Promoting renewable energies - RETS Project

Climate Change Wales, project to assist
teachers and students in Wales.
The work of the ECO Centre to increase the amount of
small scale renewable energy generation in Wales is
combined with setting the context of the growing need for
sustainably produced energy.
This starts with education in both the broad and narrow
sense of the word. Our education projects aim to work
with non-specialists in the community, and the next
generation of householders to ensure that they
understand the causes and impacts of climate change
and how sustainable energy can make a contribution to
mitigating these. We developed Climate Change Wales
to provide resources for teachers and students to explore
the causes and impacts of climate change in Wales, and
to highlight what can be done on a local level.
Hard Project Outcomes
Employment of a Climate Change Project Officer;
Climate Change Wales web resource;
School and community workshops and talks;
Climate change film for secondary schools;
Training for teachers;
Materials for the Welsh Assembly Government.
Soft Project Outcomes
Collaborative working relationships with other
environmental NGOs.
Network of practising teachers willing to
contribute and review Climate Change Wales
materials.
Raised profile of West Wales ECO Centres
education work.
One of the main resources was the
Climate Change Wales website,
covering all four Key Stages, in a
Welsh context, written by practising
teachers, bilingual and covering a
broad range of issues – including
global poverty, bio-diversity and
technological perspectives. Receiving
up to 100 visits a day (a school will
show up as only 1 visit). The most
popular content has been the Flood
maps, Bio-diversity content and
primary content. The Message Tree
and Graffiti Wall have received only
occasional use.
http://www.climatechangewales.org.uk/
Funding came from a number of sources, including both
public (from the Welsh Assembly Sustainable
Development Fund) and private (from TYF Ltd, under the
1% for the Planet scheme). The project ran for 2 years
from 2007 – 2009, and achieved the following main
outcomes:
School presentations received positive
feedback, and it has become clear
whilst working on this project that
there are two distinct needs that need
to be addressed in this type of work in school: energy
saving tips and behaviour type activities, and in depth
climate change and sustainability workshops
A training day was provided to primary school teachers
too, with over 30 schools attending, with positive
feedback. The Education Business Partnership asked for
a further 3 training days for secondary school teachers to
be given too.
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RETS Compendium – © 2012 RETS Consortium