Climate change affects billions of individuals. The discussion, of whether or not and how this can be stopped, is omnipresent in the media. The Chair of Sport and Health Didactics, under Dean of Studies Prof. Dr. Filip Mess, has now introduced this topic into their sport instruction. In the research project "Climate moves! - Climatic-conscious behavior in and through sports", a curriculum on this topic is now being compiled. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety promotes "Climate moves" in the course of the "National Climatic Protection Initiative" with around €212,000 until December 2021. Among other things, this will also help to support a doctoral candidate for three years.
Direct contact with nature and the environment in sport instruction
"The 'Curriculum plus' from the Ministry of Education and Culture cites one of the goals of sport instruction as being that students should deal carefully with the environment and with nature. Sport is suited especially for this, because in no other subject is the direct contact with nature so high," explains Prof. Mess. "Education is essential in order to fulfill the goals of climate protection from the Federal Government. We must mediate competency in the topics of 'climate protection' and 'sustainability' to our students. For this purpose, we can use sport instruction, since the ecological as well as social aspects of sustainability can actively be experienced here," says Dr. Sarah Spengler. This scientific staff member at the Chair of Sport and Health Didactics has been recruited for the project and is responsible for carrying it out.
"The development of sustainability is unfortunately not up-to-date and has hardly, if at all, been integrated into sport instruction so far. The problem is that sport instructors are not trained accordingly and that no concepts exist on which they can orient themselves," analyzes Spengler. "Climate moves!" can provide a starting point here. The project consists of three components. As a first step, a new teaching/learning concept has been developed with concrete instructional elements. For this purpose, four workshops take place, in each case with five instructors, three experts from the field of sustainable education and two students.
"We want to experience what is relevant from the viewpoint of the pupils in their environment. Through discussions with the sport instructors, we want to find out what is possible in the actual sport instruction. From the experts for education in the field of sustainability, we want to learn what has functioned well and which approach they have selected," explains the postdoctoral sport scientist.
Implementation using fifth to seventh-grade students
In the second step, the approach developed will then be initiated using fifth to seventh-grade students at several schools. "In fifth to seventh grade, the students are still quite open for playful approaches on such topics. In addition, we can reach all school children, from all social classes here, since conclusions are only drawn during later years," explains Spengler.
As a last step, an evaluation of the transformation takes place. Afterwards, the concept is revised, if necessary, and then made available for teachers. For this purpose, short videos with advanced training concepts will be designed and materials will be uploaded to the homepage. "If we want to delay or stop climate change, it is then imperative that something must happen. We hope, with our initiative in the development of adolescents, that something will be initiated," says Spengler. "Climate moves!" is the first project which will lead sport instruction in this direction. I think, the time is now simply ripe for this," Prof. Mess is happy to say.
Homepage of the Chair of Sport and Health Didactics
To the Homepage of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Contact
Dr. Sarah Spengler
Chair of Sport and Health Didactics
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Tel.: 089 289 24531
E-Mail: Sarah.Spengler(at)tum.de
Text: Dr. Fabian Kautz
Fotos: Pixabay, TUM, private