2012

A New Partnership

The U.S. Embassy in Berlin joins forces with LISUM Berlin-Brandenburg, LIFE e.V. Berlin (project eXplorarium), and Leuphana University to design the U.S. Embassy School Election Project 2012 in a blended learning format using a Moodle-based learning management system. 

2013

Hans Eberhard Piepho Prize 

The election Project is awarded the prestigious Hans Eberhard Piepho Prize for Ideas in Communicative Foreign Language Teaching at the congress of the German Association for Foreign and Second Language Research and Pedagogy

2014

Launch of Going Green - Education for Sustainability

The project partners continue their joint work, leading to the launch of the new Going Green project and the development of a state-of-the-art blended learning platform and initiation of a nationwide network of teachers and schools, reaching over 900 participants in the first year, incl. 58 online classrooms in 12 German states

2015

Land of Ideas Award & TOP-Partnership

Going Green is transferred to a new web-portal, Teach About U.S., to harbor national and international school projects. The project is awarded the Deutschland – Land der Ideen Award. A partnership with the Transatlantic Outreach Program in Washington D.C. is initiated.

2016

Hannover Messe & Third Project Cycle

Going Green concludes its third project cycle in the spring with a final student conference in Berlin and parallel events in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. The project is showcased at the Tec2You Pavilion at the Hannover Messe and is visited by U.S. Ambassador Emerson and German Secy. of Education and Research, Johanna Wanka.

2017

Cooperation with Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

In an effort to seek new participant circles and extend the project curriculum for science classes, a partnership with the PIK is established, leading to joint teacher training conferences and connections between both organizations’ education projects

2018

Power to the People

Going Green is extended by additive STEM-based modules and a complete transdisciplinary project week curriculum “Power to the People” on renewable energy planning at the community level. The project week was co-developed with experts in science education at Leuphana University and has been successfully piloted in Germany and the U.S.

2019

Celebrating 250 Years Alexander von Humboldt

Going Green enters its fifth project cycle. A network of German-American schools has been well established and partnerships with science educators at Leuphana University and the PIK ensure a transdisciplinary orientation. The 2019 Going Green competition is framed by the 250^th birthday of Alexander von Humboldt and celebrates his legacy in science and humanist education.

Teach About U.S. school projects have reached over 10,000 participants since the start in 2012.

2020

U.S. Embassy School Election Project 2020

Over 5,000 teachers and students took part in our U.S. Embassy School Election Project and almost 200 courses cast their adopted states' votes the week before Election Day. They correctly predicted Joe Biden's election victory and submitted extremely well-researched and creative project outcomes to our school competition. . 

Baden-Württemberg meets California

The German-American institute in Tübingen, together with their colleagues in Freiburg, Stuttgart, and Heidelberg, partnered with Teach About U.S. for a special initiative on connecting classrooms in Baden-Württemberg and California! Going Green: Baden-Württemberg meets California celebrates and extends the recently founded partnership between both states. This initiative was generously funded by the Baden-Württemberg Staatsministerium and implemented by the German-American institutes in Baden-Württemberg.

2021

New partnerships, new updates!

Going Green joins Scientix

- the largest community for science education in Europe. Scientix supports Going Green with teaching materials, networking, workshops and webinars relevant to teachers of English, Geography and Environmental sciences. Going Green develops 3 new modules: "Youth Participation", "Environmental Justice" and "Green Energy"
- Youth Participation: seeks to inspire students to become active participants in promoting sustainability goals
- Environmental Justice: informs students on the political, social and economic challenges with the environment
- Green Energy: examines the pros and cons of renewable and non-renewable energies as well as sustainable technologies