O&C
Ocean and Cryosphere

Ocean and Cryosphere is the first part of a collection of educational tools produced in collaboration with international educational and climate experts, entitled The Climate in Our Hands. These resources highlight active pedagogies and interdisciplinarity. They allow students to understand the mechanisms of climate change and its impacts, as well as the importance of the ocean and frozen surfaces in climate regulation and in the development of human societies. They also offer concrete action projects, at the class or community level.

Welcome teachers !

At the OCE we believe in the transformative power of education for sustainable development. That's why, we strive to provide teachers around the world with access to free, quality educational resources and professional development based on the best climate and educational research.

Why are the Ocean and cryosphere important?

The ocean and cryosphere (ice and snow on the planet) stretch from the highest mountains to the bottom of the sea, and from the warm, humid tropics to the cold, dry poles. These realms were once considered too vast and remote to be affected by humans. Today, we are witnessing rapid changes in the ocean and cryosphere, driven by human greenhouse gas emissions and other human-caused factors, and impacting both humans and ecosystems.

As you may know the Ocean covers around two thirds of the Earth’s surface and provides us with many benefits like food, transportation, recreation and culture while supporting an extremely diverse ecosystem. Climate change is already having an effect on our ocean and cryosphere impacting their capacity to regulate the climate and weather as we know it. They are essential in limiting climate change, and so are you !

How can we teach climate change ?

On this page you will find a set of educational resources based on the IPCC report. These resources highlight active pedagogies and interdisciplinarity. They allow students to understand the mechanisms of climate change and its impacts, as well as the importance of the ocean and frozen surfaces in climate regulation and in the development of human societies. They also offer concrete action projects, at the class or community level.

Participate

Get involved

We invite you to start using the entire ocean and cryosphere teaching kit that you can find in the "resources" tab, don't hesitate in sharing your feedback with us through our contact form. Our resources are developed for teachers and by teachers. By using them, you will join a community of teachers wishing to address the theme of climate change in the classroom. All the recent news and events that may be of interest to you will be found in the "community" tab. We will regularly be hosting webinars and events on the topic all around the world, so watch this space. This page will also allow you to find all the partners who made this project possible, as well as a useful press space to spread this project around you!

We believe it is essential that teachers everywhere have access to free, quality educational resources on climate change. That's why we, at the Office for Climate Education, through our partners, are mobilizing ourselves to distribute several thousand free hard copies of our pedagogical to teachers that make their request down below.