February 10, 2022
AYLEE members Lauren and Alison presented to a group of engaged teachers! Their session was titled Our Students, Our Future: Youth voices for learning & action through EcoSchools and they shared youth perspectives on the need for environmental, energy, and climate education in Alberta and resources for teachers to use in their classroom to encourage student-led environmental projects and advocacy. Here's a glimpse at what they shared:
"Overall, the 2021 AYLEE survey showed that implementing more environmental education is very important to youth, and will help ease some of the stress and fear that they feel about climate change. At AYLEE, we believe that environmental education is the key to promoting action, learning, and hope in youth across Alberta... We believe these transformative changes are essential for the well-being of us students, because we feel the need to act, and we can’t act without climate education." - Alison
"Personally, when I began to explore climate change, advocacy work became my number one goal. Going through my sciences classes and hardly learning about the environment started to make me very concerned. If we weren’t getting educated in school, how were we supposed to be aware of the problem and solutions available? Then the reality of this being a very hard task also set in. How was a 17 year old going to change the curriculum of Alberta? It is a very daunting reality to face, but thanks to AYLEE and my eco-club in my school... I no longer feel isolated or hopeless as I see so many youth and adults across the province who share the same concern and passion as I do." - Lauren
(Lauren left, Alison right)