KiKo
KIKO Kindergarten suitcases education for sustainability
Based upon empirical findings and educational theories the KiKo project (1) provides day-care centers in the Norderstedt area with materials to initiate scientific skills in the context of the UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals and (2) offers respective in-service training for the staff.
Project data
| Research lines | Research Line Domain-Specific Learning in Preschools and Schools, Research Line Professional Competencies of Preschool and School Teachers | ||
| Departments | Biology Education | ||
| Period | since 10/1/2021 | ||
| Status | current | ||
| IPN researchers | Prof. Dr. Ute Harms (Project lead), Ernestine Putz | ||
| Members of the research alliance | IPN Leibniz-Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik (Lead), Stadt Norderstedt | ||
The KiKo project is a collaborative endeavor in which the municipality of Norderstedt, Germany, and the IPN seek to engage preschool children and their educators with education for sustainable development. The aim of the project is to provide daycare centers in the Norderstedt area with materials, designed on the basis of scientific and educational principles around the context of UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to assist daycare educators in laying the foundations for children’s science skills. We will also attempt to provide training for early childhood educators in the materials’ use and support their work with them. To these ends, we will draw up a design for engagement with the SDGs, placing a central emphasis on children’s development of science skills in the period of their transition from early education in daycare settings to elementary school. We will realize this design by providing “suitcases” for kindergarten teachers to borrow at central locations in the Norderstedt area; these suitcases will contain modular teaching and learning resources around the topics of the SDGs. Further, we will design training for early childhood educators on the use of the SDG suitcases, utilizing formats including workshops, materials and opportunities to obtain tailored support online. We will conduct a formative and summative evaluation of the suitcases’effects on the children’s science skills and the changes in the knowledge and attitudes of early childhood educators after their use of the resources and the accompanying training.
