Utrecht January 21th, 2016
Dear colleague,
With this letter we would like to introduce you to the Geo Future School concept. Perhaps you
are interested in participating in a special training week for (geography) teachers about this
programme.
Geo Future School (GFS) is a new, innovative program in secondary education that focuses
on future-oriented education. In the programme, funded by the EU, students are encouraged to
think about major (European) issues of today and the future, such as:
-Energy, natural resources, and climate change issues.
-Sustainability and health geography.
-Water abundance and scarcity..
-European citizenship and globalization.
- Smart cities.
Geography as a multidisciplinary subject is at the centre of these important themes, but other
subjects such as history, biology, and IT play an important role as well. The programme
emphasizes cooperation between schools, companies and knowledge institutes. This is
important for young people, because it encourages their understanding of the daily work at
these companies or institutions, and their relevance. Students learn by doing, inside and
outside the school. This is done through (international) fieldwork and meeting important
actors in the field, for example through guest lessons. Students are challenged to think in
terms of solutions and scenarios. Another major aspect in the program, is Geo-IT. There is a
huge demand of well-qualified Geo-IT professionals who can adequately deal with geoinformation.
Are you curious to know more? Could this be something to start up in your own environment?
We are organizing a week for teachers who are interested in the Geo Future School concept.
During this week, we will give you input on the content of the programme and the important
themes. We will introduce you to some important Dutch schools in the field and we will equip
you with tools and ideas that you can apply in your own environment.
The week will take place from 13th-17th of June 2016. We have an EU budget for ten
geography teachers to join the program. The budget is to pay your flight up to a maximum of
275 euro and a hotel in Utrecht up to a maximum of 500 euro. We will book the hotel for you.
From every country two teachers are welcome. At least one of them must be a geography
teacher. Both teachers should be teachers that teach regularly in a secondary school with 1018 year old students. We prefer to invite pairs of teachers from the same school. Participants
should be good in English reading, writing and speaking.
Preliminary programme
Monday June 13:
Arrival before 13:00 PM at Schiphol Airport Amsterdam or before
14:00 PM in Utrecht. Introduction session in the afternoon. Excursion
in Utrecht and welcome dinner organised at the end of the day.
Tuesday June 14:
From 9:00 AM -17:00 PM lectures about GFS concept and workshops
to develop your own GFS module; no joint dinner organised.
Wednesday June15: Visit to GFS school and Geo-IT centre. GFS workshop. No joint dinner
organised.
Thursday June 16: From 9:00 AM -17:00 GFS lecture, workshops to develop your own
GFS module; presentation by country of GFS products developed in
this week; central farewell dinner organised.
Friday June 17:
Visit to Amsterdam, including GFS school and GFS presentations of
secondary students. Departure back home.
If you are interested, please apply March 30th at the latest. Please send an email to:
j.a.vander.schee@vu.nl if you want to apply.
Send us some info about your work and your motivation to come to Utrecht as well as full
address information.
We are looking forward to welcome you!
Joop van der Schee
Professor in Geography Education
Faculty of Geosciences Utrecht University
Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning
Heidelberglaan 2
3584 CS Utrecht
Nederland
j.a.vander.schee@vu.nl