Planet of Change

Planet of Change is a project that aims to provide primary and secondary students in Slovenia with information on climate change and preservation of the environment. The project was developed by the Slovenian Foundation for Sustainable Development, known as Umanotera, and sponsored by Toyota Adria (Slovenia) and the Toyota Fund for Europe (TFfE).

The primary aim of the project is to inspire students and to create a virtual community of young people who feel a sense of shared responsibility toward the environment. The secondary goal of the project is to raise awareness of climate change among the general public.

The first task was to develop a package of educational materials that could be used by teachers and professors for both primary and secondary students. The text was written by members of the Slovenski EForum, a non-profit NGO made-up of scientists and activists who work in the fields of energy policy, modelling, conservation, and renewable energy among others. The Slovenian National Education Institute checked and approved the educational material.

• The final package held two DVDs. The first contained the educational materials including:
• Eight educational activities (four each for primary and secondary students)
• An energy test students could use to measure the environmental performance of their school
• An emissions calculator to compare the environment performance of a bus and a car
• A short film about the preservation of nature
• Tools to enable students to research climate change using the interactive Geopedia.si website
• Hybrid technology and eco drive -materials from Toyota.

The Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, was the second DVD included in the materials.

The educational package was delivered to all primary schools in Slovenia and to selected secondary schools. More than 500 packages were distributed in total.

Students of secondary schools were also given the opportunity to participate in a competition which was organised by Umanotera in partnership with Slovenia’s biggest newspaper publisher Delo. The winning essay about our green future was published in the supplement of the Delo Polet newspaper..