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What teachers can learn from Nature-Based Solutions
This hybrid event brings together people around Europe to learn about education for sustainability in Europe, to share the innovative use of nature-based solutions in education, and to celebrate the winners of the First Teachers Competition ‘Nature-Based Solutions in Education’. Read more .
What are Nature-Based Solutions?
NBS are solutions inspired and supported by nature and ecosystems. As opposed to purely technological solutions, NBS are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits, and help build resilience to climate change.
Nature-Based Solutions bring more nature and biodiversity to cities, landscapes and seascapes, through locally adapted, systemic interventions. Examples of NBS are green roofs and green walls to cool down cities in the summer, parks to combat pollution and provide leisure and exercise to citizens, green corridors connecting natural areas, urban food gardens, etc.
Although NBS are a relatively new professional field, the careers and job profiles around nature and STEM are many and diverse. Have a look the incredible and powerful work of our NBS experts and let your students be passionate about nature!
NBS educational resources
To ensure a future where next generations can thrive, learning for environmental sustainability should be a systemic feature of policy and a must in education. Thanks to our pilot project,
If you wish to integrate Nature-Based Solutions in your classroom, have a look at the educational resources. Below you will find engaging teaching materials to include in your school lessons, such as career sheets, podcasts and interviews with NBS experts or interesting learning scenarios.
Developed under the NBS Phase 2 and STE(A)M IT projects, the career profiles aim to provide students and teachers with a more informed image of the Nature-Based Solutions by delivering nature-based solutions job profiles. These career sheets will explain the kind of skills needed to work in the field of NBS by the hand of experts.
- Co-founders Environmental Cooperative, Natascha Wahlberg & Jesús Iglesias.
Get resource - Coordinator of a Nature-Based Landscape Organisation, Bas Van der Veken.
Get resource - Environmental Policy Adviser, Thomas Wellens.
Get resource - Landscape Architect in Nature-Based Solutions, Ildefonso García.
Get resource - Leading Professional in Water Resilient Cities, Nanco Dolman.
Get resource - Nature-Based Landscape Architect, Róisín Byrne.
Get resource - Research and Development Project Manager, Gerardo González.
Get resource - Research Scientist in Nature-Based Solutions, Cristina Calheiros.
Get resource - Researcher and Technician in Agroecology, Erik Hobbelink.
Get resource
In these podcasts, experts from different backgrounds and with amazing jobs will inspire next generations to pursue NBS careers. They will also share their advice with students interested in starting a career in the field of STEM.
- Co-founder Environmental Cooperative, Natascha Wahlberg.
Get resource - Coordinator of a Nature-Based Landscape Organisation, Bas Van der Veken.
Get resource - Environmental Policy Adviser, Thomas Wellens.
Get resource - Landscape Architect in Nature-Based Solutions, Ildefonso García.
Get resource - Leading Professional in Water Resilient Cities, Nanco Dolman.
Get resource - Nature-Based Landscape Architect, Róisín Byrne.
Get resource - Research and Development Project Manager, Gerardo González.
Get resource - Research Scientist in Nature-Based Solutions, Cristina Calheiros.
Get resource - Researcher and Technician in Agroecology, Erik Hobbelink.
Get resource
In these interviews, NBS professionals will explain their day to day work, the career paths they followed and why Nature-Based-Solutions are an important field of study.
- Co-founder Environmental Cooperative, Natascha Wahlberg.
Get resource - Coordinator of a Nature-Based Landscape Organisation, Bas Van der Veken.
Get resource - Environmental Policy Adviser, Thomas Wellens.
Get resource - Landscape Architect in Nature-Based Solutions, Ildefonso García.
Get resource - Leading Professional in Water Resilient Cities, Nanco Dolman.
Get resource - Nature-Based Landscape Architect, Róisín Byrne.
Get resource - Research and Development Project Manager, Gerardo González.
Get resource - Research Scientist in Nature-Based Solutions, Cristina Calheiros.
Get resource - Researcher and Technician in Agroecology, Erik Hobbelink.
Get resource
The NBS chats provide students with a more informed image of what Nature-Based Solutions are, as well as jobs and careers in this area. These sessions consisted of real-time, synchronous, online discussions between one expert and several classes of students. During the virtual meetings, teachers and their students typed their questions in the chat and the NBS professional replied to them orally.
- Co-founder Environmental Cooperative, Natascha Wahlberg.
Get resource - Leading Professional in Water Resilient Cities, Nanco Dolman.
Get resource - Nature-Based Landscape Architect, Róisín Byrne.
Get resource - Research Scientist in Nature-Based Solutions, Cristina Calheiros.
Get resource
15 teachers joined the Integrating Nature-Based Solutions in Education project to help develop learning scenarios. Each lesson is avaliable in the following languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish.
- Let’s make our school a Growing place!, Enrica Ardissino.
This learning scenario stems from the need to improve the quality of ‘Green Solutions’ in schools. The aim is to involve students from an early age to be familiar with the topic of green area diffusion and would contribute towards building a sustainable, healthy, and resilient city, better adapted to climate change. In this context, students will debate and plan the construction of a green wall inside and outside the school using recycled materials. Suggested Age/Subjects: 7-8 years old – Science, Art, ICT, English.
Get resource - GRETA – Green Relevant Environment to All (Understanding NBS), Gabriela Krizovska.
The climate change activist Greta Thunberg is an “influencer” of the teenage generation. What aspects of her presentation “Nature Now” make her a role model of learning more about NBS? By using their critical thinking, students discover more about the destruction of our environment and use self-studying methods to find a way to help nature recover from the destruction. Suggested Age/Subjects: 13-14 years old – STEM, STEAM, CLIL.
Get resource - Deconstructing Climate Denial Speech and understanding the role of Nature-Based Solutions, Nicolas Duquenne.
Recently scientists and experts released reports which should provide content to policymakers on the climate crisis. In this Learning Scenario, these documents are reviewed using the scientific method by analysing several graph, figures, and short texts on climate change and NBS.Suggested Age/Subjects: 15-17 years old – Biology, Ecology, Philosophy, Social Sciences.
Get resource - The Traveling Fox, Ralia Thoma.
In this learning scenario, students get familiarized with the concept of social and environmental justice through the story, photos, and videos of Foxy Travel – a fox who likes traveling across Europe. With the help of the Foxy’s “environmental” photos, they will think about the socio-environmental fair neighbourhood in which they would like to live using recycled materials. Suggested Age/Subjects: 6-8 years old – Discovery of the World, Maths, Art, Language
Get resource - Transform your school/town: design a constructed wetland, Tullia Urschitz.
Despite the lack of water during warm summers, it is often possible to observe the waste of water while watering gardens. In this lesson, students will learn about NBS for wastewater treatment, which can not only purify water from pollutants but provide numerous co-benefits. Through a project-based learning (PBL) approach, students will build a prototype of a constructed wetland. Suggested Age/Subjects: 14-15 years old – Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Engineering, Earth sciences, Design and Technology
Get resource - Exploring ecosystem services and nature-based solutions to urban problems , Pernilla Berglund.
The purpose of this learning scenario is to explore an urban ecosystem of a city, analysing its ecosystem services and determining whether it acts as a nature-based solution to challenges such as diminishing biodiversity, urban heat islands and urban decay. This learning scenario uses Uppsala as an example but can be implemented in other places. Suggested Age/Subjects: 12-18 years old – Biology, natural science
Get resource - Nature Changing Our Surroundings, Ewa PRZYBYSZ GARDYZA.
By analysing photos of different cities, students try to work out the logic behind using nature in solving problems that cities face. Then students try to define whether their school faces any of the problems in which nature could be of use. With the help of the teacher, students design a plan to address problems around their school using NBS and eventually implement their plan. Suggested Age/Subjects: 6-9 years old – Primary, Biology, Natural Sciences.
Get resource - A Green School is a Healthy School, Anna Koc.
The main goal of this learning scenario is to help students realize that the school environment, where they spend a lot of time, is crucial for their health, well-being, concentration, and study efficiency. This is done by measuring air quality in the school and debating how to make school spaces greener. Students may work on a green wall concept for their school, and eventually build it. Suggested Age/Subjects: 15-19 years old – Chemistry, Natural Sciences, Science, Biology, Guidance lessons.
Get resource - Water Management at Urban Areas, Jose Vinas.
This learning scenario encourages students to learn and care about the importance of water management to tackle urban challenges such as floods and disruption of the water cycle in the urban environment via NBS. Through the activities, students will work as scientists following the approach of inquiry-based learning by following the design process as engineers (or landscape architects). Suggested Age/Subjects: 12-13 years old – Biology, Geology, Earth Sciences.
Get resource - Nature-based solutions for Climate mitigation and adaptation, Juan Carlos Navarro Garcia.
Climate mitigation and adaptation are attempts to slow down the process of global climate change. This learning scenario looks, on the one hand, into green vegetation for health and well-being and, on the other, on participatory planning and actions, like creating a vegetable school garden that will reduce the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and provide food and plants that improve the health and well-being of the students.Suggested Age/Subjects: 8-9 years old – English, Primary.
Get resource - Green Jobs Create Economic Opportunities , Ana Belen Yuste Martínez.
In this scenario, students reflect on how their future jobs can be based on NBS to transform their cities. The students must choose their role and decide the way to develop a green job and consider how it would be possible. This scenario will allow students to understand that green jobs can also be profitable. Suggested Age/Subjects: 17-19 years old – Earth and environmental sciences.
Get resource - School Garden, Street Garden, Costantina Cossu.
Green areas are increasingly scarce in cities and schools and, oftentimes, abandoned or not properly maintained. These could become places of biodiversity, environmental education, healthy recreation for people, improving the ecosystems of cities. This activity aims to carry out a project with students, to connect uncultivated existent green areas, and external spaces of the school, with green cycling paths and walking tracks. Suggested Age/Subjects: 14-17 years old – Agronomy, Statistics, Biology, Physics, ICT, Languages.
Get resource - NBS to prevent forest fires and reduce risk disasters caused by deforestation, Elisa Saraiva.
Nature-Based Solutions can reduce disaster risks connected with forest fires. This is a key issue in countries where climate change and desertification have increased the risk of forest fires and disasters, mainly caused by deforestation. With this learning scenario students will analyse risks and propose NBS based on the data resulting from scientific research, using digital competences and real-world problem-solving skills. Suggested Age/Subjects: 14+ – STE(A)M.
Get resource - Waste Management of The Food Industry – Hazards, Risks and Solutions, Irena Ribinskiene.
Uncontrolled landfill sites are increasingly being used as a method for food waste disposal, becoming sources of diseases, unpleasant odours, parasites, rodents, etc. In this learning scenario, students conduct an experiment in which food waste is converted to compost that is then used to grow some vegetables. In this way, the production of natural fertilisers and green energy with food initiatives are linked. Suggested Age/Subjects: 16-18 years old – Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics.
Get resource - Green infrastructure and NBS in dialogue: How to integrate NBS in your technical classes, Marcin Jabłoński.
The purpose of the lesson is to introduce students, especially of technical high schools, to NBS. The learning scenario includes an introduction to NBS and their benefits, a discussion on issues related to small eco-transport systems and how to construct them in a city (e.g., shelters for e-bike-scooters with solar panels designed with green roof-wall infrastructures that promote biodiversity). Suggested Age/Subjects: 15-20 years old – VET, Engineering, Technology, Physics.
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Education plays a fundamental role in fostering sustainability literacy, and Nature-based solutions (NBS) are an excellent way to address the topic. For this reason, the European Commission worked on Learning Scenarios to address NBS within various educational contexts. Considering the era of unprecedented global changes our societies are experiencing, among which climate change is one of the most notable examples, the urgency of raising awareness and sparking action is ever more prominent.
In this context, education plays a fundamental role in fostering sustainability literacy, that is, knowledge about the interplay between nature and society and the exploration of how to develop resilient and inclusive communities. Among other tools, Nature-Based Solutions have emerged as a way to address these needs.
Considering the above, the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation initiated and funded an NBS pilot project coordinated by PPMI, in collaboration with European Schoolnet (EUN), to create Learning Scenarios for teachers to address and include the topic of NBS in different levels of primary and secondary education.
The Learning Scenarios were designed by leading teachers from seven countries and tested with over 1,000 students thanks to Scientix. In this validation report we explain the process followed to design and test the Learning Scenarios and share the results obtained.
Apart from introducing NBS in class, these Learning Scenarios use innovative pedagogies – such as inquiry-based science education, place-based learning, and eco-pedagogies. As a result, they are exemplary for STE(A)M teaching, that is the interdisciplinary integration of STEM and non-STEM subjects in class. Combining various subjects, from sciences and ICT to languages and politics, provides students with a holistic view on ecological, social and economic issues, and so fosters informed and empowered young citizens.
Get resource"Let Nature Be the Solution: Educational Innovation and Award Ceremony" was a hybrid event, which took place on 10 December 2021 at the European Commission, that marked the end of the NBS Pilot project. The event brought together students, teachers, researchers and representatives of the public and private sectors to discuss how NBS can be integrated into the school curriculum and showcase all the work conducted under the NBS pilot.
During the final event of the Nature-Based Solutions project, several initiatives were presented. As such, Sally Anderson introduced the “REGREEN”, a project which fosters nature-based solutions for equitable, green and healthy urban transitions in Europe and China. Have a look at her intervention!
You can access the full recording of the session by clicking here. Below you can find additional resources presented during the event, as well as the winning learning scenarios:
- Learning to Reforest, Armandina de Carvalho.
Get resource - Planting a Tree – Caring for the Future, Mara Kolar.
Get resource - NBS and Hardy Plants for a Sustainable City, Stavroula Skiada & Georgia Lascaris.
Get resource - S.O.C: Save Our Coasts (and Souls), Emma Abbate
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