Mooc soil education: an integrated stem approach
Soil Education: a STEM Integrated Approach MOOC Registration
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Soil Education: a STEM Integrated Approach MOOC Access the online course
About
This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) explores the critical role of soil health and soil education in shaping a sustainable future. It supports educators in integrating soil-related topics into STEM teaching to create meaningful, engaging, and interdisciplinary learning experiences. Participants gain insights into using soil health as a lens to address real-world sustainability challenges, adopt innovative pedagogies, and promote integrated teaching approaches.
The course introduces the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) 5E Instructional Model, a proven framework for fostering student engagement and deep learning. Through practical examples, it demonstrates how to make teaching more interactive, inquiry-based, and student-centred.
By connecting soil health to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and relevant EU policies, the MOOC helps teachers link global issues to students’ daily lives, encouraging critical thinking, sustainability awareness, and action-oriented learning.
Objectives
In this course, you will:
- research and discuss what soil is, why soil health is important for humankind and how knowledge about soil can be taught in an engaging and interdisciplinary way;
- learn how to teach and combine knowledge and practices related to different dimensions of soil health, such as the economic, societal, ethical, biological and chemical dimensions;
- apply what you have learnt by designing a learning scenario on soil health ready to be used in your day-to-day activities.
Date and registration
The online course was held live from 3 March to 9 April 2025. All content is still available, but the course is no longer moderated, which means no peer-to-peer assignment is offered and some activities (e.g. Padlet, etc.) are not updated. The estimated workload is of 4 hours per week.
Promotional Materials
Whether you are a course participant, a Ministry of Education, or a network organisation in the educational field: we welcome your support in spreading the message on this free online course.
You can do this in various ways, including:
- Use the suggested social media messages and visuals for the dissemination of the course and registration information on your social media channels, which you can download in the promotional pack below.
- Use the information provided in the promotional pack to promote the MOOC via any other dissemination channels you may have available to you (for example, newsletters, bulletins, digests, blog articles).
- Circulate information to relevant contacts: members of your network, organisations that you know are active on the topic and individual contacts.
To find all the promotional materials combined in a document please click on the button below. This promotional pack (in English) includes detailed information on how to promote the course in communications with your networks and audiences, as well as all visuals and suggested social media messages.
Info Sheet
Social media
Useful X (former Twitter) handles and hashtags:
- Course hashtag #LOESSMOOC
- Project handle/hashtag @eu_schoolnet, @scientix_eu, @LOESSproject
- Service hashtag #EUNAcademy
- Funder handles/hashtags @eu_schoolnet, @scientix_eu, @LOESSproject
Visuals
You can use the following visuals to promote the MOOC:
Behind the MOOC
The LOESS MOOC on “Soil Education: A STEM Integrated Approach” is run thanks to LOESS and Scientix.
Scientix®, the community for science education in Europe, promotes and supports a Europe-wide collaboration among STEM teachers, education researchers, policymakers and other STEM education professionals.
European Schoolnet (EUN) is the network of 30+ European Ministries of Education, based in Brussels. EUN aims to bring innovation in teaching and learning to its key stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers, and industry partners.
Disclaimer
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This MOOC is coordinated by European Schoolnet, and it is supported by Scientix®, an initiative of European Schoolnet.