Stiftung Mercator: Climate-Makers! International

German-Chinese Project for Schools: Climate-Makers! International

The aim of the “Climate-Makers! International” (China) project is to introduce German and Chinese youngsters aged between 14 and 17 to the problems of climate change, sensitize them to different national strategies and empower them to get involved in social processes and take responsibility for their actions.

Within the framework of an international exchange, pupils and teachers will have the opportunity to learn more about dangerous human-caused climate change and its consequences, familiarize themselves with international approaches to solving this problem, and clearly understand the need for cooperation and their own role in the process. Joint project work and visits to each other’s countries help participants get an idea of how things are done there, find out about the cultural and national differences which exist between China and Germany and meet other people. In staging this project, Stiftung Mercator is making an important contribution to ensuring that young people are able to play an active and conscious part in shaping our future and creating for us all a world that is fair and worth living in.

Structure and organization
Stiftung Mercator is carrying out the project in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and the German Central Office for Schools Abroad (ZfA) in China. Mrs Gundi Krögel-Schaefer, the wife of the German ambassador to Beijing, is the project’s patron.

Project work in the 2011/2012 school year will focus on the key issue of sustainable development, and is entitled: “How would a city look in which I would like to live?”

In November 2011, participating schools will be selected from the applications (project concepts) that have been submitted. In the 2011/2012 school year, a total of 120 pupils from six Chinese and six German schools will then work together in small groups on concrete projects and will travel to their respective partner country , spending around two weeks there experiencing how their own and the partner country handle various questions relating to climate change and the environment. In advance, the students will have the chance to exchange views and ideas by e-mail and in the form of blogs.

At the end of the year, the best project in terms of concept, presentation and documentation will be awarded the Climate-Makers! badge.

Objectives
Within its Climate-Makers! International project, Stiftung Mercator is keen to foster theme- and project-based exchange between Germany and China. Encouraging pupils to act as information disseminators is intended to promote knowledge sharing, sensitize Chinese and German youngsters to the problems of climate change and climate protection, and substantially develop their ability to take action. Climate-Makers! International helps set up German-Chinese school and pupil networks and establish long-term and meaningful intercultural relations between Germany and China, Stiftung Mercator’s focal region.

Through competition and personal encounters, Climate-Makers! International underpins and strengthens thematic intercultural dialogue. By ensuring that climate change and climate protection become a permanent fixture on the school timetable, Stiftung Mercator is making an important contribution to creating a future worth living in.

These are the six pairs of Chinese and German schools participating in the 2011/2012 school year: