Teacher: Koen Timmers
Meet the teacherLinks
Koen Timmers
Koen has been in education for 20 years. He launched the Climate Action Project in 2017 with only 250 schools joining. He also built schools in Kakuma refugee camp (Kenya) and with Jane Goodall in Tanzania. His work was featured in the Netflix documentary ‘Heroes for the Planet’. Koen was announced to be one of the best teachers in the world by Bill Gates and the Global Teacher Prize in 2018. He is currently the director of TAG – a non-profit organization based in the USA – which has several climate education initiatives. Koen is the author of the book ‘Game Changer’ in which he describes his model to teach about global issues and the UN SDGs.
Usefull links related to the Solution
climateactionproject.org
earthproject.org
takeactionglobal.org
climateactionday.net
Overview
The Climate Action Project is a six week journey for teachers and students. Throughout the project, an online platform provides opportunities for teacher training and the sharing of students’ findings and work. Students learn about the causes and effects of climate change, take positive actions and come up with potential solutions. During the project learning evolves from focusing on the local context to a global view. There are synchronous and asynchronous exchanges between students situated in different schools which offer insights into cultural contexts. As findings, solutions, actions, tree plantings and other activities are shared on an online platform, these activities can be disseminated and replicated. The project wraps up during a Climate Action Day, an online, live event which celebrates the students’ achievements and allows them to learn from experts, public figures, activists and scientists. The project is accredited by the United Nations.
Theory of Change
Government, industry and individuals all need to team up to tackle climate change. The individual level requires a change of behaviour. For this education is crucial. People need to know the right facts, they need to be offered (green) skills and they need to change their mindset and behaviour. And those three components need to be in balance too. The project points out how teachers of all subjects, all student ages and different cultures can embrace climate education. Teachers are guided by facilitators in their native language. Virtual, intercultural interactions are promoted as they give first hand insights about the climate reality in each other’s countries and enhance appreciation for each other.
Approach and Actions
The project is student-centred and puts the learners at the centre of their learning process. Passion is maintained and a curriculum, lesson plans and activities are provided so that teachers have the right background and context. Through guidelines, teachers are pointed in the right direction. They brainstorm, reflect, create and share with the students. They allow their students to collaborate, be creative, think critically, solve problems and instil empathy.
Impact
Throughout the past seven years, the project has reached 4.4 million teachers and students across 157 countries. The project trained and certified teachers and made students more knowledgeable about the climate emergency. Thousands of actions and solutions have been recorded on the platform. 2.2 million trees have been planted. We built an app with climate scientists which keeps track of small actions of youth involved in the project and shows the avoided, reduced and removed amounts of carbon dioxide related to those actions. In 2022 we accomplished 24 million tons of avoided/reduced carbon and 65,000 tons of removed carbon.