Project Summary: Describe your contribution in one sentence

Greening the Curriculum: an immersive learning experience about climate change for primary school kids

What are the additional countries or territories of impact?

Scotland, United Kingdom

Challenge Focus: What topic does your project most directly relate to?

Creating inclusive pathways for people to contribute towards building a sustainable world

Website URL(s) or social media handles

https://www.platocultural.com/ https://escoladoimpossivel.com/ https://instagram.com/platocultural https://escoladoimpossivel.com/en-farol/ Short video about the project: https://youtu.be/WeJcLeN586I

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve?

If you had to invent a threat grand enough, and global enough, to plausibly conjure into being a system of true international cooperation, climate change would be it. It is without doubt that this is the greatest threat to our planet  It is astonishing that it is not front and center of every learning or creative environment.

 ‘School of the (Im)Possible’ is an immersive educational experience about Climate Change for 8-10 year olds kids from primary public schools. It gives voice to the meaningful perspectives and expectations of the young generation for the future in relation to climate change.

With a focus on transforming the current scenario and with a positive attitude as a reaction to the impact of climate change, the School of the (Im)Possible seeks to provide students from 8 to 10 years old with self-awareness as transforming agents, in a playful and immersive way. The project has been garnering  unanimous praise for the creative approach to engaging pupils, teachers, peers, and parents in a subject that is often presented as a doom laden hopeless cause. While facing challenges of their educational trajectory, through an immersive experience  under the curriculum guidelines, the students explore creative solutions to a more sustainable planet. 

A school for a new world can be made here and now, and it will be created by the kids, not by the adults”(Ailton Krenak)

 

Your connection and commitment: How close are you to the problem and/or the community impacted?

I firmly believe in the importance of teaching about sustainability and the environment from primary education. How through ‘(im)possible’ education can we create systemic change in communities, and ultimately imagine new turns and possibilities to fight climate change? 

I champion the environmental activist concept of ‘act global, act local’, creating young changemakers at a local level, and connecting them with other changemakers globally.

What if S.O.S, an organization from the future, found a way to communicate with our time? What if they invited us to embark on a mission: to help rewrite the future and save our planet? 

Time traveling bookshelves appear in classrooms, filled with mysterious still-to-be-written books from the future. Guided by these interactive bookshelves and a digital platform, the kids communicate with scientist-alchemists living in a collapsed future, who invite them to join an (im)possible mission:  “to re-write the future with sustainable solutions.”

During 2 months,  the students engage in different embodied and sensorial challenges; from the school surroundings to a nature trail to visit the “portal to the future” (a green space in their local community). Their final challenge is to lead the ‘School of the (Im)Possible’: a day in which they are the teachers, and the adults take the role of ‘students’, learning about the children’s vision is for a sustainable future. 

Using embedded role play, the project has created a dynamic learning environment where students take ownership of their learning process and understand their active role in making and transforming reality.

The experience is divided into 12 weekly episodes, facilitated by teaching artists in collaboration with the classroom teacher and with the support from a digital platform.

Your approach: How are you enabling other people to identify as green changemakers? How are you influencing them to get involved in your initiative or care about the issue you are addressing?

As Ailton Krenak mentions “kids are carriers of good news. Instead of seeing them as an “empty container that needs to be filled with information” we should perceive that from them emerges a creativity and subjectivity capable of inventing new worlds. They carry with them ancestrality, a gift that the  “planet newcomers” bring to us.

School of the Impossible stems from my company's approach to learning called Learning Adventures: an arts-based approach inviting "players/learners" on a journey that blends reality and fiction. The project creates a fictional setting for kids and teachers to play together and learn new ways of looking and experiencing the world.  

From our experience, the key to engaging with young audiences lies in creating a fictional world which will draw them in. They protagonists of a fictional journey as well as of their learning process, understanding their active role in making and transforming reality. They explore, discover, and make sense of what they learn playfully. By becoming S.O.S Agents, they view themselves as agents of change, engaging in  concrete missions  that transform the way they learn and relate to their communities.

On this video, the students explain some of the missions they undertake: https://youtu.be/iufvLcIKmvU

The digital platform allow the participants from around the world to connect and exchange ideas, joining  a growing global network of S.O.S Agent’s protecting portals in their local communities.

The platform is  also a space for them to share ideas and visions for a sustainable future to a global audience, whilst advocating and fighting for the “portals” (green spaces) that they are protecting in their local communities. 

Here are some of the students ideas for a sustainable future: https://youtu.be/mHtKDVNv_I8

Community involvement: How is your approach involving community participation, especially the historically marginalized groups?

The project is designed and shaped in co-creation with teachers, communities and the education authorities from where it takes place.

In Brazil and Scotland, we worked closely with education authorities  to align the initiative to their National Curriculums. We support teachers and co created the experiences so that they had local relevance whilst meeting national standards. The use of "applied imagination" coupled with the best technology, narratives and aesthetic choices allowed us to completely immerse the teachers, the pupils, the parents and local communities in a journey that not only demonstrated the joy but also has been adopted as an exemplar in how to  teach about climate change through an arts based based approach.

Through a connected and collective journey guided by limitless imagination and expert advice, the participants, their carers, teachers and leaders were able to create and support the environments for genuine change as collectives and individuals.  Specifically, by using a school as the hub and concentrating our efforts on the poorest communities we were able to tie into existing support networks and local authority infrastructure so that we can access and enhance programmes of support and ongoing strategies. This means we are not dropping in and out but rather connecting in and maintaining contact through a newly created sympathetic network. 

Your Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions already out there? How is your approach original and innovative? We are particularly interested in solutions that use regenerative approaches.

The project has a narrative structure which can be translated and adapted to each location and community, valuing local needs and the local environment, as well as training local teaching artists to facilitate the project in their communities.  This assures both sustainability and scalability to the project in the long term. A digital platform connects not only the students globally but also the local teams of facilitators, offering guidance for the implementation of the episodes as well as providing a space for ongoing research and exchange between the partner countries and teaching artists.

Although digital technology is one of the key tools of the project, perhaps the most innovative one is the immersive storytelling, which promotes a unique approach to learning about the environment with kids.  

As  Leading Scottish Education Consultant Barbara Grey Atherton, development officer for creativity for Education Scotland,  comments:   “The project combines two crucial elements of our time – the global environment and creativity in education, using an exciting partnership approach combined with a stimulating narrative which is highly engaging for the learners. The collaboration between the artists and teachers brings a new dynamic to the learning environment and enriches the interdisciplinary curriculum offer.

By embedding artists in the communities and schools, the whole experience takes on a “gaming” live culture that engages the school participants in raising eco awareness and protecting green spaces in their community   whilst playing active embedded roles in their own journeys of discovery.

I believe that art, integrated with new technologies, is  the key to transforming education, and a powerful tool in creating a more sustainable world.

 

 

 

Founding Story: Share a story about the "Aha!" moment that led the founder(s) to get started or the story of how you saw the potential for this to succeed.

The project was first commissioned by the “International teaching Artists Collaborative” (ITAC) in 2021 and piloted in Brazil by Platô Cultural. Platô Cultural was founded in 2018 by Artistic Director Francine Kliemann with support from Goldsmiths University of London. Since 2020, Platô Cultural has been based in Florianópolis, Brazil, formed by a qualified team of creative and educational experts.

Madeleine McGirk, Director of ITAC said “The School of the (Im)possible has been a joy to collaborate on, and the tangible social impact which it has already generated is significant. ITAC is delighted to have supported the development of the first pilot version of this work, and now its expansion into Scotland and beyond.” 

With continuous support from ITAC, and funding from the British Council, we were able to extend it in Brazil and in Scotland in partnership with Simon Sharkey and The Necessary Space. We attracted local authorities, national educational bodies, and climate impact networks to help design and deliver a ground-breaking experience that could be rolled out. . We have primed our national and global networks to grow with us. This includes the Catalyst 2030 network, Leaning Planet Alliance, The Climate reality Network, The ITAC Collaborative Network and the British Council International Collaboration Network.
 

Impact: How has your project made a difference so far? How is it contributing to a zero-carbon world- where every person thrives, and nobody gets left behind?

Since its implementation, the project has made a great impact on the communities it has engaged. We have worked across the communities of North Lanarkshire in Scotland and Sao José in  Brazil, having worked with over 1000 students, their carers and parents, 70 teachers, 33 cohorts, and 13 schools

During the implementation of each round we run a impact evaluation following the Continuum Assessment of Impact. This results in assessment of both educational and social impact, measuring short, medium and long term change.

It has demonstrated the potential to influence and transform teaching practices in schools both in Brazil and in Scotland, which hold a different sociocultural background and curriculum system. As well as enhancing the school curriculum the project had also an impact on knowledge, attitudes and discourse where students,

-increased knowledge and awareness about climate change

- shifted negative perceptions about the environment

-took ownership of their learning process and understood their active role in making and transforming reality

-saw themselves as agents of change, becoming "guardians" of their local portal and environment

 - became teachers and adults the learners in a shift from the usual positions

Watch the impact evaluation video from the pilot programme where we share concrete examples of the impact mentioned above:  https://youtu.be/UVKDENC0Bjw

 

What’s Next: What are your ideas for taking your project to the next level?

After succesfully piloting the project in Scotland, in collaboration with our local partner Simon Sharkey, we have applied for funding to expand the project to more communities in Scotland from September 2023. 

Watch the video about the impact and implementation of the project in Scotland: https://vimeo.com/779595455

In Brazil,  we are currently running the fourth round of the project to 18 new cohorts,  funded by the local government in São José, Brazil. We have been discussing with  local authorities from Porto Alegre and Florianópolis to implement it from 2024. 

Having cemented  global partnerships, School of the impossible is now set to build a  network of schools and communities willing to participate as agents of change. Discussions with other countries, such as New Zealand and the U.S are taking place in order to scale the project to more locations and build a global network of S.O.S Agents.

We are also in the design process of an A.R Game: a fully digital version of the project, aimed for achieving remote  communities that wouldn't otherwise be able to access the hybrid experience.

Platô Cultural is a member at ITAC (International Teaching Artist Collaborative), CAN (Community Arts Network), Learning Planet Alliance  and Catalyst 2030, which supports the dissemination of our initiative, allowing potential connection with local partners and funders.

Your team: What is the current composition of your team (types of roles, qualifications, full-time vs. part-time, board members, etc.), and how do you plan to evolve the team’s composition as the project grows?

Platô Cultural is formed by a multidisciplinary team with a strong background in education, arts, experience design, and management.  We are driven by the desire of blurring boundaries between disciplines, creating bridges between sectors in order to respond to a world that urges for reinvention.

Francine Kliemann - Director - full-time 

Marcia Donadel - Head of Learning - full-time

Fernanda Nascimento - Experience Design  - full-time

Java Orlando -  Exec. Producer - full-time

Matheus Hoffmann - Assist. Producer - part-time

Flavia Gravito - Admin/Finance Officer - part-time

Mariana  Rosa -  Comms and Social Media - part-time

Simon Sharkey  - UK Representative - proj. based

Carina Levitan - Sound Designer and T. Artist - p. based

Viviana Schames,  Vanessa Garcia, Luciana Gorgonha, Hazel Darwin, Sally Chartlon - Teaching Artists  - proj.based

Mauricio Casiraghi - Concept Art - proj. based

Suzana Witt  - G. Design - proj. based

SupLab  - Creative Tech - p.based

Daniel Rodriguez - Videos - p.based

Operational Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure operational sustainability.

The project has a narrative structure which can be translated and adapted to each location and community, valuing local needs and the local environment, as well as training local teaching artists to facilitate the project in their communities.  This assures both sustainability and scalability to the project in the long term.

We have already tested and implemented this model, when we implemented the project in Scotland in 2022 and we are in the process of securing funds to implement it in New Zealand from 2024. 

Platô Cultural is a for-profit social enterprise:

B2B: We partner with funding organisations and foundations, and through funding and grants we offer the programme to schools free of charge (2021 ITAC | 2022: British Council)

B2B: We partner with the Government and Department of Education as well as Private Educationa Institutions: they purchase the programme, offering the programme to their network of schools. (2022 and 2023: Department of Education of São José, Brazil | 2022: North Lanarkshire Council, Wishaw, Scotland)

We have a online platform that integrates the digital and in-person contents of the experience. We are in the process of designing an A.R Immersive Experience that will offer a fully digital version for schools and communities. Once ready, we are planning to also offer individual and organization online subscriptions for our digital contents.

VIDEO: Please share the link to a 1-minute YouTube video that answers the following “I identify as a Green Changemaker because...”. Ensure that your video does not exceed 60 seconds

https://youtu.be/j7ZiJ7FQFAE

Impact Model: While reviewing applications, we identified a need to better understand the impact models for the innovations that applied. How would you describe the activities you engage in and what outcomes and long-term impact do they lead to?

I use two impact measurement frameworks: "Continuum of Impact Framework" and  National  curriculum guidelines. 

Main Activities:

• A 12-week  Program, facilitated by Teaching Artists in collaboration with the School Teacher, promoting climate science engagement and transversal skills to increase knowledge, shift perceptions, and empower students as agents of change.

Outcomes: Students  Increase climate knowledge and awareness, shift perceptions about the environment, take ownership of their learning process, and see themselves as agents of change. 

• Gamified Digital Platform, for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and ongoing learning beyond program.

Outcomes: Facilitating knowledge exchange and collaboration among students globally, and continued learning beyond the program

• Teacher Training, to transform teaching practices, and empower teachers as catalysts for change.

Outcomes: Allowing Project to be integrated  in the curriculum and exploring opportunities for ongoing engagement, whilst transforming teaching practice through a creative approach.

Long-term impact:

• Greening the Curriculum: Changes in policies and curricula, innovative teaching methods.
• Attitude and Behavior Change: Active involvement of students in local communities, empowerment as agents of change, connected young changemakers globally
• Equipping the younger generation for the green workforce, contributing to a new generation of green changemakers.

Stakeholders:  students, teachers, schools, parents, education authorities and international networks,. 

 Measured outputs: (check attached PDF with 2022.2 assessment for reference)

• Student engagement; number participating schools; digital platform usage.
• Feedback from teachers and parents.
• School initiatives for environmental protection.
• Interest from the global community. 

Audience: Who are you most directly impacting through your work? Who is the target beneficiary? Please specify if the population you are reaching is underserved due to any of the following characteristics?

Age - Youth Socio-Economic Class Geography

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

 

How are you activating green changemakers?

Engaging emotions: Communicating climate change in a way that resonates with individuals’ specific situations to trigger an emotional engagement Building Understanding: communicating complex science, data and / or systems theory surrounding climate change in an accessible way, tailored to the specific audience and context Imagining new possibilities: leading group processes to help people see the possibilities and consequences of acting; innovating new products, business models, or ways of organising Creating a community: bringing together peers to share learnings, reinforce behaviours, and develop positive social norms; hosting gatherings where people see their work as part of a bigger whole Walking alongside individuals: offering one-on-one coaching, mentoring and troubleshooting; providing sustained energy to shift the inertia of the system

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

 

Organization Type: Which organization type best describes how your work or initiative has been organized or registered?

For-Profit

Tell us briefly about how you have and/ or would like to engage partners or other changemakers to enhance your approach:

-Co-creation and Local Engagement: I engage schools, communities, and stakeholders, ensuring the project is tailored to each curriculum and values local needs. Local teaching artists are trained to facilitate the program, promoting sustainability and scalability.

-I collaborate with educational institutions (Department of Education Brazil and Education Scotland) to align the project with curricula, making it an exemplar for teaching climate change through an arts-based approach. 

-After the pilot, I secured a British Council Grant to expand the project in Brazil and implement it in Scotland, with global partnerships in progress. This international partnership allowed me to develop an effective model for scaling and adapting the project to new locations.

-Ongoing Research and Global Networks: I've spoken at international conferences and presented the project at COP 27, part of a report showcasing proven solutions for climate change (South to South Alliance - Catalyst 2030). I am also a member at ITAC and Catalyst 2030.  This gives me access to cutting-edge research, contributing to enhanced program quality, and  generation of new knowledge in the field of climate change education.

By fostering these partnerships, my approach becomes more robust, inclusive, and impactful, where I address climate change whilst creating a global network of transformative education.

Annual budget: Hint: What is the cost for your current operations every year (or most recent year)? This is expenditure for your project or organization. The reference currency is the U.S. dollar.

$100k - $250k

Winning Impact Potential: How would winning the Green Changemakers Challenge impact and leverage your work?

Winning the Green Changemakers Challenge would have a profound impact on my work.

-Increased Visibility: Winning the challenge would raise the visibility of the project, allowing me to reach a wider audience and attract more stakeholders and partners. 

-Network and Connection:  I would provide me with valuable opportunities to connect with organizations, experts, and mentors in the field.  I would have access to a network of innovative ideas, best practices, allowing me to continuously improve my approach and stay at the forefront of environmental education and sustainability.

-Human Resources, allowing me to invest in expanding my team, strengthening  the company’s capacity to implement and scale the project.

-Amplification and dissemination: We have current negotiations in various parts of Brazil, as well as in Portugal, New Zealand and the UK . Winning the challenge would allow me to consolidate and expand these partnerships.

-Enhanced Funding Opportunities

Overall, winning the Green Changemakers Challenge would provide me with the necessary resources, connections, and support to scale my initiative, reach more young minds, and inspire them to become active green changemakers in their communities and beyond.

Skills Matching: If you win, you may have the opportunity to be matched with HSBC employees for skill-based mentorship. If matched, which of the following skills would you be most interested in receiving?

Planning & Strategy