Earth Hub #EarthDay

Earth Hub is a comprehensive digital platform designed to inspire people, especially young learners, to understand environmental issues and take action. It brings together a wide range of educational resources such as quizzes, toolkits, fact sheets, petitions, and news stories, all focused on key global challenges like climate change, plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, and sustainable living.

At its core, Earth Hub is built on the idea that knowledge leads to action. The platform offers interactive quizzes that help users test their understanding of environmental topics, as well as practical toolkits that suggest concrete actions individuals and communities can take. It also includes fact sheets that explain complex issues in a simple and accessible way, making it easier for users to understand how environmental problems affect both the planet and human life.

From an educational perspective, Earth Hub is a highly useful tool for the classroom. It provides authentic, up-to-date content in English, which can support language learning while also raising awareness about environmental issues. Teachers can use the quizzes as engaging warm-up activities, the fact sheets for reading comprehension tasks, and the toolkits for project-based learning, encouraging students to move from theory to real-world action.

Moreover, the platform promotes critical thinking and global citizenship. By exploring real environmental problems and possible solutions, students are encouraged to reflect on their own habits and responsibilities. This makes Earth Hub particularly suitable for celebrating Earth Day in schools, as it helps transform the event from a symbolic date into a meaningful learning experience.

This type of resource is especially valuable in the context of Earth Day, a global initiative that encourages people around the world to reflect on environmental challenges and take steps to protect the planet, celebrated every year on April 22. 

Visit Earth Hub:

https://www.earthday.org/earth-hub/

Tackling Plastic Pollution

Scientific report published by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas as part of its Science4Policy collection. This series of reports aims to translate scientific knowledge into clear information that can help governments, institutions, and society make better decisions about important global challenges.

The report focuses on the growing problem of plastic pollution and explains how plastics affect the environment, ecosystems, and human health. It describes how the massive production of plastics and the spread of microplastics and chemical additives have become a major environmental concern worldwide. The document summarizes current scientific knowledge about the issue and highlights the research being carried out by scientists to better understand and address it.

https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/361335/1/S4P_PLASTICOS_DIGITAL_INGLES.pdf

Teaching package on a sustainable Europe

This introductory learning and teaching package provides secondary-level teachers and teacher educators with a foundation in education for sustainability in European schools.  

In four units, pupils are introduced to the concepts of future thinking and actions, alongside European sustainability initiatives. It also explores education for sustainability, decoloniality and cultural and linguistic diversity. This learning and teaching package was developed by TAP-TS (Teacher Academy Project Teaching Sustainability). (Source: European School Education Platform)

Download the teaching package:

https://tap-ts.eu/course/index.php?categoryid=10

#WorldEnvironmentDay

World Environment Day is celebrated every June 5th to raise global awareness and inspire action to protect the environment. Established by the UN in 1972 and led by UNEP, it focuses on a specific theme each year. World Environment Day 2025 calls for collective action to tackle plastic pollution and is hosted by a different country. It encourages individuals, communities, and governments to take part through activities like clean-ups, tree planting, and awareness campaigns.

Here you can find a collection of useful resources if you want to bring this celebration into your classrooms.

https://trello.com/b/RcB4ftxn/world-environment-day-2025

Educational resource to celebrate Earth Hour

Started in 2007 in Sidney, Australia, Earth Hour is a global environmental movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It takes place on the last Saturday of March each year, encouraging individuals, businesses, and governments to turn off non-essential lights for one hour (8:30 - 9:30 PM local time) as a symbolic gesture to raise awareness about climate change and energy conservation.

You can learn more or participate by visiting the official website:

https://www.earthhour.org/

This Schools Sustainability Guide, edited by the WWF gives loads of tips on how to take action for climate, nature and sustainability in your school.

Find it on:

https://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools/sustainability-guide

Climate and education: strategies for adaptation, learning and play

This document is a discussion paper published by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) in collaboration with Learning Through Landscapes (LtL) in December 2024.

The paper explores the intersection of climate change and education, focusing on two primary areas:

- Climate and the curriculum. It emphasizes the importance of integrating climate education across various subjects and educational phases. The discussion includes current placements of climate topics within curricula, identifies barriers to effective implementation, and proposes strategies to embed comprehensive climate education. 

- Future-proofing the education estate. The paper examines how school infrastructures can be adapted to enhance learning experiences, promote play, and build resilience against climate-related challenges. It highlights the potential of school grounds to improve children's physical health, mental well-being, and educational outcomes by providing enriched natural environments. 

The report draws on findings from a series of roundtable discussions and a public webinar held on November 12, 2024, which brought together experts to deliberate on embedding climate education and utilizing school grounds for climate resilience.

You can access the full report here:

https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Climate-and-education_strategies-for-adaptation-learning-and-play_Discussion-paper_EPI_LTL_Dec24.pdf

The Global Risks Report 2025

The Global Risks Report 2025 is the 20th edition of the World Economic Forum's annual analysis of the most pressing global risks. This report is based on the Global Risks Perception Survey 2024-2025, which gathers insights from over 900 experts worldwide. 

Key findings from the report include:

- State-based armed conflict: identified as the most immediate global risk for 2025, with nearly a quarter of respondents ranking it as the most severe concern. 

- Environmental risks: extreme weather events and biodiversity loss are highlighted as critical threats over the next decade. 

- Misinformation: recognized as a major risk in the coming years, exacerbated by technological advancements and geopolitical tensions.

The Global Risks Report can be an excellent resource for educational purposes in schools, fostering critical thinking, global awareness, and problem-solving skills. Here are some ways it can be used across different subjects and educational activities: critical reading (analyze sections of the report to teach students how to interpret complex texts, extract key information, and identify bias or perspective) or debate and argumentation (organize debates on topics such as "Which global risk poses the greatest threat to humanity?" using data from the report to support arguments).

For a comprehensive understanding, you can access the full report here:

https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2025.pdf

PLASTEAM #ErasmusPlus project

The project aims to raise awareness among primary school students and teachers about the environmental impact of plastics. It encourages responsible use, consumption, and recycling of plastics to create 'plastic-free schools'. By involving teachers and school managers, the project promotes good practices to reduce waste and improve recycling in primary schools.

Key results and outcomes include:

- Plastic Footprint for Schools: An app to monitor plastic waste habits in schools.

- 'Plastic-free Schools' Recommendations and Contest: Identification of plastic consumption challenges, recommendations for sustainable practices, and a contest rewarding the best STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) solution to tackle plastic waste.

- STEAM Box and Labs: A set of tools and activities for teachers to use in their lessons.

This initiative serves as an inspiration for similar projects, demonstrating how schools can effectively engage in reducing plastic waste and promoting environmental sustainability.

Find it on:

https://plasteam.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/PLASTEAM_Brochure_EN.pdf

https://plasteam.eu/

Education and Climate Change: Learning to Act for People and Planet

UNESCO's publication Education and Climate Change: Learning to Act for People and Planet is a comprehensive guide that emphasizes the critical role of education in addressing climate change. It explores how educational systems can integrate climate literacy into their curricula, fostering a generation of informed and proactive individuals. It highlights best practices, case studies, and strategies for empowering students to take meaningful action for environmental sustainability. 

This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence.

Find it on:

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000389801

Learning for sustainability in Europe: Building competences and supporting teachers and schools

This Eurydice report examines how 39 European education systems develop sustainability skills among students and support teachers and schools in the green transition. It looks at how sustainability is integrated into European curricula and the role of teachers and school leaders in promoting sustainability education. The report also explores how schools adopt comprehensive sustainability approaches and receive support and guidance.

The report finds that most European countries include sustainability skills in their curricula, offer teacher training and resources, and support schools.

Find it on:

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/dc327457-f875-11ee-a251-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

Worldwide Recycling Day. Wastebuster

Wastebuster is an environmental education organization focused on promoting waste reduction and sustainable practices among children, schools, and communities. 

The organization develops programs and resources to educate and engage young people in environmental stewardship, encouraging them to adopt behaviors that reduce waste, recycle more effectively, and minimize their ecological footprint.

Wastebuster's initiatives often include educational campaigns, competitions, and partnerships with schools to integrate sustainability into the curriculum. They provide a variety of tools and materials, such as lesson plans, activity guides, and interactive content, to help teachers and students learn about the importance of waste management and sustainability.

Find them on:

https://www.wastebuster.co.uk/resources

Earth Overshoot Day. Classroom activities

Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) is the calculated illustrative calendar date on which humanity's resource consumption for the year exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. In 2020 the calculated overshoot day fell on August 22 (more than three weeks later than 2019) due to coronavirus induced lockdowns around the world. 

In 2021 Spain exceeds the biocapacity of the planet on May 25th. This means that in less than 5 months, in Spain we have exhausted our ecological budget, from now on we are spending a natural capital that the Planet will not be able to regenerate. 

Find interesting educational activities related to this celebration on:

https://www.overshootday.org/kids-and-teachers-corner/classroom-activities/