Project-Based Climate Education in Moroccan Universities

Swiss partners

• Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne EPFL: Maria Lbadaoui (main applicant), Satoshi Takahama, Athanasios Nenes, Arindam Roy

Partners in the MENA region

• Université Mohammed V de Rabat, Morocco: Souad El Hajjaji (main applicant), Jamal Mabrouki, Najoua Labjar

Presentation of the projet

Morocco is highly vulnerable to climate change, especially from extreme events like drought and heat waves. The Moroccan government's policy on climate change recommended including climate change in science and engineering curricula in higher education. Implementing efficient climate education in the Moroccan higher education system, currently undergoing major reforms pointing towards more practice-based learning approaches, is a crucially important step towards increasing climate awareness and resilience. The proposed project intends to improve the present state of climate education and build capacity among university teachers and students on air pollution and climate change monitoring instrumentation, data analysis and resilience building. A network of IoT-based instruments for air quality and weather instruments will be installed in the capital of Morocco and data will be discriminated through an open portal. Once installed, the university students will be trained in the maintenance, analysis and interpretation of the data through hands-on workshops. The proposed project is in complete alignment with the present climate change policy of the Moroccan government and focuses on further strengthening climate change in higher education by providing the necessary means to implement hands-on approaches in the current climate education curriculum.

Objectives of the projects are; a) Training and capacity building of educators and students on instrumentation, data analysis and interpretation of local climate impacts using IoT-based weather and air quality monitoring instruments; b) Improving disaster Preparedness and participatory measurement through environmental education; c) Filling the climate change and air pollution data gap in climate vulnerable Moroccan city.

A pool of next-generation climate educators was trained who will assure the long-term sustainability of the project. Training of bachelor's and master's students in climate change and air pollution will help to mainstream climate change as a subject at Moroccan University. The project will result in the creation of place-based knowledge capital on climate change. The project-based learning approach is rare in the global south, and through this project, we would be able to create an improved educational program on climate change.