Baden-Württemberg Meets California

ABOUT THE PROJECT

"Going Green – Baden-Württemberg Meets California" is a blended-learning project and sister project of “Going Green – Education for Sustainability” developed by Teach About U.S.. The sister-state franchise was originally made possible by a generous grant of the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg in 2020 and is organized by the d.a.i. Tübingen in close collaboration with the DAZ Stuttgart, CSH Freiburg and DAI Heidelberg.

We pair up classrooms and after-school clubs in Baden-Württemberg and California to learn together about sustainability with the aid of an online learning platform. We also encourage them to plan and implement Green Action Plan projects in their community. The project gives students from different types of high schools a transatlantic experience online and helps develop their intercultural communication skills, break down stereotypes and utilize their language abilities while strengthening the bond between sister-states Baden-Württemberg and California at the civic level. Several class pairs even plan on continuing to work together beyond the curriculum and maybe one day visit their school partners in person.

While we currently no longer have the resources to actively promote the program in the U.S. to aquire American partner schools, please let us know if you are interested in using the “Going Green” curriculum with a transatlantic partner. Whenever possible we will still match classes and support their collaboration, particularly if you already have a transatlantic partner school (the American school must not necessarily be Californian) and are looking to deepen your relationship.             

For further questions, please contact Sophia.Kummler@dai-tuebingen.de.

THE “GOING GREEN” CURRICULUM 

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.

 “GOING GREEN” IMPRESSIONS (2020)

Presenting their prizes in Laine Aizupe’s Grade 10 English Class LernZeitRäume, Heidelberg, Germany	“Going Green” blackboard mind map from John Gärtig‘s Grade 9 Class Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium, Freiburg, Germany	Planting a sequoia tree in Marleen Heller‘s Jahrgangstufe 1.2 Class Wirtschaftsgymnasium West, Stuttgart, Germany

“GOING GREEN” TESTMONIALS (2020)

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.

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

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. 

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

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!