Anthropocene

Course:

Children discover their environment

Global responsibility and education for sustainable development in the natural sciences

Admission requirements

STEOP + Children experience environmental phenomena

Semester: 6

Orientation

Anthropocene

Focus

The future requires shared responsibility

Aim

Introducing students to the immediate and indirect environment in the sense of global responsibility and education for sustainable development is a core task of primary school material teaching. The focus of this course is on deepening already acquired basic knowledge in the fields of natural sciences and education for sustainable development (ESD). Using selected examples, different didactic methods of dealing with basic questions of the human-nature relationship are explored in order to stimulate transformative learning processes among students.

Content

• Animals and plants in the (im)mediate environment
• Chemistry and physics in everyday life
• Basics of geology
• Adaptation of the animal and plant world to seasonal changes, effects on inanimate nature, environmental conditions and climate change
• Interrelationship of living beings with each other and with their environment in the Anthropocene
• Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and environmental protection (UNESCO Commission; Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), biosphere reserves, environmental projects in schools)
• Deepening biological and subject-didactic models for cooperative forms of learning and self-directed learning in primary school (observation and determination, experimentation and research); Demonstration experiments, project lessons, learning scenarios with a focus on the human-nature relationship; Learning at primary places of experience to promote transformative learning processes
• Child-friendly non-fiction texts in English about encounters with living and inanimate nature and responsible behavior towards nature