Free C3S Edu Demo online courses for teachers and educators through the Copernicus User Learning Service
Teachers, educators, and industry experts who engage in educational outreach can now access free online courses to learn about the capabilities of the Copernicus Climate Change Service Climate & Energy Education Demonstrator (C3S Edu Demo). The three lessons, published on 11th May 2020, use animated guides, videos, and quizzes to demonstrate how different features of the C3S Edu Demo are used, and contain activities to provide examples of how to use it in a learning context.
What is the C3S Edu Demo?
The C3S Edu Demo was built on the wealth of reliable, scientific climate and energy data produced through the C3S ECEM Demonstrator. This new Education Demonstrator is an interactive climate and energy GIS tool to help address climate change through education. The C3S Edu Demo has been designed to complement existing school curricula, including the International Baccalaureate. You can access the C3S Edu Demo via https://c3s-edu.wemcouncil.org.
What is the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) User Learning Services (ULS)?
The C3S User Learning Services are provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, one of the EU Copernicus Programme’s six services and implemented by the European Weather Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF). As an open and free-data based Copernicus service, the C3S ULS offers free training on how to use the Climate Data Store platform and its content, including applications and tools like the C3S Edu Demo. The ambition is to provide high-quality training to those who use climate data. While its primary target audiences consist of sectoral end users (e.g. the agriculture, water, and energy industries), consultants and researchers, degree students and climatologists, teachers and educators who have an interest in statistical data, climate change and climate studies will find the ULS a very useful repository of lessons to brush up and expand on background knowledge. The lessons focusing on the C3S Edu Demo provide a perfect bridge between learning to use the tool to provide the best learning experience for high-school students and learning more about the scientific background of the data that feeds it. Advanced Level students and those entering undergraduate degree courses that focus on climate issues such as Environmental Sciences may also find lessons on the ULS useful. Your achievements are tracked and monitored, providing a record of your self-led training useful for providing evidence towards your continuous professional development (CPD).
What do the C3S Edu Demo lessons on the ULS cover?
The three lessons that you can access via the C3S ULS are:
- An introduction to the C3S Edu Demo and how to use the ‘basics’ to explore climate and energy data across Europe
- How to explore data using the graph and data download functions
- Using advanced functions to explore climate models, energy scenarios and data uncertainty
Each self-paced lesson uses a modeling and ‘assessment for learning’ approach, using annotated screenshots and animated guides to demonstrate how different functions work and then checks your progress as you use the tool in tandem with the lesson. You receive instant feedback to your responses. The second half of each lesson takes you through an example learning activity using the functions learned. These learning activities are modeled in a way to demonstrate how the C3S Edu Demo can be used with your students. Each lesson takes around 45-60 minutes, but you can progress at your own speed and leave a lesson at any time to return and complete later.
Sign up for C3S User Learning Services today and learn how to get the most out of the C3S Edu Demo and how teachers can produce engaging learning activities for their students based on robust scientific climate and energy data!
