DURATION: January – December 2020

About the project

The year-long project "Going Green - Baden-Württemberg Meets California" was a blended-learning project and sister project of “Going Green – Education for Sustainability” developed by Teach About U.S.. The sister-state franchise was made possible by a generous grant of the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg and was organized by the d.a.i. Tübingen in close collaboration with the DAZ Stuttgart, CSH Freiburg and DAI Heidelberg.

During two iterations of the collaborations, one from March – July 2020 and one from October – December 2020, classrooms and after-school clubs in Baden-Württemberg and California were paired up to learn together about sustainability with the aid of an online learning platform and encouraged to plan and implement Green Action Plan projects in their community. At the end of each project iteration, each German/American class pair had the chance to win a prize for best project!

The “Going Green” project gave students from several different types of high schools the opportunity to have a transatlantic experience online and develop their intercultural communication skills, break down stereotypes and utilize their language abilities while helping strengthen the bond between sister-states Baden-Württemberg and California at the civic level. Several class pairs plan on continuing to work together into 2021 and beyond and hope to one day visit their school partners in person - we’ll be staying tuned for developments!  

 “Going GREEN” 2020 Impressions

Presenting their prizes in Laine Aizupe’s Grade 10 English Class LernZeitRäume, Heidelberg, Germany LernZeitRäume won prizes in both Iteration 1 and 2, 2020

“Going Green” blackboard mind map from John Gärtig‘s Grade 9 Class Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium, Freiburg, Germany Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium won two prizes in Iteration 1, 2020

Planting a sequoia tree in Marleen Heller‘s Jahrgangstufe 1.2 Class Wirtschaftsgymnasium West, Stuttgart, Germany Wirtschaftsgymnasium West participated in Iteration 1 and were prizewinners in Iteration 2, 2020

“Going GREEN” 2020 TESTMONIALS

The students were very positive about [Going Green]! They liked working on the material, discussing in groups, planning their own actions and preparing their own pitches to convince others of their project ideas. They appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity of exchanging their views and ideas with Californian students tremendously, and in addition really got into experimenting (e.g. making degradable plastic or all of them trying to avoid meat for a month). They definitely got a lot out of that extraordinary kind of cultural learning. …  I am also going to introduce the project in detail to the English Department, so maybe other teachers will join too!

- Heike Munz, Teacher, Gymnasium Bammental, Bammental, Germany

They really enjoyed it and said what was most impactful was connecting with students from another country. We did a lot of small breakout rooms and created time for them to ask each other questions about things not necessarily related to their project work … I would be interested in exploring the possibility of in-person exchanges in the future, and if we could do that I’d like to do something with a sustainability focus. It is still difficult to start to plan or even think about this right now with the pandemic still strongly impacting our schools and our countries, but I plan on exploring this option with our school administration when things are less hectic!“

- Isabel Rodriguez-Vega, Teacher, Bishop O’Dowd High School, Oakland, California 

They very much enjoyed the contact to the Californian students, particularly in this year of pandemic when you hardly meet anyone new and we couldn’t travel or go on exchanges.

- Dr. Annette Schuck, Teacher & Deputy Principal, Montessori Gymnasium ANGELL GmbH Freiburg, Germany

I actually think the communication between the Americans and Germans went really well. It's a pretty strange and uncomfortable thing to be talking to people thousands of miles away from you, but I feel like both us and the Germans did a good job at communicating. I liked getting to research something new that I hadn't heard a lot about before. I also thought it was cool to meet with students from another country

 

I really enjoyed talking with the German students about sustainability and learning about what they're doing over there.

- Anonymous Students from teacher Gail Rodono’s Course, Redondo Union High School, Redondo Beach, California

We used to have a highly successful student exchange with Golden Sierra High School in Garden Valley, CA from 1998 - 2012 and would very much like to establish a new exchange with another high school in California (or any other state in the U.S.). I hope the link with Bishop O'Dowd will last and there will be a chance to strengthen our relations in the future.

- Roland Behnke, Teacher, Königin-Charlotte-Gymnasium, Stuttgart, Germany

When given the opportunity to do this project I was so excited! Being able to come together with my fellow classmates and friends to think of ways to improve our community environmentally was so meaningful, especially in a time when we can’t be together in person. I loved spending time with my teammates planning and writing our proposal. The lessons that went with the project and my environmental class in general has revealed to me countless environmental issues that I was previously unaware of. Although we can’t solve every issue at once, looking at how we can improve our communities is an amazing start!

- Anonymous Student from teacher Karl Frank’s Course, Campbell Hall Episcopal, Studio City, California

IS THE “GOING GREEN” CURRICULUM AVAILABLE AFTER 2020?

Yes. The full “Going Green” curriculum developed by Leuphana University (Lüneburg) and funded by the U.S. Embassy Berlin is still available for teachers on the Teach About U.S. website. 

Teachers can easily navigate the sustainability curriculum found on the online platform, “Going Green: Education for Sustainability” and use the forum there to communicate with their students. Check out the "Going Green" Demo Course (login required). Creating an account is free and easy.   

Once you submit a Course Request Form, a secure classroom and full access to the curriculum is provided on the online Moodle platform.

Alternatively, teachers can use the “Going Green” PDF and collaborate on the learning platform of their choosing.  

 “Going Green” integrates well into the curriculum of several school subjects, particularly STE(A)M or MINT subjects, Environmental Science, English and German language courses, Geography and bilingual courses.

IS IT STILL POSSIBLE TO RECEIVE AN AMERICAN PARTNER?

Theoretically, yes. When American and German school classes sign up to use the “Going Green” curriculum, the organization Teach About U.S. seeks to match these international school classes whenever possible. However, after 2020, the acquisition and partnering up of school classes in Baden-Württemberg and California in particular is no longer organized or supported by the d.a.i. Tübingen. Please contact Teach About U.S. if you are interested in using the “Going Green” curriculum or finding an American partner school.

Please contact Teach About U.S. if you are interested in using the “Going Green” curriculum or finding an American partner school.

Project Background

The project “Going Green - Baden-Württemberg Meets California” was funded entirely by the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg for the promotion of the Baden-Württemberg – California state partnership and generously supported by Teach About U.S.. The publisher is solely responsible for the content.

A huge “vielen Dank” to the Staatsministerium Baden-Württemberg for the financial support of this project!

An additional thanks to our partners at Teach About U.S., the intercultural blended-learning platform used for the Going Green – Education for Sustainability project. Teach About U.S. is a cooperation by the U.S. Embassy Berlin, Leuphana University Lüneburg, and LIFE e.V.

Thank you to our collaboration partners at the DAZ Stuttgart, the CSH Freiburg and the DAI Heidelberg!