This nature-based solution fosters inter-beingness through tech-enabled greenery to transform schools into cool, climate-resilient learning ecosystems. 

The heat challenge exacerbates extreme heat in schools, causing physiological stress, cognitive decline, and gender-specific health disparities.

This solution impacts the community, including: students, educators, and school staff, with a focus on future generations (Vision 2040), while navigating food scarcity and rising temperatures.

The prototype emerged through a futures process that worked with urban heat signals, unpacked their direct and indirect consequences, and used world-building to explore how these shifts could reorganise everyday life, access, and survival in the city.

Rising temperatures are turning classrooms into heat traps, impacting concentration levels and leading to noticeable declines in student attendance and teacher performance. Heat in schools creates systemic educational inequality - disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities. Beyond physical discomfort, research has identified a significant gender disparity, as extreme heat can negatively impact female hormonal cycles, placing an additional burden on girls’ education. 

Students report struggling to focus while wearing heavy, non heat conducive uniforms, and schools are increasingly forced to cancel extracurricular activities due to unsafe outdoor temperatures. Studies further suggest that mental stress and poor teaching outcomes are directly linked to what is described as “warm classroom syndrome.” Altogether, this reflects a broader trend of climate-induced educational disruption and highlights the growing need for youth-led environmental stewardship and climate-responsive school design.

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The core idea: A nature-based intervention where 'Plant Buddies' act as thermal barriers and communicative companions for students.

How it works: Modular plant walls and greenhouses are integrated into school architecture. These plants are equipped with sensors that allow them to "communicate" their moods and needs (like water or soil health) to the children through a digital interface, bridging the gap between children and the natural environment around them.

Key features:

• The Plant Buddy Interface: Technology that translates plant data into human emotions/needs, making the cooling process interactive and collaborative.

• Thermal Barriers: Strategic plant walls that absorb solar radiation before it hits building interiors.

• Greenhouse Integration: A 2040-ready food security module where kids grow their own vegetables to combat climate-induced food scarcity.

• Care-taking Rosters: A collaborative system where students decide who cares for the "Buddies" during holidays.

Who uses it: Children take the lead role as "guardians," using the tech to monitor their plant buddies, while the whole school enjoys the dropped ambient temperatures.