Teaching Sustainability in Schools

– Benjamin Franklin

“Tell me and I forget.Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”

– Benjamin Franklin

“Tell me and I forget.Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”

– Benjamin Franklin

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”

– Benjamin Franklin

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”

About

I am an environmental educator on climate change and conservation. I deliver programmes to primary and secondary schools and helping them to be more sustainable . Providing students with the knowledge skills and tools to live sustainably through 8 week modules and stand alone motivational workshops. Using interactive game based methodologies to support Students to join the dots between global environmental issues and their everyday lives. We examine issues such as climate change, sustainable development, climate justice, plastic, fast fashion, transport, food waste, biodiversity loss and energy.

8 Week Sustainability Modules

Learning to live sustainably and to take action through cultivating the knowledge, skills and tools across a variety of environmental topics delivered weekly.

Standalone Lectures on Sustainability

Ignite and empower students to become informed and to gain skills and tools to take action on a variety of topics.

Plastic Free
School
Workshops

Cultivating a student led step by step action plan to transition your school to a single use plastic free campus.

Teacher
Training
Workshops

Designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills required to effectively and confidently deliver climate education across the curriculum.

Newpark Comprehensive School: Irelands first single use plastic free school

Newpark is home to Ireland’s first single use plastic free school. This was a student led campaign that was an initiative from the Education for Sustainability 8-week transition year module. The workshop offered the students a platform to take action on an environmental topic that was important to them. 14 students worked together to rid their school of single use plastic by designing a strategic campaign that worked with school stakeholders and that targeted every level of the school community and the outside businesses.

Click below to know more about details, case studies and benefits:

Awards

ECO Leader Award 2017

I won ECO UNESCO’s ECO Leader of the Year 2017 for supporting Newpark School and Kill of the Grange National School in winning environmental awards in the Young Environmentalist Awards 2017.

Young Environmentalist Award Winner 2018 - Plastic Outta the Park

Newpark won the overall prize out of 340 schools nationwide for their inspirational projet by becoming Ireland’s first single use plastic free school in 2018.

The students eradicated plastic from their school by the introduction of writing a new school policy, the school diary has educational plastic facts and pledge for each student to sign. Parents and students were both surveyed and petitioned as a declaration of support.

Newpark School Young Environmentalist Award Winners 2017 ‘Algae-tecture’

A group of 5 Transition Year students created an algae-based oxygenator to combat indoor pollution in their school.

Kill O’The Grange National School Young Environmentalist Awards 2017 - The Eco Pirates

Kill O’The Grange National School, won the Super Junior category in Eco Unesco’s Young Environmentalist Awards in 2017, under my supervision. The group campaigned to introduce a bottle bill scheme into Ireland.

TEDX Ballybofey, Co Donegal 2018 - ‘The Power of Taking Action’

This TEDX talk is about a world that is poised on the brink of an environmental crisis, taking action has never been more important.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.”

- Baba Dioum

Testimonials

Sue has an imaginative and interactive approach to teaching students about sustainability and she has achieved a lot in a short space of time. The students were engaged throughout the module and benefited hugely from it. Sue was always positive and enthusiastic and built a good rapport with students.

Off the success of Newparks Young Environmentalist Winners in 2017, Newpark decided to run the Susan Adams Education for Sustainability programme with our transition year students in the 2017/18 academic year. Sue worked with 6 groups throughout the year transitioning our school to become Ireland's first plastic free school. Throughout the year students were engaged with various environmental projects from rising sea levels to the plastic crisis that not only raised environmental awareness within the school community but that impacted on our local community also. The students benefited greatly from the classes as they were encouraged to learn and develop new skills such as community engagement and running campaigns.

Susan delivered a sustainability module to a mixed group of students from 4th-5th class in the 2016/17 academic year. The students involved with the Susan Adams Education for Sustainability programme were given the opportunity to peer educate their classmates, teachers and parents about the effects and solutions on the plastic crisis. Each student was personally stretched getting involved with the campaign through an awareness stall at the school sale, a play, a presentation to the Caithaoirleach in Dun Laoghaire County Hall and as overall winners of the Young Environmentalist Awards in 2017. I would have no hesitation recommending Susan to other schools and would very much like to see her efforts supported on an ongoing basis.