During the summer of 2009 I was commissioned by St Helen's Youth Service to design a 6 lesson arts curriculum for a Global Citizenship programme being run in the area. To fulfill the criteria for the programme it was decided to focus on environmental sustainability as this crossed all barriers of age, gender, class, ability and race, and to use art as a medium, it being accessible to all, responds to emotional rather than purely intellectual input and promotes creative thinking. The 6 lessons followed a highly structured plan designed to be re-produced by the young people in a follow-up course of peer education. The curriculum required the young people to consider why they personally would be motivated to save the planet before starting on the creative projects - designing a mood board, using waste materials to create something new - then evaluating what they had created, what they had learned and where their personal interests now lay before searching the internet for voluntary work / environmental organisations etc that they could become involved in. The curriculum also includes activities for team building and peer leadership training.
The images above are some examples of the work produced by the first group of students to undergo the training. Their work was collated in personal files and certificates awarded on completion. Some of the young people self-selected to continue the programme as an after-school club teaching year 6 children. It is expected that their participation in this follow-up training will be validated as part a Duke of Edinburgh award.
Some of the young people may also become involved in environmental conferences for young people; last year some participants from a youth club group that I trained took part in an international youth conference in Germany.
I have presented the training as a booklet with step-by-step instructions for six one-hour lessons.
The images above are some examples of the work produced by the first group of students to undergo the training. Their work was collated in personal files and certificates awarded on completion. Some of the young people self-selected to continue the programme as an after-school club teaching year 6 children. It is expected that their participation in this follow-up training will be validated as part a Duke of Edinburgh award.
Some of the young people may also become involved in environmental conferences for young people; last year some participants from a youth club group that I trained took part in an international youth conference in Germany.
I have presented the training as a booklet with step-by-step instructions for six one-hour lessons.
