In March 2018, as a group of six students studying at the University of Malta for degrees in Bachelor of Education in Science and Masters in Sustainable Development, travelled to Olomouc, Czech Republic, to participate in the project EduChange, which is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of all the European Union.

Other participants in the project were students coming from universities in Norway, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. This project provided us students with the opportunities to create knowledge while collaborating with students from other countries and while addressing climate change through innovative place-based education and blended learning. Climate change is a very broad issue and the project focused mostly on water issues as one of the most 'visible' manifestation of climate change.

The programme was divided into a number of lectures, seminars, workshops, and field-trips over a total of six days. Through exploration of the city we were able to relate learning activities which we created later on during the week with the topic of climate change. Every country had its own workshop and each participant in the project could choose one of four workshops.

Two of these workshops focused on the use of Story Maps. The tool used for these maps was Crowdsource which enables the students to publish and manage a crowdsourced story to which anyone can contribute photos with captions. As we are prospective science teachers, we can use this story map as a pedagogical tool in our lessons and fieldworks. Google Maps can be another tool that can be used outside the classroom during field-trips where students are given places to visit and once they arrive on site, they are given a task on the spot through the app.

Another workshop, focused on place-based education where we were asked to think about how climate change will not only affect us but also future generations. We were given the opportunity to walk around the river next to the university and focus on how the area could be changed due to climate change and what mitigation measures could be adopted.  

The final workshop focused on photography. The students were guided on how to improve their photography skills to communicate ideas and information. We were then encouraged to explore the city while taking photos of examples of sustainable living in Olomouc. All these workshops provided experiences that can be implemented in the classroom to enhance lessons while promoting Education for Sustainable Development.

The methodologies learned will now be translated into lessons that we plan to deliver in certain Maltese secondary schools. We will later be attending a Science Jam session in Norway in May to share and evaluate our experience with the other international participants of the project.

The project is supported by the Erasmus + Program resources no.: 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-035519