Brazil is steaming into the future

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In February, a team from the GSO visited Brazil. Hosting workshops and presentations, visiting five schools an meeting the Department of Education. It was an eventful week, where we got to meet some of all our awesome collaborators.

Some of the team at the Rio de Janeiro Department of Education.

The students at SESC de Campos dos Goyatacazes, who participated in Unfold the Universe got certificates for their contributions in a beautiful ceremony.

A short presentation for students and teachers at Colegio Estadual Machado de Assis.

And a practical workshop in collaboration and concentration, here are students at C.E. Notival Pedro Moli.

HEre are students and teachers at CIEP Jose do Patrocinio.

Teachers in the Rio-area.

A school in the outskirts of the Rio de Janeiro area, C.E. Notival Pedro Moli..

A great group of students from three different schools in the Campos-area gathered for a presentation. This is from Colegio Estadual Jose do Patrocinio.

And finally, teachers from the Campos-area gathered at Colegio Estadual Joao Pessoa at the end of the workshop.

Already from this next semester, Rio de Janeiro state will implement the GSO-methodology in ten high-schools as a pilot project. We are of course simultaneously incredible proud and humble about this. And we are very excited to see Brazil STEAMing into the future with the Global Science Opera!

(Sorry, I probably messed up the order of the photos and names)

Brazil GSO-training

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In the last week of June, hundreds of teachers, students, administrators and artists in Brazil attended workshops, presentations or meet-and-greet-sessions with the GSO coordinator. The three municipalities Santa Maria Madalena, Sao Francisco de Itabapoana and Sao Joao de Barra have invested large in education for their students by training their teachers in the GSO methodology and sustainable theatre-production. The week culminated with the very first Brazil Science Opera.

Here are just a few photos from the ten days.

GSO online session: Ecosystem Restoration

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We are so excited to be partners with the UN this year, their experts will help us with the scientific facts, and issues. As a part of this, Tim Christophersen will give a lecture on Ecosystem Restoration, followed by a Q&A.  The lecture will take place on Zoom on Friday June 18th, at 2 PM CET.
Tim Christophersen coordinates the work of the Freshwater, Land and Climate Branch at UN Environment (UNEP), including UNEP’s role within the UN-REDD Programme, a collaborative initiative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UNEP to reduce deforestation in developing countries.
If you are interested in participating in the session, please contact us for zoom-link.

 

 

GSO and the key drivers of education

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Three major global drivers in education, necessary for meeting the challenges of the 21st century, are: education for sustainable development, demographic change, and technological advances. Without addressing the demands of these drivers, our education systems are, most likely, rooted in narrow, robotic learning, blinkered to what is happening around us in the world, focussed solely on knowledge for knowledge’s sake, producing young people without the imaginative, creative thinking, problem-solving skills required to make the 21st century on planet Earth a positive and secure one for all its inhabitants.

The philosophy and aims behind the Global Science Opera initiative is one example of education meeting these demands. Starting off with one idea, one theme, one thought – for 2021, this being ‘ecosystems’ – educators, teachers, students and children all across the world are beginning to think, create, and ponder germs of ideas that will eventually grow, develop, change and blossom into what will become an entire opera called Thrive, on the subject of ecosystems. This journey began with one word, ‘Ecosystems’ at the end of the 2020 opera, Energy. Like throwing seeds across the world, these seeds have landed and will be watered over the coming months by individuals and communities on every inhabited continent. Creative thinking is taking place, thoughts are turning to how to protect ecosystems, artistic creativity is exploring how we can represent and explain these themes within an opera through words, singing, music, dance, art, science, expression, technology and more.

Global Science Opera is about much more than an opera you can watch online each November. It is about changing minds, producing creative thinkers and imaginative problem solvers, widening expectations on what is possible, raising awareness of sustainability issues, showing what can be achieved through the powers of technology and working together, and reaching out across the world affecting the schools, communities, parents and families of the children, students and teachers involved. And, most importantly, it is open to all. Any country, any child, any age, any background – everyone is equal, and every single performer is just as important as all the others.

What’s the cost? Oh yes, it’s free. What’s the benefit? A better world and a supreme example of an education project fit for needs of the 21st century.

Jonathan Harris

UK Alpha-contact, Global Science Opera

Head of Music, The Premier Academy, Bletchley, England

22 January 2021

 

Ecosystem Restoration

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Ecosystem Restoration is the scientific topic for the 2021 Global Science Opera production.

What is Ecosystem Restoration, and why the UN has dedicated a decade to focus on it.
(1 minute crash-course)
2021 – 2030 is the United Nations International Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. This is also the scientific topic for the 2021 Global Science Opera production.
There are several types of Ecosystem Restoration:
Farmlands, Forests, Freshwater, Grasslands, Shrubs & savannahs, Mountains, Oceans & coasts, Peatlands and Urban areas.
Together we will learn more of what we can do, how we and our students can contribute and inspire others to contribute to a healthier world.

Inquiry-Based Learning – a guidebook to writing a science oepra

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Oded Ben-Horin and Irma Smegen have just published their book Inquiry-Based Learning – a Guidebook to Writing a Science Opera. Anyone who is interested, this is the link: https://brill.com/view/title/58357…