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The German county of North Rhine–Westphalia (NRW), having the greatest population of any county in Germany, is a particularly convenient base for the GLOBE Program. This region contains 80 registered GLOBE schools, which justifies the considerable commitment they receive from the NRW government. GLOBE brings basic science education into the classroom, encouraging sustainable development through diverse teaching practices and projects, in schools across the academic range.

North Rhine- Westphalia County in Germany

NRW is the most active county for GLOBE projects in Germany with four of the ten top-performing 2007/08 GLOBE Germany Schools of the Year : The Gymnasium Schloß Neuhaus in Paderborn, Ernst-Barlach-Gymnasium in Unna, von-Galen-Schule in Warendorf and Montanusrealschule in Leverkusen are all high-performing schools in the region.

Lecture by Dr. Markus Quante at the Gymnasium Schloß Neuhaus

The GLOBE-NRW Students’ Congress is an annual event that has been taking place since 2000, bringing the students of the various schools across the county together to meet in one of the GLOBE schools. In 2008, the Congress was held in the Gymnasium Schloß Neuhaus, a GLOBE Germany School of the Year, mentioned above. The event proved to be popular among the students and was widely attended. Participation was enhanced by experts in nature and environmental conservation who gave lectures to the students and introduced them to the varied aspects of current research on climatology. Students presented their findings of the GLOBE research they had conducted throughout the year.

Students on the bank of the River Ems

A recent project underway by GLOBE Schools in NRW is a collaborative study of the county’s rivers. The picture on the left shows a project taking place on the River Ems.

GLOBE-NRW is actively promoting the network “Prima Klima” (Good Climate) as an important topic for further research. This project has been placed into the “Transfer-21 NRW” component of the “Agenda 21 in Schools and Youth Work NRW” of the county’s government-approved curriculum. “Prima Klima” supports the goal of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), which is to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. This important environmental initiative works hand-in-hand with the schools across NRW. Thanks to this association, the further development of GLOBE will have a solid foundation. This, in turn, permits teaching to reach beyond the sciences and encompass the arts in addition to widening the student’s capability in dealing with the problems they encounter.

For more information about these projects contact:

Rolf Schulz – Transfer 21 / rolf.schulz@msw.nrw.de
Matthias Oriwall – Netzwerk Prima Klima / matthias.oriwall@msw.nrw.de
Anna Heyne-Mudrich – GLOBE NRW / annaheynemudrich@arcor.de