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UNESCO is launching a campaign to unite schools around the world to take action against waste.
Trash Hack: Action learning for sustainable development is a teacher’s guide to how to trash hack their classrooms by introducing their students to key sustainable development challenges, supporting them to act against waste and encouraging them to celebrate their achievements.
To launch the guide, UNESCO’s Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) partnered with the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) to present a webinar on 29 January for teachers, school leaders and other youth trainers on how to use the guide.
The guide’s transformational learning approach provides action-centered activities for student groups of any size, including those learning from home because of school closures. There are ideas for students of every level of understanding of environmental and waste issues, to be adapted to regional contexts.
Schools will be encouraged to celebrate their trash hacks creatively and share images or videos of what they have achieved with UNESCO, which will be published on www.trashhack.org/schools. FEE’s alumni of the Young Reporters for the Environment programme will give tips on how to create great videos as part of the launch event.
The guide provides facts and statistics to motivate students around the world to act against waste, and shows how trash connects to other Sustainable Development Goals. The engaging infographics can also be downloaded for teachers to use in class.
The online launch event presents an opportunity for UNESCO Associated Schools and FEE Eco-schools to come together, engage with the Trash Hack Campaign as well as the Guide, share some good practice examples and plan for action.
Watch the webinar back on YouTube
UNESCO’s Section of Education for Sustainable Development and the Unit for the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) have assembled the teacher’s guide together with Helen Bond of Howard University of Washington, DC, thanks to the generous contribution of the Government of Japan.
Who is the Guide for?
This guide is intended for lower-secondary education teachers, school administrators, staff and informal educators looking for ways to engage learners and communities around trash, waste management and, more widely, education for sustainable development. The guide’s contents and activities can be adjusted for older or younger ages.
UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet)
Established in 1953, ASPnet contributes to UNESCO’s function as a laboratory of ideas by pioneering and experimenting with innovative and creative contents and pedagogies to translate the Organization’s values and objectives into practices at the school level. Through thought leadership, the network contributes to the transformation of education systems and policies.
Current membership covers more than 11 500 educational institutions from all levels of education in over 180 countries. Find out more at https://aspnet.unesco.org/en-us
About Foundation for Environmental Education
With members in 76 countries around the world, FEE’s programmes represent the cutting edge in Education for Sustainable Development and Environmental Education. It is the vision of the Foundation for Environmental Education that its programmes empower people everywhere to live sustainably and in an environmentally conscious manner.