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Education for Sustainability with Scientix®
The Science Education Initiative of European Schoolnet® brings green and blue education to the classroom.
One of the priorities of Scientix®, as established by the Scientix Ministries of Education STEM Working Group, is to help contextualise science teaching and learning by connecting STEM education with real life problems and the world around us. This involves engaging students in solving pressing societal and environmental problems and supporting them in developing green competences. The European Commission’s (EC) European Sustainability Competence Framework (GreenComp) highlights essential competences that educators should strive to develop in their students, among which environmental knowledge, empathy for nature and agency in acting for the sustainability of society and the planet. These competences will equip them to adopt sustainable practices and understand the complexity and interconnectedness of the natural world and our interactions with it.
What is the secret to bringing environmental sustainability competences to the STEM classroom? European educators continuously show a strong commitment and willingness to prepare their students for important environmental challenges, but often report lacking the time, space and technical knowledge to confidently integrate green and blue education (environmental sustainability, water and ocean literacy) into their teaching. To respond to the need of teachers, Scientix participates in a range of EC and privately funded initiatives designed to seamlessly integrate environmental topics into the STEM curriculum. These topics include, among others, climate change education, soil and ocean literacy and the role of nature-based solutions (NBS) in solving human and environmental problems.
With ready to use teaching resources, teacher training material and courses, and academic research, these Scientix Partner Projects bring knowledge about ecosystems services and natural processes and explore with students how to act and live sustainably.
In practice, making teaching ‘green’ includes some or all the following activities.
- Introducing sustainability topics in classroom lessons, exploring them to illustrate STEM subjects, or putting them at the center of the learning experience through hands-on and experiential activities.
- Taking the learning experience itself outside of the classroom for outdoor learning activities or bringing environmental professionals to share their experience and knowledge with students.
- And of course, it also means showing students that sustainability is more than a topic, it is a lifestyle. So, it is key to introduce green features into schools for the benefit of all members of the community: building a school garden, tending a green roof or a green wall, organizing tree planting or recycling activities, to name but a few ideas!
We outline some of the projects and key outputs available via the Scientix repositories of knowledge, networking and professional developments resources and some of the upcoming activities that will help educators grow the roots of sustainability in their classroom, while empowering students to become active citizens. Additionally, explore the STEM School Label to achieve environmental expertise for your school strategy. All the projects listed are funded or co-funded by the European Union.
- The BUSTIC EDU project will centralise GreenComp and environmental education resources in the upcoming Scientix Collections service, developed in partnership with CISCO (Feb 2026). The collections will offer new teaching resources for educators from ECEC to secondary schools. The project also published a report on existing assessment methods for sustainability competences curriculum implementation.
- The NBS Academy puts NBS at the heart of teacher training with the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Nature-based solutions: Training approaches for educators and teacher trainers” and the Train the Trainer Toolkit, helping teacher trainers or teachers wishing to upskill their environmental literacy.
- The LOESS initiative brings soil literacy to all learners: from formal education to the public. Explore the MOOC and Learning Scenarios to help students understand the value of healthy soils for a sustainable future.
- The NBS EduWORLD offers hundreds of resources via its resource repository, including Guidelines on Implementation of Nature-Based Solutions Activities in Education for NBS Starters and for NBS Advanced educators.
- Because strong trees grow from small seedlings, OUTSTE(A)M combines integrated STEM education and outdoor learning to bring environmental education to Early Childhood Education and Care. Register for the upcoming MOOC (starting in January 2026) to discover methodologies, play-based ideas, and ready-to-use teaching resources.
- Climate Change education is imperative in the classroom and addressing the topic may be both daunting for educators and potentially demotivating for students. To help introduce the topic in an age-appropriate and empowering manner, the Carbon Act project’s Best Practice Report: teaching Climate Change Today offers practical resources and advice from expert teachers.
- Do you want to put water and ocean literacy at the heart of the learning experience? Explore the BlueLightS’ Blue education platform to find resources and keep an eye out for the upcoming events and funding calls to support school and teacher-led blue projects and activities. You can also explore ProBleu’s Resource Bundles and the Resource Builder to create your own lesson plans.
- The Buzzing Schools project is developing an educational toolkit with teachers and non-formal educators to introduce the topic of pollinators decline and biodiversity to children and young people from 9 to 16 years of age. The toolkit will be released in 2027.
With Scientix it’s never been easier to paint education all shades of green and blue to empower students! Make sure to visit the repositories of resources and register for the Scientix Digest to stay up to date with the projects.
An alternative version of this article is available on the ESEP platform, the European Commission’s hub for school education and home of eTwinning. Read it here!