The "Climate Detective: A Guide for Elementary and High School Teachers" is part of a set of educational tools developed as part of the Participatory Research in Action: Education for Climate Justice in the Vale do Ribeira, carried out by NOSS EACH-USP and supported by the international initiative Transforming Universities for a Changing Climate (Climate-U), led by University College London and implemented in the state of São Paulo in partnership with INCLINE (IAG-USP).

“Our initiative seeks to help transform schools into strategic epicenters for promoting climate justice, inspiring educators and students to become key agents of change in their communities. The pilot project was developed in partnership with two rural schools in the Vale do Ribeira region, located in the municipalities of Eldorado and Iporanga. These schools serve elementary and high school children from isolated, rural, and quilombola communities,” explains Sylmara Gonçalves Dias, head of NOSS EACH-USP.

The pedagogical approach behind the Climate Detective tools incorporates climate justice through Freirean dialogical education, Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory, and citizen science. The territory was used as the starting point for an educational approach aimed at co-creating knowledge and empowering students to reflect on the uneven impacts of climate change at different levels of their environment — home, neighborhood, school community, and municipality. The tools can be used together or independently, and the educational activities are aligned with Brazil’s National Common Curricular Base (BNCC).

The initiative is continuously being adapted, expanded, and disseminated by various actors and other outreach-oriented research projects that seek to generate social, environmental, and political impact through new epistemologies. In São Vicente, the Climate Detective tools are being adapted for use in all municipal schools through the Climate Literacy Program, which is part of the FAPESP COOP Climate research project.

The initiative has already engaged numerous researchers at different academic levels and is coordinated by Professor Sylmara Gonçalves Dias, head of NOSS EACH-USP, alongside PhD researchers Ana Beatriz Nestlehner (FAU-USP) and Amanda Cseh (PROCAM-USP).