Queen Elizabeth High School (10-­‐12), Edmonton, Alberta: Student Led Initiatives for Sustainable Education and Connect Teachers: Aaron Dublenko, Terry Godwaldt Competencies: •
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Interconnections –
Ecological systems & processes, Social systems & technology, Wellbeing & interconnections Diversity Responsibility and Citizenship –
Investigation & evaluation knowledge & skills, Action competence (systems, futures and design thinking) What the teacher did: Student Led Initiatives for Sustainable Education (SLISE) started out as a club and is now a credit-­‐
based program that works on solutions to real world problems. There are seven different modules for students. The students choose to enroll in the modules, the modules use integrated themes focusing on a variety of topics and subjects. Students receive credits for completing the modules. The number of ongoing projects and new initiatives undertaken by the SLISE students is impressive! SLISE teacher Aaron Dublenko ensures students receive the recognition for all of the student-­‐led project work: “The teacher acts as a guide and facilitator with the students taking the lead. The teacher gets to sit back and watch the magic happen.” Aaron Dublenko is the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching award as well as a finalist for a 2012 Alberta Emerald Award. Teacher Terry Godwaldt leads the Centre for Global Education, and Connect, a program to bring the global community into the school. The Connect students have also done a number of projects and some of these are tied in with specific areas of curriculum. Connect works with students from around the world and across Canada and Alberta, helping them work together on areas of global policy including climate change, national energy strategies, 21st century learning, student polling and much more. What the students did: Projects that have been completed by SLISE students include placing solar panels on the school roof, building solar lanterns for Haiti and Canada aboriginal communities, life straws for Haiti, Alberta Council for Environmental Education – School Stories – January, 2013 http://abcee.org/stories/ 1 building solar ovens, and building spice boxes for the school’s food program. Connect and the Centre for Global Education have also done a number of initiatives by building connections with a global community. Students across Canada worked together to create the National Energy Strategy that was presented to the Senate Standing Committee on Energy and Environment, Senator Grant Mitchell and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in the spring of 2012. Students delivered the presentation as a cross-­‐Canada solar-­‐powered videoconference at the Alberta Legislature. The students also worked with other Canadian students to create a “Canadian Youth Whitepaper on Climate Change”. This is a culmination of over a month of online teamwork, 2000 hours of student collaboration, 200+ hours of teacher facilitation and a passion by Canada’s youth to engage in the national debate. The paper was taken by a Canadian youth delegation to COP 18 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UN CCC) in Qatar, November 26 to December 7, 2012. Aaron is in Qatar and has posted photos from the COP 18 on SLISE’s web site. What changed: Below are two testimonials from students involved in SLISE and Connect. Thia Ma, founding member of SLISE: “You can plan something for so long but once you see it in action it is completely different. You realize that we did this, this is us, it was the students that wanted to make these initiatives happen and to present them outside of the classroom and to people across Canada. That’s mind blowing, really!” Akeel Khan, SLISE student: “Instead of just seeing my science class work I can actually do practical things more and beyond what I would be able to do in a classroom. I gain credits, knowledge and connection with community networks such as people from NAIT so I will know more about NAIT so if I choose to go there it won’t be completely strange to me. It goes with my interests in science and environmental science.” For more information: SLISE -­‐ http://slisee.ning.com/ Centre for Global Education -­‐ http://tcge.tiged.org/ Alberta Council for Environmental Education – School Stories – January, 2013 http://abcee.org/stories/ 2