Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice
Responding to the climate emergency requires both immediate action on and sustained commitment to climate justice issues. K-12 schools and higher education institutions can play a pivotal role in this response by creating opportunities for students to have a meaningful impact on their communities and inspire their commitment to this work in the future. Building on the Penn Graduate School of Education’s (GSE) extensive experience and research-based approach to supporting educators in designing and facilitating high-quality project-based learning (PBL), this team aims to develop an internationally recognized hub for project-based environmental education work.
The community is led by Zachary Herrmann, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership at Penn GSE, and Taylor C. Hausburg, in collaboration with the Penn GSE Center for Professional Learning and with support from the Urban Teaching Assistantship Program, the South Asia Center, and the Penn GSE Collaboratory for Teacher Education. The project also involves an interdisciplinary roster of scholars, graduate students, and practitioners from across the Penn community and Philadelphia.
Taylor Hausburg and Zachary Herrmann of the Graduate School of Education presented on their Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice program at an international conference the United Nations headquarters in Geneva last year. (Photo: Courtesy of Zachary Herrmann)
From the classroom to the real world
It’s an uncertain time for the planet, and the actions we take to address climate change today will have the largest impact on young people and future generations. So, shouldn’t teachers and those young people be part of devising the solutions? The Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice research community – led by Zachary Herrmann, adjunct associate professor at the Graduate School of Education, and Taylor Hausburg – allows teachers to design highly effective active learning experiences for climate education, empowering student to directly confront the crisis.
Collaborators
"In the Philippines a training on PBL is a relatively new concept. Let alone a PBL training on climate change; it is something that very few would be able to come up with." -Anonymous
