Resources
Embedded Files
We're investing in school communities.
Global ESD formed as the precursor to OpenEvo, working to develop a free, open-access database of guides, teaching materials, lessons, units, and syllabi.
Please visit OpenEvo to view, download and learn more about these resources and more, including:
E-learning experiences for students, teachers, teacher educators, curriculum designers, and the interested public.
Theoretical frameworks, peer reviewed articles, and preprints.
A curated collection of projects that have informed or implemented our work.
Help with implementation
Help with implementation
See our Services to learn more about additional help to bring these free resources to life in your classroom, district or community.
Our Teacher's Guide to Evolution, Behavior, and Sustainability Science
Our Teacher's Guide to Evolution, Behavior, and Sustainability Science
Now coordinated by OpenEvo, our Teacher's guide offers an easy to read introduction and big picture overview of the Global ESD Design Concept. Its emphasis on cultural evolution provides a rich framework for community science, guided by a simple focus on variation, selection and retention of cultural traits for successful learning and improvement communities.
Help with implementation
Help with implementation
See our Services to learn more about additional help to bring this guide to life in your classroom, district or community.
Together we hope to advance timely answers to the questions "How do we improve our schools to work for all?" and "How do we improve our communities to work for all?" that are yet applicable to diverse improvement efforts everywhere.
Together we hope to advance timely answers to the questions "How do we improve our schools to work for all?" and "How do we improve our communities to work for all?" that are yet applicable to diverse improvement efforts everywhere.
What is Community Science?
What is Community Science?
Community science is a broad term for democratic approaches to improving a wide range of aims, including academic learning and human and community development. When practiced as an open science, it can also inform improvement and learning in peer communities (and vice versa).
Community science is a broad term for democratic approaches to improving a wide range of aims, including academic learning and human and community development. When practiced as an open science, it can also inform improvement and learning in peer communities (and vice versa).
School-based Community Science Labs are interdisciplinary teams working to practice community science. By pairing what matters to the community with the agency, skills and understandings they need to achieve it, community science labs are direction generating. Click the image below for higher resolution.
School-based Community Science Labs are interdisciplinary teams working to practice community science. By pairing what matters to the community with the agency, skills and understandings they need to achieve it, community science labs are direction generating. Click the image below for higher resolution.
We promote a School Portrait Framework to help students learn about and connect diverse themes of improvement. The Framework provides a powerful set of tools to advocate for valued change while connecting with the shared purpose of others.
We promote a School Portrait Framework to help students learn about and connect diverse themes of improvement. The Framework provides a powerful set of tools to advocate for valued change while connecting with the shared purpose of others.
For example:
For example:
High school students in a project learning block seeking to improve their school experience started with a broad list of ideas - better lunch fare, cleaner locker rooms, a dedicated student lounge, a school store where the graduating class could earn money, and more. The school's history was also of interest to some students (who are the students in the pictures in the hallways, and the one's missing, the one's who went to WWII?). And what about the compost program? Our Evolving Schools facilitator added the behavioral rubric to the list. The current rubric was a perennial sore point among students and faculty. In this marketplace of ideas, the behavioral rubric garnered great interest.
High school students in a project learning block seeking to improve their school experience started with a broad list of ideas - better lunch fare, cleaner locker rooms, a dedicated student lounge, a school store where the graduating class could earn money, and more. The school's history was also of interest to some students (who are the students in the pictures in the hallways, and the one's missing, the one's who went to WWII?). And what about the compost program? Our Evolving Schools facilitator added the behavioral rubric to the list. The current rubric was a perennial sore point among students and faculty. In this marketplace of ideas, the behavioral rubric garnered great interest.
To improve the rubric required a new School Governance protocol, new lessons on human behavior relating to the School Curriculum, and an honest assessment of School Culture, all to elevate academics and learning.
To improve the rubric required a new School Governance protocol, new lessons on human behavior relating to the School Curriculum, and an honest assessment of School Culture, all to elevate academics and learning.
After several weeks of activity from students and project block teachers (a Community Science Lab), the new behavior rubric passed with the consent of every student, every one of their subject area teachers, the school dean, school counselor, and school principal.
The School Portrait Framework. Investigating and improving the School Curriculum can be supported by a specialized Educational Design Lab.
The School Portrait Framework. Investigating and improving the School Curriculum can be supported by a specialized Educational Design Lab.
What is a Networked Improvement Community?
What is a Networked Improvement Community?
Central to our theory of change (and project incubation) is the development of Networked Improvement Communities (NICs), which connect Community Science labs to each other to collaboratively identify, test, and refine solutions to local school and community improvement needs.
Central to our theory of change (and project incubation) is the development of Networked Improvement Communities (NICs), which connect Community Science labs to each other to collaboratively identify, test, and refine solutions to local school and community improvement needs.
NICs reinforce our community science approach through structured, evidence-driven processes.
NICs reinforce our community science approach through structured, evidence-driven processes.
Networked Improvement Communities define networks in three novel ways:
By looking at networks of problems and solutions.
Including one or more full team members from outside of the primary group or organization.
Informing a local theory of improvement based on global network research.
Relevant literature
Relevant literature
Boyd, M. R. (2014). Community-Based Research: Understanding the Principles, Practices, Challenges, and Rationale. In P. Leavy (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199811755.013.006.
Eirdosh, D., Hanisch, S. (2023). A Community Science Model for Inter-disciplinary Evolution Education and School Improvement. In: du Crest, A., Valković, M., Ariew, A., Desmond, H., Huneman, P., Reydon, T.A.C. (eds) Evolutionary Thinking Across Disciplines. Synthese Library, vol 478. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33358-3_7.
Hanisch, S. & Eirdosh, D. (2020). Educational potential of teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 13 (25). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-020-00138-4.
Jason, L., & Glenwick, D. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of methodological approaches to community-based research: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Oxford University Press.
KIDS Consortium. (2001). KIDS as planners: A guide to strengthening students, schools and communities through service-learning. Lewiston, ME, USA.
Strand, K., Marullo, S., Cutforth, N., Stoecker, R., & Donohue, P. (2003). Community-based Research and Higher Education. Principles and Practices. San Francisco, CA, USA: Jossey-Bass.
Presentations
Presentations
Circle Lab: Community Science Lab meets Social Emotional Learning
Circle Lab: Community Science Lab meets Social Emotional Learning
Original presentation: January 25, 2024. Note: presentation ends at 1h 19 minute mark.
Global ESD Executive Director, Peter Bullock, presents at the Learning Planet Festival on a 34 week class on the interdisciplinary subject of social emotional learning, including an applied SEL community science lab (“CSL”). The focus of the class was to improve the school and community by better understanding human behavior.
Global ESD Executive Director, Peter Bullock, presents at the Learning Planet Festival on a 34 week class on the interdisciplinary subject of social emotional learning, including an applied SEL community science lab (“CSL”). The focus of the class was to improve the school and community by better understanding human behavior.
Revising the Behavioral Rubric as a student-led Community Science Lab project
Revising the Behavioral Rubric as a student-led Community Science Lab project
Original presentation: January 25, 2024. Note: presentation ends at 34 minute mark.
Global ESD Executive Director, Peter Bullock, presents at the Learning Planet Festival on a project carried out at Lake Placid High School in Lake Placid, NY (U.S.). Students successfully proposed to change their behavioral rubric from "Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful" to "Take Risks to Learn, Commit to the Opportunity, Listen for Understanding".
Global ESD Executive Director, Peter Bullock, presents at the Learning Planet Festival on a project carried out at Lake Placid High School in Lake Placid, NY (U.S.). Students successfully proposed to change their behavioral rubric from "Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful" to "Take Risks to Learn, Commit to the Opportunity, Listen for Understanding".
Humans, AIs and the Evolution of Equitable Societies
Humans, AIs and the Evolution of Equitable Societies
Original presentation: July 24, 2023
Global ESD Director and President Emeritus, Dustin Eirdosh, delivers a keynote talk to members of the Max Planck Society on the role of understanding humans and AIs in education for sustainable development.
Global ESD Director and President Emeritus, Dustin Eirdosh, delivers a keynote talk to members of the Max Planck Society on the role of understanding humans and AIs in education for sustainable development.
Teaching the science behind sustainable behaviors
Teaching the science behind sustainable behaviors
Original webinar: Weds, May 13th, 2020
Today's global society faces major challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including sustainable resource use, social equality, and providing access to good education, health and human well-being for all.
Today's global society faces major challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including sustainable resource use, social equality, and providing access to good education, health and human well-being for all.
What can we learn from the communities of the world, from our evolutionary history, from our everyday behaviors and experiences, and from other living beings about how to master these challenges of cooperation and sustainability?
What can we learn from the communities of the world, from our evolutionary history, from our everyday behaviors and experiences, and from other living beings about how to master these challenges of cooperation and sustainability?
In this webinar, find out how Global ESD works internationally to support sustainability education initiatives that connect concepts in human evolution, behavioral ecology, and sustainability science. By linking scientific perspectives on social change with students and classrooms seeking to make the world a better place, our aim is to foster a global discussion about where we are going in the light of where we all have come from.
In this webinar, find out how Global ESD works internationally to support sustainability education initiatives that connect concepts in human evolution, behavioral ecology, and sustainability science. By linking scientific perspectives on social change with students and classrooms seeking to make the world a better place, our aim is to foster a global discussion about where we are going in the light of where we all have come from.
View entire original webinar (unfortunately poor sound quality) here
Also check out our teaching materials page on Sustainability and Behavior
TEDxLeipzigInternationalSchool
TEDxLeipzigInternationalSchool
In September 2020, students at the Leipzig International School organized a TEDx event around the theme of boundaries, personal, social, and planetary. Our own Dustin Eirdosh presented a talk entitled "Why human behavior is at the center of education", which frames how the science of human behavior offers new ways for students to extend their learning beyond the boundaries of classic school subjects.
In September 2020, students at the Leipzig International School organized a TEDx event around the theme of boundaries, personal, social, and planetary. Our own Dustin Eirdosh presented a talk entitled "Why human behavior is at the center of education", which frames how the science of human behavior offers new ways for students to extend their learning beyond the boundaries of classic school subjects.
The talk highlights why human behavior is central to understanding the human condition more broadly, and how our understanding of human behavior impacts how we relate to ourselves and others. The talk concludes with a call to action regarding how schools can re-conceptualize the role of human behavior as both scientific content to be engaged, and an empowering context for school and community action towards a more sustainable future.
The talk highlights why human behavior is central to understanding the human condition more broadly, and how our understanding of human behavior impacts how we relate to ourselves and others. The talk concludes with a call to action regarding how schools can re-conceptualize the role of human behavior as both scientific content to be engaged, and an empowering context for school and community action towards a more sustainable future.
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