Facebook UK have become a national partner for the STATWARS: Climate Change Challenge to support in empowering and educating young people to actively tackle climate change. STATWARS  is an educational programme that hinges on using data to deliver meaningful and engaging mathematics, numeracy, science, and data handling/visualising skills to pupils in primary and secondary schools across the UK.

Last week Facebook pledged to reach “net zero” carbon emissions for its global operations and be 100 percent supported by renewable energy by the end of 2020. Facebook also set an ambitious goal to reach net zero emissions for its value chain in 2030 by reducing carbon emissions through efficient designs, supplier engagement and carbon removal technology.

Thirdly, Facebook revealed its new Climate Science Information Centre, which aims to provide reliable, science-based information to its users. It will feature facts, figures and data from partners from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including the Met Office in the UK or the UN Environment Programme and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Facebook’s commitment to addressing climate change and educating its users about this global crisis aligns with Primary Engineer’s vision for STATWARS. At Primary Engineer, we believe young people need to be aware of the power of data in decision making, the role it will play in their future careers and fill the need of professionals being able to ‘speak data’. We have therefore designed and launched the STATWARS: Climate Change Challenge to develop data skills in both primary and secondary aged children at home or in school. Our aim is to embed data into the heart of the educational journey, by linking creativity and enjoyment in developing a deep, sustainable understanding of the value and the use of data in all our lives . while educating young people on tackling climate change.

This new partnership will enable pupils to engage with and be inspired by Facebook’s data science, data engineering and machine learning professionals and pick up tips for their competition entry, through live online interviews, skills sessions and other engagement opportunities, bridging the gap between education and industry.

Eoghan Griffin, EMEA sustainability manager for Facebook, said: “Facebook understands the urgency of climate change and is determined to be part of the solution. As a platform that connects more than three billion people, we are connecting people to reliable and accurate climate science information through our Climate Science Information Hub. Our goals are to educate more people on this topic and give them information and resources to address this crisis. That’s why we are so excited to partner with Primary Engineer and connect our London-based data scientists and machine learning experts with school children in the UK who want to use mathematics and computer science to tackle climate change.”Dr Susan Scurlock MBE, CEO and Founder of Primary Engineer explains ‘STATWARS is a programme designed to help young people make decisions based on data and using the data to make changes in their daily lives to have a positive impact on Climate Change. We all need to do something; this programme helps to identify just what that should be. Susan continues, “We are delighted to partner with Facebook, recognising their commitment to climate change and look forward to engaging more young people with data to drive informed decisions.

Chris Rochester, UK Director of Primary Engineer adds, “The opportunity for schools and the relationship with Facebook is hugely exciting.  It offers pupils and teachers across the UK access to data professionals from Facebook to not only work on a data project focused on climate change, which we know pupils are passionate about, but which allows them to realise the power of data in society and the roles and opportunities that are available to them as potential future careers.  The partnership with Facebook means young people can have a meaningful context to their learning through linking it to one of the world’s biggest brands.”

About STATWARS^®

The STATWARS: Climate Change Challenge encourages pupils to use data creatively and logically to support what we call, their personal climate change manifesto. The nature of the project encourages and develops meta skills related to teamwork, communication, leadership, curiosity, empathy, critical thinking and resilience, as teams collaborate on indeterminate problems and develop data driven hypothesis. The STATWARS: Climate Change Challenge also encourages the use of technology, to search and collect data, as well as data mining and analysis software, which allow the conceptualisation, manipulation and presentation of data. Pupils identify 3 changes they can personally commit to in their daily lives to lower their own carbon footprint. Pupils are then required to produce an infographic of their three pledges with an explanation of the data used to influence the decisions with visual charts and graphs and a poster designed to encourage others to make one or all three of the pledges. STATWARS is a free annual competition developed by Primary Engineer^®. STATWARS provides free teaching resources including lesson plans, activity sheets and video tutorials to unlock the value of data, as well as live interviews with data experts and skills sessions from experts. For more information visit www.statwarscompetition.com.

About Primary Engineer

Primary Engineer is an educational not-for-profit organisation that provides a suite of programmes that encourage children from 3 to 19 years to consider STEM career. Primary Engineer Programmes inspire children, pupils, parents and teachers through continued professional development, whole class project work, competitions and exhibitions.  All the programmes are linked to industry professionals to ensure the learning has a context to the wider world. They develop essential skills, promote engineering careers and address the diversity and gender imbalance in engineering with primary and secondary pupils. Primary Engineer programmes has won accolades including successive Red Rose Award’s for ‘Skills and Training Provider of the year’, Burnley Councils’ Chief Executive’s’ Award for bringing ‘Education and Industry together’ and featured in the Scottish Government’s Manufacturing Future for Scotland and the Engineering Skills Investment Plan. For further information visit www.primaryengineer.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube.

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“My message is that we’ll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!… We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

At that time, Greta was 16 years old. At Primary Engineer, we believe that children do have a voice, and that we should be doing everything we can do help that voice shout loud!

On the 18th March 2020 at DataFest, Primary Engineer will launch the STATWARS: Climate Change Challenge for primary and secondary pupils. The launch will bring together climate experts, data professionals, teachers and pupils interested in taking part in the project. There will be guest speakers, pupil interviews with the experts and professionals, fun activities and more…

The aim of the event is to help attendees build their knowledge of the STATWARS project, climate change issues and the importance of data in tackling such challenges.

The STATWARS®: Climate Change Challenge vision is to empower and educate pupils to tackle climate change, by providing a project that delivers meaningful and engaging mathematics, numeracy and data literacy to pupils!

We will use the data we collect during this project to support meaningful research and decision making, with its careful application revolutionising our understanding of how to manage the Climate Change Challenge ahead of us! We need young people to be a part of that journey…

How does STATWARS® Climate Change Challenge work?

Pupils will:

• Design and create a data driven infographic poster, documenting their research on climate
  change and 3 things they will change to help reduce carbon emissions
• Design and create an advertisement poster/manifesto pledge, where pupils can explore ways of
  drawing attention to their ideas for change and encourage others to join them on their journey.
• Produce a 60-sec pitch to support their manifesto and encourage others to join them.

The competition’s structure encourages pupils to apply mathematics not just creatively, but logically, to research, collect, analyse and present data, whilst drawing on their own personal experiences to support their climate change manifesto. The nature of the project encourages and develops meta-skills related to teamwork, leadership, curiosity, empathy, critical thinking and resilience, as teams are asked to consider indeterminate problems and develop data driven hypothesis.

So, get involved and help your pupils make a difference to the world we live in!

For more information please email info@statwarscompetition.com and visit www.statwarscompetition.com/climatechange  STATWARS® runs annual competitions that have been developed by Primary Engineer Programmes for The Institution of Primary Engineers® and The Institution of Secondary Engineers®.

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