We are thrilled to share that our Global Warning course materials have received an “excellent” 95% rating from Education Alliance Finland and we are proud to present the details of their evaluation. Our conviction that our latest educational product meet the highest international standards and can greatly foster the development of 21st-century skills in children has received validation from a highly credible source. Education Alliance Finland, Europe’s premier independent certification company for educational products and services, provides a product evaluation and certification service for learning solutions based on a science-based method developed in collaboration with university researchers in Finland.

Besides achieving an exceptional 95% rating for the pedagogical approach, Global Warning received a high learning engagement rating (4.43 out of 5).

Education Alliance Finland notes that the Global Warning course materials – which aim to stimulate both cross-disciplinary investigation and active learning – are carefully designed and learner-centered. The teacher’s guide is also considered easy to use and comprehensive. Lesson plans provide ample opportunities for students – who must search for information and solutions – to be creative and inspired. Teamwork and open-ended problem-solving are both fostered in a thought-provoking and engaging way. Students must share information as well as their own ideas and have many opportunities to express themselves and be listened to. As EAF puts it,

students are seen as capable, active, and worthy individuals who can change the future. This is exactly the mindset that we need in order to change the world.

How does Global Warning teach future-proof skills to children?

Global Warning aims to promote awareness of sustainability issues and promises to engage learners by taking them on a journey around the world that highlights the climate change issue and the many impacts it is already having. Learners are assigned roles as research vessel crew members on a mission to gain knowledge through exploring best practices in sustainability and passing it on to others – and laying the foundations of sustainable living.

As Partnership for 21st Century Skills has been telling the world since 2002, today’s young people need a host of competencies (e.g., critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and digital literacy), alongside subject matter knowledge and the more traditional “3R’s” (reading, writing and arithmetic) if they are going to be successful in both their personal and their professional lives. Educators are increasingly aware that employers and society expect these skills to be taught in the classroom. However, national curriculums must still be adhered to, and learners also need to be engaged. Does Global Warning deliver on all counts?

The answer, according to EAF, is a resounding “Yes”. Global Warning not only aligns with international curricular requirements:

• Next Generation Science Standards
• UK National Curriculum
• IB Curriculum

Global Warning also equips children with transferable, future-proof competencies in a motivating way. Students must think creatively and brainstorm possible solutions with their peers; they must reason effectively to solve problems; clear communication and effective collaboration are both required; information must be found, accessed, evaluated, and put to good use; and multimodal, media and information, and ICT literacies are all developed. Moreover, learners are challenged. Users are encouraged to explore the product further.

In short, teachers and parents can rest assured that their children’s learning will be on the right track with Global Warning.

Overall, EAF concludes that Global Warning represents “extremely high-quality material for STEAM education with a strong research basis and a current topic”. The teacher materials are viewed as “noteworthy,” giving teachers with different levels of experience – and perhaps scientific knowledge – the support they need. The whole project is judged to be “very relatable to the targeted learner age groups”, providing “numerous different learning methods while covering several key competencies in the tasks given throughout the lessons”.

Praise indeed – and we are advised that a 95% rating for a pedagogical approach is a real rarity. The evaluator emphasized that having a complex educational package that develops so many different skills in such a complex manner also makes Global Warning materials unique. Maker’s Red Box is proud to have received such a glowing evaluation.

Education Alliance Finland: providing evidence on the impact of learning products and services

Education Alliance Finland is a leading global certification company that evaluates educational solutions in terms of their learning goals, pedagogical approach, and capacity to engage learners. They aim to promote the most innovative and effective products and services for educators and educational institutions. The assessments are carried out by Finnish pedagogy experts and researchers using a scientific method that has been developed in collaboration with university researchers from Finland.