Building climate resilience of schools through thermal imaging and GBGI consultation: advancing climate literacy via the ‘Heat-Cool’ programme

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Abstract
As climate change intensifies, integrating climate literacy into school curricula is increasingly critical, especially in urban contexts where children face environmental stressors like extreme heat. Conventional school-based climate education remains largely theoretical, with limited experiential or participatory learning. The potential of green-blue-grey infrastructure (GBGI) to enhance school climate resilience remains underexplored, particularly through student-led design. This study addresses this gap by embedding GBGI consultation into an educational climate programme, the ‘Heat-Cool’, to engage students in citizen science and hands-on learning. The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in enhancing climate literacy and promoting an actionable understanding of urban heat risks. Specifically, it assesses learning gains, quantifies GBGI cooling benefits using thermal imaging, captures student GBGI preferences, and guides programme refinement. The study uniquely combined participatory and experiential learning with sensing technologies in a school setting. A total of 348 students, across 13 cohorts from seven UK primary schools, participated in 2 h workshops involving interactive presentations, quizzes, thermal imaging of school grounds, and GBGI consultation. Quiz scores improved (79.08–82.27), with 82% of students maintaining or improving their knowledge. Analysis of 1,754 thermal images (4,301 objects) revealed GBGI elements averaged 1 °C–3 °C cooler. Students favoured infrastructure-integrated GBGI (e.g. green roofs). High satisfaction (up to 4/5) and enjoyment-learning links indicate great programme success.
Funding Information
  • Guildford Living Lab
  • Ove Arup Foundation (Heat-Cool Project)
  • GCARE
  • Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (1059B142201753)
  • RECLAIM Network Plus (GP4Streets (UKRI1281))
  • NERC (NE/X002799/1)

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