Climate sensitive – Grasping climate, understanding change, conserving nature
Prof. Dr. Alexander Siegmund
Global climate change is one of the key challenges of our time. Rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns are already having numerous effects on species and habitats also in our region. Main aim of the project “climate sensitive“ is therefore to promote the development of children's and adolescents’ competencies in the field of regional climate change and - being tomorrow's actors - to raise their awareness for a sustainable development of biodiversity in Baden-Wurttemberg.
According to the overall idea “Grasping climate, understanding change, conserving nature“ an out- of-school place of learning is created to make the collection of climatic data, the influence of climate on nature and landscape and the regional effects of climate change tangible and understandable. A part of the richly structured cultural landscape of the natural preserve Neckartal-Odenwald becomes a “learning landscape” through establishing several measurement- and observation areas. Complemented by the development of problem- and action-based learning materials especially a climate station, a phenological garden and a soil erosion observation area are installed as reference points for learning through exploration and discovery.
The educational opportunities of the “learning landscape” are supplemented by an application for smartphones based on “augmented reality”. When users photograph their surroundings, the location-based app adds information about climate sensitive species or phenomena or crossfades the visual with a slide visualizing the landscape changes that are to be expected according to present knowledge in the context of climate change.
View into "tomorrow’s landscape“ - making climate change impacts visible with the help of “Augmented Reality”
Project start: 2014
This project is supported by Stiftung Naturschutzfonds (Conservation Fund) using earmarked Glücksspirale lottery profits