Astonished! Open-mouthed! That’s how I felt the day I discovered the Sustainability Compass and took it to my classes for the first time! It was the perfect tool for my lessons!
As an Environmental Educator teaching Environmental Management to adolescents in a bilingual school in Buenos Aires Argentina, SUSTAINABILITY has always been a keyword in my curricula.
I have always taught my students about the serious problems our World faces and have always encouraged them to find solutions so as to help our planet. We always consider different perspectives and try to go from global to local as it is my firm belief that by acting locally, we can give a hand to the World globally.
Before getting to know the Sustainability Compass, I used a PBL (Project Based Learning) approach to make my students investigate and reach my objective. Yet, the day I found the Sustainability Compass online, it felt like a whole new world had opened up to me! And I discovered more when I decided to take the Quick Impact Course: Systems Thinking for the SDGs! It was as if I had been blind to these wonders until that moment! The Compass I introduced to my students was instrumental in helping them understand the principles of Systems Thinking.
With the help of this tool, my students were able to gain a much deeper understanding of how different parts of a system are interconnected and how changes in one part of this system can impact the big system as a whole.
The simple Compass provided a visual representation of complex configurations, allowing my students to see the big picture and identify patterns that might not have been immediately apparent.
Using the tool helped my students to break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable components, which made it easier for them to develop more effectively.
All in all, the tool was a valuable asset in helping my students to develop their systems thinking skills, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to teach this approach to problem-solving.
Marcela Villan
Marcela Alejandra Villán qualified as a Teacher of English in Argentina in 1996. She got a TESOL certification later and at the moment holds several diplomas and a bachelor’s degree in English as well. She has worked extensively in the field and is also a teacher trainer. Marcela specializes in Environmental Education and Global Competence. She supports the United Nations 2030 Agenda as a framework in the classrooms, as she has been a TeachSDGs ambassador and Global Schools Advocate for some years already. Marcela advocates for the betterment of education as a whole and she supports numerous organizations that work towards that aim, for example.
