From Myths to Facts: Media Literacy in Environmental and Climate Education

Environmental and climate topics are increasingly present in public debate, media and schools, but they are often communicated in a simplified, fragmented or misleading way. Young people and teachers are exposed to many claims about climate change, biodiversity, water, soil, energy, consumption and everyday behaviour, yet they often lack practical tools to distinguish between scientific evidence, opinion, media simplification and misinformation. Planet Lover has long-term experience showing that many misconceptions in ecology persist among students and adults. These misconceptions do not result only from a lack of information, but also from difficulties in interpreting sources, data, context and scientific explanations. This is why media and information literacy is essential also in environmental and climate education.

The project responds to the need to strengthen the ability of students and teachers to work critically with information, verify sources, understand data and identify misleading or oversimplified claims related to environmental and climate issues. It also addresses the need to support teachers, who often lack accessible practical training in how to communicate complex environmental topics clearly and responsibly across different school subjects.

The project aims to develop media and information literacy in environmental and climate education through two main activity lines. First, Planet Lover will implement 20 interactive school workshops for secondary school students during the 2026/2027 school year. The workshops will focus on common environmental misconceptions, work with sources and data, verification of claims and the ability to distinguish between scientific knowledge, opinion, simplification and misleading statements.

Second, the project will organise a multi-day educational camp for 15 secondary school teachers. The camp will focus on science communication, climate and environmental education, media literacy, working with reliable sources, data interpretation and practical classroom activities. Teachers will receive methodological tools and examples that they can use repeatedly in their own teaching.

The Norwegian partner, World Climate School, will contribute to the teacher camp by bringing international experience in climate communication and education. Its representative will provide an expert input, methodological feedback and a three-hour internal training for the Planet Lover team after the camp.

The project will also include preparation of educational materials, communication outputs and follow-up evaluation of the activities.

The project aims to improve the ability of secondary school students and teachers to critically work with environmental and climate information. The direct beneficiaries will be approximately 1,000 secondary school students reached through 20 school workshops and 15 secondary school teachers participating in the educational camp. Indirect beneficiaries will be the students of the trained teachers, schools and wider educational communities.

Expected results include better understanding of how to verify sources, read data, identify common misconceptions and distinguish between scientific evidence, opinion, media simplification and misleading claims. Teachers will gain practical tools and activities that can be used across subjects and repeatedly applied in classroom practice. The project will also strengthen the capacity of Planet Lover to further develop media and information literacy within environmental and climate education.

The cooperation with World Climate School will bring bilateral added value through exchange of experience between Slovak and Norwegian civil society actors and will support future international cooperation. After the project, Planet Lover will continue to use the developed methodology, materials, examples and evaluation findings in school workshops, teacher training and future educational projects.