Teach About US Update // March 1, 2018

Dear Subscriber,

The new school semester is already in full swing, and with this newsletter we want to send you a final reminder that there is still one month left to participate in the Going Green school competition. Also, we are happy to announce that our project week curriculum on renewable energy is finally online. Read more about these topics below.

Need inspiration? Here are photos of the Henriette-Louise-Gymnasium Oranienburg project week on sustainability in February. The whole school worked on hands-on upcycling projects (check out the bird houses made of milk cartons!), and teacher Jens Rösener’s group integrated the Going Green curriculum with a group of students. Teach About US team member Martina Kohl visited and greatly enjoyed their presentations and creative work.

Bird houses made of milk cartons by LHG students

Upcycled boxes and clothes made by LHG students

Yours,

Joannis Kaliampos
on behalf of the Teach About US Team and Partners
 

   Joannis Kaliampos
   Leuphana Universität | Scharnhorststr. 1 | 21335 Lüneburg
   Fon +49 (0)4131.677-1662 | E-Mail | Web

 

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 This newsletter’s topics at a glance:

1. Final call for participation: Going Green school competition

• Going Green competition deadline: March 30, 2018

• All competition entries, small or big, are welcome – even extended versions of eco-challenges.

• Submit your course’s entry in the Virtual Town Hall

2. Going Green concluding event and school visits

• Final event in Düsseldorf: April 19, 2018, 10:00 to 12:30

• School visits or briefings at the U.S. Embassy planned for participants in other regions

3. Project week: Power to the People

• Project week curriculum online

• Renewable energy from the perspectives of cultural studies and science

• Video competition: Submit a 3-minute video by June 15, 2018

4. Save the dates: Upcoming teacher trainings

• Saarbrücken, May 23, 2018

• Potsdam, May 24, 2018

• Berlin, May 25, 2018

Final call for participation: Going Green school competition

With still four weeks left to participate in this year’s Going Green school competition, we are looking forward to your green action plans.  Submit your plan by March 30, 2018!

Student projects in previous years included upcycling festivals, flash mobs, drinking water fountains, and school energy audits. Take a look at some of these plans here.

We also welcome extended versions of your courses’ eco-challenges as examples of green actions in your school communities!

Whether your project ideas are big or small, we want to encourage all participants to submit them to the competition. After all, sustainable change happens in small steps – and your contributions in previous years prove have effective these little steps can be.

To submit your project idea, you or a course representative must enter the project idea in Going Green’s Virtual Town Hall along with a short description. Contact Joannis Kaliampos if you experience any technical difficulties or require further assistance.

Going Green concluding event and school visits

The U.S. Consulate General and the NRW Education Ministry are jointly organizing a concluding event for Going Green participants in North-Rhine Westphalia. The meeting is scheduled for April 19, 2018, from 10 AM to 12:30 PM. Participants will receive more detailed information by Jutta Tatzelt (U.S. Consulate Düsseldorf). Consul General Michael Keller and School Minister Yvonne Gebauer are looking forward to welcoming the participants and hearing about their projects.

Representatives of the U.S. Embassy Berlin, the U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt or the Teach About US team will visit your schools or invite you to the Embassy/the Consulate for a briefing on your action plans. All participants will receive a certificate. Competition winners will also receive book prizes.

Project week: Power to the People

We are glad to finally announce that our project week curriculum and Moodle course “Power to the People: Project week on renewable energy in the community” is online and ready to be used in your English-language and Science classrooms. To view the demo course with all materials, many of them available as PDF files, and extensive teaching notes, click on the link “Demo courses” in the Going Green tab on Teach About US (you have to be logged in), or click on the direct link here.

Designed for five days, the project week curriculum is interdisciplinary and integrates foreign language and science contents and skills, for example in the context of interpreting scientific data or conducting experiments. Students will explore the challenges of energy systems in the 21st century, the science behind renewable energies, and ways to implement them in the local context. An additional preparatory module can be taught in collaboration with STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) colleagues prior to the project week. These contents have been developed together with science educators at Leuphana University and also draw on materials kindly provided by the Potsdam Institute of Climate Change Impacts and the Gelfand Center at Carnegie Mellon University.

The project week will feature a video competition:

“Attention! The mayor of Leinwig is seeking your help to transform her town’s energy supply. But the clock is ticking, and you must present your blueprint to an expert commission at the end of this week. The citizens of Leinwig are counting on you. Will you answer their call and help build the town’s future?”

Students are supposed to present their solution to this problem in a short video (not longer than 3 minutes). We have decided to extend the period for this competition until June 15, 2018. If you cannot participate in the Going Green competition in time, then why not do the project week instead? We look forward to your contributions!

Save the dates: Upcoming teacher trainings

• In cooperation with the German-American Institute Saarland and Landesinstitut für Pädagogik und Medien Saarland
• Speaker: Joannis Kaliampos (Leuphana University)
• Venue: Landesinstitut für Pädagogik und Medien (Beethovenstraße 26, 66125 Saarbrücken)
• Date/Time: May 23, 2018; 14:30-17:00
• Registration: via Landesinstitut für Pädagogik und Medien
• For questions pls. contact Caroline Collet at the German American Institute Saarland
• More information and a registration link will be posted on our website soon.

• In cooperation with Staatliches Schulamt des Landes Brandenburg
• Speaker: Joannis Kaliampos (Leuphana University)
• Venue: Humboldt-Gymnasium Potsdam (Heinrich-Mann-Allee 103, 14473 Potsdam)
• Date/Time: May 24, 2018; 15:00-18:00
• Registration: via the teacher platform of the Staatliches Schulamt Brandenburg; teachers outside Potsdam, please register with Ms. Silke Meyfarth (silkemeyfarth@freenet.de)
• More information will be posted on our website soon

• Speakers: Joannis Kaliampos (Leuphana Universität), Dr. Martina Kohl (U.S. Embassy Berlin)
• Annual meeting of the German Association of American Studies, Didactics workshop (“Teaching Counter/Publics: American Studies and Digital Pedagogy” organized by Dr. Uwe Küchler, Tübingen, and Dr. Ingrid Gessner, Regensburg).
• Date/Time: May 25, 2018; afternoon (time tba)
• More information and registration via the conference website: http://dgfa.de/annual-meeting/