Place-Based STEM Education for Sustainability: A Path towards Socioecological Resilience

Abstract

This article analyzes STEM projects conducted in eight schools with children from 4 to 10 years old in southern Chile. The main purpose of the study was to describe and analyze how these projects can affect students’ and educators’ attitudes and create community capacities to tackle local socioecological challenges. We used an ethnographic design with an intentioned coding process of interviews and participant observations to summarize one year of collaborative and transdisciplinary project building. The results describe the main attitudinal changes of teachers and students and give evidence on how these projects create new links and foster collaborations with local actors and organizations that are usually sidelined from educational experiences. Examples of meaningful learning experiences to tackle sustainability challenges were systematized and shared, to inspire new initiatives, raise new voices, and promote active participation of the new generations to foster socioecological resilience.

Exploring the Affordances of Place-Based Education for Advancing Sustainability Education: The Role of Cognitive, Socio-Emotional and Behavioural Learning

“…The third project took place in southern Chile among eight primary schools, accompanying their students and teachers. The educational focus was on integrating Indigenous, local and scientific perspectives in educational experiences, termed "STEM education for sustainability" [39] (p. 1). Finally, the fourth project involved 34 high school students from Colorado, USA, who took part in a film-making project to explore the impacts of climate change on their local communities [40].…”

“…Resilience" by Bascopé and Reiss (2021) [39] This study combines inquiry-based learning (IBL), outdoor exploration and PBE strategies in solving local sustainability challenges and developing students' personal capacities and attitudes, as well as strengthening both personal and community resilience. IBL is an instructional approach that places an emphasis on active learning, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.…”

Becoming future-proof STEM teachers for enhancing sustainable development: A proposed general framework for capacity-building programs in future studies

“…In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the close relationship between STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and sustainable development (SD) in school and university education (Bascopé & Reiss, 2021 ; Gough, 2021 ; Krug, 2012 ; Pahnke et al, 2019 ; Suh et al, 2019 ; Ulmeanu et al, 2021 ; Velázquez et al, 2020 ). A primary reason for this increased focus is that STEM education is considered one of the major pillars that support SD through building the capacities of future generations (Pahnk et al, 2019 ).…”

Coastal risks and resilience learning

“…There are seven essential principles of ocean literacy (NOAA, 2020) to be born in mind in considering not only coastal resilience, but the resilience in wider sense: (1) Earth has one big ocean with many features, (2) The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of the Earth, (3) The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate, (4) The ocean makes Earth habitable, (5) The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems, (6) The ocean and humans are inextricably linked, and (7) The ocean is largely unexplored. Humans are highly dependent on the oceans, its resources and capacity, while the ocean poses major risks for coastal communities, that being sublimed in the sixth principle.…”