Climántica, proyecto de educación ambiental

The Climántica project, in consortium with Fábrica de Ciencia Viva and the University of Aveiro, with the SEPA-Interea research group of the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Genomics Medicine Group of the University of Santiago de Compostela, convene the process to select the students who will participate in the CLMNTK18 International Camp and their accompanying teachers, who will take part in the 48-hour accredited Teaching Seminar by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MECD).

With this selective process, the students who will participate in the Camp which will be held at the Fábrica de Ciencia Viva of Aveiro (Portugal) will be selected. The centers participating in this campus will have priority to send representatives to the biodiversity Camp for Latin America and Europe that is scheduled to take place in Costa Rica in the Holy Week of 2019.

Download Camp brochure CLMNTK18
Download brochure of the Teaching Seminar 2018
Poster download
 

This campus will adapt to the coastal environment the model which was developed last year in the framework of the strategic alliance for innovation EduCO2cean-Erasmus +, approved and financed by the EU from September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2018, thus giving sustainability to that initiative. Like that one, it will also seek to generate two types of products made through collaborative work:

• Short films which integrate images in order to express the acquired knowledge in the campus, comparing and increasing them through the use of augmented reality, with the ones that the students will bring from their places of origin. Robotics, laser light, holography and augmented reality will be used to present scenarios that communicate a more sustainable future with responses to climate change.

• An awareness-raising musical about climate change and global change in the ocean, which integrates theatre, music, dance, singing and visual arts projected by holography and laser light in the projection of the scenography. This proposal aims to evolve the proposals created at the 2018 campus.
  

The students will be selected for the quality of their products of awareness-raising on climate change, global change of the oceans and other global environmental challenges published in the platform of the international virtual congress CLMNTK18 according to the bases published in the sections Call and Criteria of selection for campus. The url that gives access to the virtual congress is the following one:

http://congresovirtual.climantica.org

Announcement
Selection criteria for campus
Instructions in pdf and video to upload the works to the platform

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The six Galician institutes of the Climántica network for school research, in exchange with their network of the Decroly school in the Canary Islands, shared their research Galicia and the Canary Islands on biodiversity in Galicia and the Canary Islands . These projects focused on two types of species in the two climatic regions. The first type of species that were addressed were species with a high socio-economic interest, which are very adapted to the climate and, thus, may be at risk. The second type are invasive species that are favoured by climate change in the process of invasion.
 

For this school symposium, on Friday, April 20, a total of 300 students gathered together in Noia, a group formed by a broad representation of the six participating Galician institutes. In that group were also included young Canarian researchers, who moved to Galicia for that event, and who resided from April 17 to 24 with families of their homologous school researchers from Noia, Santiago, Rois, Boiro and Outes.

After the official inauguration by the mayors of Noia and Outes, the nine school research projects were presented. Three projects were developed by the Canarian students which include the genetic and ecological study of the climate adaptation of two canary endemics: the gallotia intermedia lizard and the rabinche pigeon, species with such a decisive climatic adaptation that they are being affected by the change climate. The third investigation developed by the students of the Canary Islands consisted in the study of the invasion of the fire coral, and their relations with the climate. The Canary Islands ecosystems in which these investigations were developed were studied by the Galician students guided by their colleagues from the Canary Islands during their stay there from 17 to 23 March 2018.

The remaining six projects were developed by the other participating Galician institutes. Three focused on the study of rivers: the biodiversity of the river of Rois, the bioindicators of the water quality of the Sarela river, developed by the IES Xelmirez I of Santiago and the Recovery of the lamprey in the Tambre river and the new challenges which is facing in relation to climate change, developed by the IES Poeta Añón of Outes.

Two projects were linked to the impact of climate change on the marine bivalves of the estuaries. These projects were developed by the students of Noia, who studied the effects of climate change on the bivalves of the Testal beach, and by the students of Boiro who studied the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on the development of the mussel. The students of Noia presented the continuation of their study on cockle distribution, but applied to the study of the other two commercial bivalves of the intertidal of Testal: Ruditapes decussatus and Venerupis senegalensis.

The sixth Galician research was developed by the IES Rosalía de Castro of Santiago, which focused on the Santiago urban invasion of the Asian hornet, which presents also an ecological importance due to its impacts on native bees.
 

Genetic research is key for the adaptation to climate change

To analyze the bases of the similarities and differences between the intertidal of the Testal bivalves in the adaptation to the environment, a study of the DNA was addressed, conducted by Dr. Ángel Carracedo in the laboratory of the IES Virxe do Mar. This study was used to send samples of purified  and conserved DNA to the world bank of conservation of the marine genome, which guarantees the recovery of the species in cases of abrupt impacts.

 
After the presentation of the projects related to the challenges of genetic biodiversity in the face of climate change, students had the opportunity to receive a high-quality genetic training from Ángel Carracedo, a Galician scientist who received the highest global recognition in his specific field of research and obtained the most prestigious awards in Spain in the medical field and in the genetic field: Rei Jaime I Medical research and the National Genetics Award.

This professor who directs the National Genotyping Center, and the Galician Public Foundation of Genomic Medicine, an organization that celebrated its twentieth anniversary at the day before, addressed the theme "Contemporary genetics on World DNA Day’’.

This presentation and analysis of the project information was complemented with recreational, cultural and coexistence activities of the students from the two autonomous communities. In the Canary Islands these activities focused on nautical activities and various routes.

In Galicia, recreational, cultural and convivial activities focused on musical and theatrical shows, as well as on different itineraries. The theatrical dimension was included in the presentation of the celebration of World DNA Day and Planet Day. The spokespersons of the IES Virxe de Mar in this climate exchange were supported by different theatrical presentations.

Another ludic aspect that was present in the act consisted in the realization of different choreographies.

The choreographies and diverse songs of environmental awareness, among which the hymn of Climántica stood out, were interpreted by the choir ‘Has de Cantar’ of the IES Virxe do Mar.

In Galicia, various itineraries were carried out. Among these itineraries it is remarkable the one which was carried out on Monday, April 23, World Planet Day, which was celebrated in the National Park of the Atlantic Islands. It was also carried out a visit to the hydroelectric plants and the ecosystems of the Tambre River.

 
Other ecosystems and landscapes studied in Galicia were those of the Laguna de Louro and the Ézaro.

The centers of scientific divulgation in which diverse cultural aspects related to the project were approached were the ITER of the Canary Islands and the Scientific Museums of A Coruña.

In the Canary Islands, the studied ecosystems were the Teide, Anaga, the agrosystems of banana plantations and the study of cetaceans and the coastal dynamics of Los Gigantes.

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The methodology Climantica will be the basis for creating a different multilingual educational material which can make the youth aware of the importance of research on the impacts and mitigation of climate change in the oceans. It also contributes its participation models of educational communities to transfer to society educational answers to climate change through the educational communities. To transfer this pedagogical project Climántica, through its coordinator educational center for the educational network Climántica, IES Virxe do Mar, allied with a group of scientists and teachers from Spain, Portugal, Great Britain and Poland, to form the strategic alliance Educo2Cean-STS (Education models to transmit to society the challenge of global change in the ocean) funded by the European Union with 249,000 euros in the program Erasmus + 2016.

The project Climántica thus starts his second European project. The first one in which it was involved, was the ERDF Interreg CLIMATLANTIC, for which it drew educational products, such as the video game CLMNTK or the book Does climate change really change?, which are widely used in some European countries. We achieved that first European project thanks to the Ministry of Environment of the Government of Galicia. This second one will be achieved thanks to the educational institution that is the epicenter school network of this project, the IES Virxe do Mar in Noia(Spain). From this schooling and pedagogical field, the main challenge of the Climántica project is to deploy its methodology to create a textbook, develop a collaborative website and organize international conferences and campus involving students and teachers who encourage and coach students as authors of products which enhance awareness of the problem.

The strategic alliance is completed by their leader before the European Union, the Portuguese Association for Environmental Education - ASPE (Portugal) that contributes its experience of coordination and dissemination of educational networks both at a national and a European level ; the University of Vigo, the institutional headquarters of The Excellence Campus do Mar and Marine Alliance for Science and Technology of Scotland, two research consortia that provide scientific data on climate change in the ocean; Ciencia Viva - National Agency for scientific and Technological Culture (Portugal) that provides its experience in popular science; Caretakers of the Environment International (Poland) that transfers and adapts to the Baltic all development done over the Atlantic, and the IES Ribeira do Louro Porriño that contributes its vast experience in administrative management of such projects.

The meeting to launch this project took place in the Miralles IV building of Vigo University. The meeting was opened by the Vice Chancellor for International Relationships and University Extension of Vigo University, Manuel Fernández Iglesias. This institution also participates in the present project throught “Campus del Mar”. At that initial meeting, apart from the opportunity of meeting each other, partners started fixing responsibilities and coordinating the timing of the various actions to be carried out and setting a schedule of performances.

Throughout the two-year project the partners intend to create a textbook which has a global character and could be applicable in any European education system. It will be published both in paper and in electronic format and it will be coordinated from the framework of this project and it will also be available in the different languages of the participating countries. Its structure will be cross curricular and its contents will include all the contemporary scientific knowledge related to climate change in the ocean. This content will be completed, expanded and updated through an electronic magazine and a website in which all students will be able to participate, and that also will be coordinated from the frame Climantica.

The main target group of the project are European students of upper secondary education (15-18 years old) and the scientific-didactic book is addressed to them. Each partner will adapt this material to his basic secondary students (12-14 years old). All these students between 12 and 18 years old, will have the opportunity to present their contributed papers during the virtual youth congress. They will also participate in the communities 2.0 and will also improve their scientific and communicative skills during the international youth campus as well as knowing different cultures and practices, at the same time that they take part in exchange programs with other countries participating in the project. Their teachers will be the recipients of different training initiatives aimed at providing them with the knowledge necessary to convey to the students the key competences they need for their participation in the development of the present project.

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Does climate really change? It is a book which explains the climate change in 8 chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the concept ofclimate. Chapter 2 discusses the regulation of Earth's temperature. 3rd chapter estudies climate changes along the Earth. Chapter 4 explains the causes of these natural climate changes that have been generated in Earth's history. Chapter 5 estudies the climate change due to fossil fuel use. 6 deals about climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Chapter 7 estudies climate change on ocean ecosystems. Finally, chapter 7 deals about the relationships of climate change with the economy and society.

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The UN’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, president of Democracy and Development Foundation and former President of Chile, Mr. Ricardo Lagos, having carefully analysed Climantica project, has officially acknowledged the relevance of Climantica as an educational project and has therefore recommended it for this purpose. The support of the UN’s Special Envoy for Climate Change has been officially communicated on the 14th April to the Director-General for Sustainability and Landscape of the Xunta de Galicia.

The first time the UN showed interest in Climantica was when the Geneva branch of this institution requested a report on this project. Having submitted this report, the Xunta the Galicia presented it at New York’s headquarters on the 2nd June 2008. Later on, it was presented as a ‘good practice’ project for Spain at the Spanish Office for Climate Change’s proposal during the European Seminar of United Nations that took place in Stockholm in May 2009.

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Climántica published 2101 Back to Climántica on Climántica TV.  It is set at the beginning of the century XXII, where Palmira and Marcial explain about the Climántica project and look back at its origins.

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On the 6th of October, the British scientist James Lovelock traveled to Galicia to collect the 2009 Fonseca Prize. This prize was created by the Consortium of Santiago and the Santiago de Compostela University.

The meeting with the press and the conference of James Lovelock are shown in Climantica TV section.

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The second documentary, that covers the lecture given by Dr. Francisco Anguita in the framework of the course given on 15 November 2008 on Climantica in the subject of Science for the Contemporary World from the point of view of sustainability and IT, contains the main environmental issues.

He starts by stating that oil will doubtless disappear in this century, probably not further than 2030-2040.


Then he talked about the increase of geological risks linked to overpopulation and associated with urban planning and territorial problems. He mentions the risk of North Teide’s landslide as an example of how economy intensifies natural risks.


Concerning the Earth’s overpopulation and the opposition Economy vs. Ecology, he opened the ethical debate on the possibility that some regulations should be established in order to bring the planet’s population under control.

In addition, he tackled the issue of ice melting emphasizing that Greenland’s ice sheet has experienced record ice melting during the summer of 2007, increasing the rate about 30% from 2006. The most outstanding example is the threat to the polar bear because of melting ice. According to him, this is again an example of how economy is confronted to ecology since at present it is perceived that the only emergency now is the recovery of economy and therefore, any other priority should wait, mainly those which are likely to create a shift of public opinion and therefore can slow down such recovery.


Another environmental concern is focused on the question that whether the present civilization will be able to stand a Cretaceous climate. If global temperature increases by 0,7ºC during the 20th century, over the next century it will rise at least three times as that. Temperature will probably rise by 3ºC to 6ºC during this century. This temperature scenario is similar to that existing in the Cretaceous period, when such temperature could allow people to swim in the Arctic. This is not possible for the biosphere at present, since the species are not adapted.

Then he pointed out the issue of sea level rising which is clearly connected to a possible

recurrence of the Cretaceous climate. He provided real data on temperature rise in 7ºC in the Mediterranean in only 18 days, and explained that a rise of 3º C in the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea could imply a risk of hurricanes due to the increase in convection linked to that temperature rise.

Taking this scenario into account, he criticized the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ because from his point o view, it allows human beings to destroy the planet without feeling guilty. He argued that although this concept was born in the 80s, the present development is growing more and more unsustainable. In this sense, he compares the way of life led by someone who tries to protect the Planet with that of someone who intends to bring a better quality of life by using more resources. Instead, he opts for the idea of having a better quality of life by minimising the use of natural resources.


As a way out to the Planet’s crisis he mentions the possibility of life in Mars. He refers to the difficulty to industrialize that planet in order to generate a greenhouse effect that is capable of regulating the temperature so that plants can grow. In this way Mars could be inhabited, but he wonders if this could be licit or even appropriate at this stage. On the other hand, the Earth is gaining 200 000 new inhabitants a day and this involves the need to move one million people in five days so that the possibility for those people to go away is not fulfilled.

Another ethical debate was based on the fact that the Homo sapiens as the last species to inhabit the Earth has the right to make other species disappear. In answer to this, he came to the conclusion that we are responsible for the protection of our planet, and this is not only a claim from the ecologist movement because our consumption of natural resources is over what the ecological footprint can support. Taking this principle into account, he argues that the teachers’ role does not consist of making students distressed but establishing educational contexts that raise awareness.

Another interesting topic he tackled was food. He explained that it is possible that the food we eat every day has travelled about 133 000 km by plane or ship, that is, it could have travelled around the world before we buy it. He criticized the fact that this sort of trade helps the Third World’s economy but it causes the greenhouse effect, emphasizing again the opposition Economy vs. Ecology.

Summarizing all the above-mentioned approaches to this confrontation, he pointed out that there was the risk that the IPCC’s work was pushed back to the background by the economic crisis. Nowadays, the IPCC is the body that has made the most sensible and comprehensive scientific effort in view of the fact that whenever their proposals are objected for political reasons, they refuse these objections if there is not a sound evidence of them. This proves that the 2007 IPCC report is rigorous, comprehensive and it results from an agreement of all the parts. Therefore, Mr. Anguita wonders whether it is possible that climate change becomes natural following the conclusions of 2007 IPCC. According to him, the debate is now focused on what we should do to settle the problem but also considering the difficulty involved in the fact that we are the only species that does not work in cooperation with each other, and that it is the citizens, not the Earth, who vote for the politicians on the grounds of the economic situation. Finally, he pointed out that up to the present, human beings solved their problems thanks to technology, but this problem is so serious that, for the first time, technology could not be enough to solve climate change.

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On Saturday the 15th November, Dr. Francisco Anguita, lecturer in Geology in the Complutense University of Madrid, gave a lecture entitled “From the Big Bang to the ecological issue: the Cosmos approach to environmental matters”, which took place in the framework of the course on Climantica in the subject of “Science for the Contemporary World” from the point of view of sustainability and IT.

The content of this lecture has been included in three documentaries. The first one, which is already available on Climántica TV, is an introduction that summarizes all the issues dealt with in the seminar.

He argued that the cosmos could be taken as a starting point to approach the subject of “Science of the Contemporary World” as a focal point to tackle environmental issues such as climate change. In this sense, he follows this outline for teaching purposes:

Universe --> Galaxies --> Stars + Planets --> Earth --> Homo sapiens

As regards the Homo Sapiens’ capacity to change the environment, he proposed an opposite movement but he warned about the risk to have an anthropocentric vision of the approach:

Homo sapiens --> Earth (climate change caused by man)

Following the first outline, he started his argument from the Big Bang in order to explain the formation of planets. In this sense, he talked about the formation of atmospheres and oceanic hydrospheres in the Super-Earth, and he discussed whether water is necessary for life and whether a technological society can be developed in an oceanic Super-Earth planet. According to him, this question is the key issue in Astrobiology, but he recognised the controversy arisen by this area of science, since it neither proves nor gives evidence of the theory it suggests.

Taking into account the emergence of life on Earth in its origins, based on the formation of lines rich in 12C and poor in 13C –linked to organic environments- on the oldest rocks on Earth -4 109 years old- formed in Greenland’s oceanic context, he argued that life could appear when the Earth was under a formation process. He also talked about the evidence of the fact that at this stage plate tectonics would already take place, linking this fact to the impact on life evolution, since it would make the change of ecological niche and habitats easier.
Regarding this fact, he pointed out that the same could happen with the neighbour planets, Venus and Mars. In this sense, he mentioned the existence of morphological traces in Mars that implied the presence of water. In addition, he said that in Venus the proportion of deuterium in the atmosphere presumably suggests the presence of water, so that there could have been life on both planets 4 000 million years ago. As far as plate tectonics is concerned, he observed that the traces found on the surface aimed at the model in Mars instead of in Venus. He also emphasized the relevance that water has on Jupiter’s satellite, the so-called Europe, since it has a 100-quilometer deep ice sheet, that is, the solar system’s largest water reserve. If volcanoes were placed on this sheet, heat could melt ice, so that life could exist here thanks to thermal energy. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that the satellite, which has already been visited once, is worth a second visit.

Following this argument, Dr. Anguita considered a planetary approach to tackle the environmental issue since, according to him, the two neighbour planets have undergone large climatic changes when life started on Earth. In this sense, he argued that it was extremely difficult to assume that a climatic stability on Earth that allows life sustainability could be maintained. Therefore, he emphasized the relevance that the use of fossil fuels could have on that stability.

In short, Mr. Anguita’s lecture was a brilliant contribution to understand the complexity, difficulty, extent and controversy posed by the research on the Cosmos and the formation of Earth from the Big Bang, which became very useful for teachers’ daily work. This approach does not only become more significant to understand the research on the Cosmos, but it provides with a trans-disciplinary added value that makes environmental awareness possible.

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On 8 November, Mr. Ramón Cid Manzano, graduate in Physics and Chemistry and head of the Department of Physics and Chemistry in a secondary school, gave a lecture entitled “Science for the Contemporary World from the point of view of sustainability and IT”.

He started his lecture by summarizing the main features of the scientific work, the role of the discourse and the use of science in solving everyday problems. In this sense, he claimed that scientific knowledge had reinforced the world’s understanding and citizens’ critical nature.

Then, he focused on the two thematic units into which the subject “Science for the Contemporary World” is divided. To this purpose, he showed teachers those resources that are available in the Internet, assessed their educational use, and proposed several activities to be implemented in Climantica’s blogs and lessons.

In the thematic units called “Sustainable Management” and “New Uses, New Materials”, and taking climate change as a focal point, he encouraged teachers to introduce in the syllabus some activities regarding the ITER Project (Nuclear Fusion) and Nanotechnology, as well as some activities related to the Universe’s origin and scales and the Earth’s formation taking into account the present cosmological facts showed in the NASA or the GTC websites.

Following the same educational approach, he argued different trends in the present scientific research: Nanotechnology as well as Hadrontherapy, the GRID or LHC accelerator (CERN) which are directly connected with the issues covered in CCMC blogs.

In conclusion, Mr. Cid, who has proved his wonderful communication skills, gave a brilliant lecture that became very useful for teachers’ daily work.

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The schools’ guiding blog contains 4 websites of internet resources that can be useful to teach the subject “Science for the Contemporary World” related to sustainability within the framework of the climate change society.

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• Small group activity. It consisted of two different stages: In the first, students worked in small groups in order to study a card exemplifying a particular issue. The work group entitled the card giving reasons for that title according to what the card suggested to them in relation to causes and/or impacts of climate change.  Finally, all the groups shared their points of view with the other groups.
• Classroom activity. It was aimed at producing a diagram with pieces as if it were a dominoes game. This diagram summarized the group arguments on climate change and its relationship with its causes and impacts.

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• A debate on causes, impacts and solutions to climate change in which all the students took part.
• Activity with 15-16-year-old students. It consisted of two different stages: In the first, students worked in small groups in order to study a card exemplifying a particular issue. The work group entitled the card giving reasons for that title according to what the card suggested to them in relation to causes and/or impacts of climate change.  Finally, all the groups shared their points of view with the other groups.

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The First Climantica Conference for Students, organised by the Galician Regional Ministry for the Environment, was held at Santiago de Compostela on the 21st of June 2008. During this event about 300 students from all over Galician schools met there to discuss issues such as measures to fight against climate change, sustainable development or respect for the environment.

Secondary School Students coming from the four Galician provinces took part in this activity and exhibited the pieces of work submitted to the second edition of the Climantica Awards. These awards were set up in the framework of the educational programme that aims at raising students’ awareness on climate change and how to tackle it.

During this session that was held at the Conference Centre in Santiago, students exhibited the pieces of work they had submitted to these awards in three categories: Literature –narrative, poetry and comic-, Multimedia –shorts, Power Point presentations, interviews, theatre and singing performances-, and Visual Arts –Photography, painting and posters-. This public exhibition also helped participants to understand young people’s view on Climate Change and their proposals to protect the environment and to promote sustainable development.

In addition, the Climantica Conference has given students from different areas in Galicia the opportunity to exchange the students’ viewpoints by exhibiting their work. Winners’ projects, among which there are quite significant tittles such as “Climate Change and its impacts”, “If we change, climate changes”, “It is foolish not to protect it”, “Why cannot man manage to sustain the Earth?” or “A day in a tree’s life”, show a very high standard and good quality. All these essays were published in the magazine CLMTK, which was given to the participants during the Conference and it is going to be available on this website soon.

This meeting was also aimed at parents and teachers who came with students. They took part in activities such as a discussion board on “Environment and Diet”, dealing with issues such as Ecological Agriculture and Diet, Ecological Medicine or Sport.

Awards
In the course of the Conference, 60 students -30 from Secondary schools and 30 from Sixth Form schools- received the prize certificates from the Director General for Educational Planning and Innovation and the Director General for Sustainable Development. The prizes consisted of a five-day stage in an Environmental Education facility in Galicia. This year the Secondary school students stayed from 23 to 27 June in a facility in San Xoan de Río, Ourense, and the Sixth-Form students stayed from 8 to 12 September in an facility in Fragas do Eume Natural Park. See programme.

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The First Climantica Conference for students will be held on Saturday, the 21st June at the Conference Centre of Santiago de Compostela. The official programme can be downloaded below.

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