MULTI-SENSORY INFORMATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

1. MULTI-SENSORY INFORMATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE The project has been funded with support from the European Commission within the Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci Programme (142023-LLP-1-2008-1-UK-Leonardo-LMP). Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

2. Introduction • According to the 4th Report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007, as compiled by 600 climatologists drawn from 40 countries around the world, using 14 super computer models over a 3 years period, there is greater certainty than ever, that the current global warming is not a natural phenomenon. The report stated that there is a 90% chance that global warming is caused by human activity. • All scientific data contains substantial amounts of complex graphical data. This format is acceptable for people whose vision and hearing are unimpaired but for those people who are visually impaired there is exclusion from this important source of information, the hearing impaired to a lesser degree. • This project, therefore, seeks to create and develop innovative learning materials in a range of formats that will be adaptable to the needs of people with sensory impairments; specifically visual and hearing impairments. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

3. THE AIMS This project has 7 specific aims: • To create a range of teaching materials for use by teachers that will fully explain the current scientific position on climate change to people with sensory impairments in the age groups 12 - 16 years. • To make this material adaptable to the diverse leaning requirements of those who have sensory impairments, (i.e., visually and hearing impaired) • To test and evaluate the pedagogical processes being developed in the project by holding 3 pilot studies in different partner countries. • To make this material available to teachers in an adaptable format specifically Talking Tactiles for the visually impaired and subtitled / signed DVD materials for the hearing impaired. • To explore the transferability of the learning process to other groups with specific needs. [Previous experience with the Talking Tactile system is also beginning to show transferability to Autistic Spectrum and Asperger’s Syndrome learners.] • To disseminate the results of this project across the education systems of the partner countries at local, regional and national level. • To advise EU educators of the results, transferability and benefits of this innovative pedagogical development via the project website. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

4. The target group • The population of the partner countries is c. 218.7 millions. [Eurostat] • A conservative extrapolation of c.1.0% per year of secondary education would give a school year population of c. 2.187 million pupils. From this total we anticipate c. 175,000 sensory impaired children per year; this is the initial target group for 12-16 year olds. • We estimate 0.6% as a total visually impaired VI + hearing impaired HI percentage [0.4% hearing impaired, 0.2% visual impaired], assuming an approximate equivalence across the EU [no traceable statistics found to prove or disprove this assumption]. This percentage gives a total initial target group of some 65,600 VI + HI in secondary education across the partner countries. Even with a de-rating for statistical error of 33% this would give a target population of c. 38,000 persons with VI or HI, which is still a large number, disparately arranged across the EU. • In addition to young people identified above there are older people (16-60+) who would be keen to improve their knowledge of global warming and climate change and would like access to the educational packages produced by the project. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

5. PEDAGOGICAL AND DIDACTICAL APPROACHES This approach will engage in the following key activities: • Partners to attend meetings to review progress and make decisions • Teaching materials to be created and tested • The creation and maintenance of a website dedicated to the project • A DVD with Sign Language carrying information for sensory impaired people • Key ideas, findings and philosophy to be disseminated to interested parties The approach considers Quality Assurance in that: • Workpackages are allocated according to strengths of partners • SREP, a specialist in project evaluation will be asked to take charge of the evaluation and quality control aspects of the project. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

6. OUTCOMES (1) • Teaching materials that can enter the EU VET system and will support teachers, trainers, employers and learners in the foreseeable future; • A managed website to ensure that information is always up-to-date, expressing the complex science in an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand form; the website with a public access environment will serve for dissemination and for delivering outcomes; • Transferred teaching material packages to other EU countries; • Dissemination and valorisation phases, in which specific attention will be given to ensure that target organisations are informed of the existence of teaching materials and the outcomes of the project. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

7. OUTCOMES (2) • Measures to monitor and evaluate progress against project milestones and work plans via a project website. In addition, feed back from end-users will assist in the evaluation of the teaching materials; • A common based data set to deliver the teaching materials in a variety of alternative formats depending on the needs of the individual. These will encompass Braille, large print, CD, ‘DAISY’’, a signed DVD with sub titled visual graphics and any other relevant assistive technology. Testing of these materials will be carried out with learners in VET or local establishments in each partner country. • Transferability of the teaching materials from English into another national language is relatively straightforward if the partner country translates the products; 8. The testing and evaluating the pedagogical processes developed in the project by applying Talking Tactiles for the visually impaired and subtitled / signed DVD materials for the hearing impaired. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

8. ROMANIAN SOCIETY FOR LIFE LONG LEARNING Address: no. 249, Calea Calarasi Str., bl. 65, sc. 1, 5th floor, 21th ap., Bucharest, 3rd sector, ROMANIA Phone/Fax: 40-21-327 3887 E-mail: office@srep.ro http://www.srep.ro Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning