Teacher: Mia Foulkes
Meet the teacherLinks
Mia Foulkes
Mia is the Head of Content at ClimateScience and a Climate Communicator with a strong belief in education as a catalyst for change. Her curiosity to understand the underlying mechanisms and correlations between different disciplines led her to earn a degree in Physics and Philosophy. At ClimateScience, Mia leads the creation and upkeep of various educational resources, including courses, the Olympiad, and school materials. She believes everyone has a right to free, easy-to-understand and reliable education on climate and strives to develop and disseminate educational resources that can empower people to become informed and engaged climate citizens, inspiring action.
Overview
Eric Steinberger and Issy Key are two scientists who were interested in developing high-quality, engaging and accessible climate change education materials. They set up an online platform to deliver resources to learners, teachers and anyone else interested in learning about climate change.
Theory of Change
The two science educators behind the website found it difficult to find appropriate climate change education resources when they searched online, they were also concerned that a lot of the resources they did find could lead to misinformation or climate anxiety. They realised this was a problem also experienced by many young people. They decided to create ‘bite-size’, reliable educational resources that would empower people to help solve climate change faster.
Approach and Actions
The website offers a full suite of approaches to tackling the climate change education shortfall. There is a platform that hosts educational material such as lesson plans and resources; tools to understand climate change; and videos for learners or for use by teachers; and also hosts educational courses. The resources are designed to increase learners’ curiosity, critical thinking, exploration and learning. Resources are also aligned with the UK and US National Curricula to ensure they are relevant and usable in teachers’ classes (more resources aligned with other national curricula are planned). Teacher training, in the form of short information videos and also longer, certified courses is also offered.
Impact
The website is easy to navigate and all the resources contained on the platform are free, they are also available in 17 languages. The website founders are keen for the resources to be used by wider society including businesses and governments. The organisation also organises a ClimateScience Olympiad focused on finding solutions to climate change, and illustrated children’s books on climate change are also produced.