-world application of interdisciplinary content knowledge that supports the social-emotional development required for community and civic engagement in addition to promoting skills related to college and career readiness.
STEAM practices that promote student engagement in meaningful work, from the Fostering STEAM project
LEVERS project-based learning will take place in diverse contexts across Europe, each with unique challenges and opportunities. To further the teaching and learning of science towards social justice in LEVERS, the planned projects may attend to any of the intersecting equity projects outlined by Bell (2019) as relevant:
Intersecting equity projects to guide the teaching and learning of science towards social justice (Bell, 2019).
In particular, all LEVERS projects should be rooted in meaningful phenomena, involve placebased learning and ecological caring. Adopting a learning ecosystem approach which connects school projects with community-based projects may allow for multi-generational learning and culturally-responsive pedagogies.
Intersecting equity projects to guide the teaching and learning of science towards social justice (Bell, 2019).
In particular, all LEVERS projects should be rooted in meaningful phenomena, involve placebased learning and ecological caring. Adopting a learning ecosystem approach which connects school projects with community-based projects may allow for multi-generational learning and culturally-responsive pedagogies.
Further information on these intersecting equity edges can be found in the open-access resource STEM Teaching Tools #71 which also offers the following reflection questions:
- We use “equity projects” to signal key initiatives where intentional action is needed. What projects do your students and communities furthest from educational justice need?
- Are there groups in your context who you can engage in self-reflection, planning, and action with—and learn to navigate resistance to enacting change?
Place-based, justice oriented and transdisciplinary challenge-based learning, which includes science learning as a major component can support learning as a transformative, activist project (Bevan, 2020) —allowing learners to participate in science within their communities, for the benefit of themselves and their communities (Ballard et al., 2023). Learners should understand and re-interpret big ideas through a local lens, engage critically with the sociopolitical and scientific structures, and utilise science as a tool of or for change. The education they participate in through the LEVERS project should position them as topic experts, allowing them to take appropriate action for climate and environmental justice, and to educate and motivate others towards transformation (Calabrese-Barton & Tan, 2010).
The frameworks presented in Figures 6.1 – 6.6, as well as the pedagogical commitments and design approaches outlined throughout this document have been used to generate the LEVERS learning framework (Fig. 6.7). The inner wheel reflects the learner journey and represents the challenge-based approach to tackling a locally relevant social justice climate issue. This cycle requires active, inquiry-based learning, critical engagement with the topic, and action for transformation. The outer wheel reflects the design features put in place by the local Learning Venture who are working together using the Seven Insights for Climate Action. Learning projects offer opportunities for place-based learning connected across local multi-stakeholder networks, and exposure to transdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving that draw on expertise from STEM disciplines as well as Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The range and spread of projects and opportunities for lifelong learning foreground DEAI and take a systems-level perspective, promoting the idea that the climate crisis must be tackled systemically, collectively, and optimistically.
LEVERS Learning Framework. Outer wheel represents ongoing commitments throughout the project-based learning cycle, while inner sections are sequential, beginning with ENGAGE & UNDERSTAND, followed by INVESTIGATE and ACT.
