Escape Climate Change Initiative

In the last decade, there has been a growing mobilization around climate issues, especially through youth-led demonstrations. Climate strikes and school marches reflect the young generation's commitment to addressing what is considered one of humanity's greatest challenges. A key demand is integrating climate change into educational curricula from primary to higher education. However, beyond scientific knowledge, young people also seek solutions. Many students, fearful of climate change, felt the need for more action. Existing educational programs often fall short, relying on top-down, siloed approaches. The ECCI project aimed to address this gap by using two innovative escape games to engage students in collaborative problem-solving around climate change. The project aimed to empower students to better address climate change while addressing pupils' needs for climate change knowledge, innovative learning, and involvement in actions. It also supported teachers and staff by developing skills, testing new methods, and offering flexible, hybrid solutions.

The ECCI project aimed to drive climate change action among pupils, teachers, teacher students, and ANE staff through an innovative initiative based on two escape games. The project was developed and tested in four countries—Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. The project had five key objectives: Objective 1: Raise awareness about climate change and possible solutions among pupils, teachers, and ANE staff in secondary schools. Objective 2: Develop an innovative approach through escape games, proving their effectiveness in achieving pedagogical goals. Pupils were expected to acquire new knowledge and develop essential skills. Objective 3: Develop and test a hybrid and flexible method to provide schools with a turnkey initiative, adaptable for both remote and in-person use. Objective 4: Empower pupils by involving them in experiencing the game, and creating an action plan. Objective 5: Involve teachers, ANE staff, and teacher students in testing the initiative to better meet their expectations and needs.

The project lasted 36 months, from March 1, 2022, to February 28, 2025, with the goal of implementing the 7 project results (PR) and developing and testing the 5 different phases of the ECCI initiative, which formed the ECCI toolkit. These phases included the preparation of teachers and pupils, the game development phase, the debriefing phase, and the action and sharing phase. Two main tests were key milestones in the project. After defining the common pedagogical approach (PR1), the pedagogical content was selected (PR2) and then designed (PR3) to provide educational material for the preparation of teachers (phase 1) and pupils (phase 2). As the topics and content were finalized, a physical escape game (phase 3) was developed and tested, with the first test taking place at M16 (PR4). This test allowed progress on the remaining phases, including the debriefing (phase 4), a second test of the paper game (PR4) and action phase (phase 5) (PR5), as well as the development of a digital version of the escape game based on the physical one. Once completed, the material was tested in a second test of the entire initiative at M28 (PR6). Finally, all the produced materials and the digital game were hosted on an eLearning plattform (RP7).

Three main outcomes were achieved upon completion of the project, which will remain available in open access after the project's conclusion. Results are available in all languages of the consortium and in english on the project e-learning platform: https://app.ecciproject.eu/ which is also accessible via the project website: https://www.ecciproject.eu/. 1. The ECCI Toolkit, which gathers all pedagogical tools, including guidelines, technical content, and digital materials for all phases. 2. The escape games, initially developed as a physical version and later as a digital one. 3. The eLearning platform, which compiles all results, including the toolkit and the digital game, and will be accessible for pupils and teachers to implement the initiative. Other important outcomes relate to scientific research in education: we conducted a curricular analysis in all the four countries of the consortium, developed the debriefing phase and published a scientific article on the curricula: Enke, K. A., & Budke, A. (2023). Preparing students for a changing world: How geography curricula in Europe are tackling climate change. Frontiers in Education, 8, 1216780. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1216780