The average global temperature has increased very rapidly over the last 50 years due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Generally, this increase in human-caused greenhouse gas emissions continues to rise along with the consumption habits of today’s world. Climate change, resulting from global warming caused by this increase, is a global problem threatening future generations (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2023). According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to act in many areas such as poverty, inequality, health, justice, and planetary protection, were created to make the world habitable in the future. In line with these developments, the importance of climate change education has been emphasized under Sustainable Development Goal number thirteen, Climate Action (United Nations [UN], 2015) The aim is to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to adapt to and combat climate change through the awareness that is planned to be gained by utilizing the vital role of education in change and impact. United Nations (UN, 2015) Sustainable Development Goal 13 states that the integration of climate change education into national education policies, curricula, teacher training, and student assessments is a key objective. Research on climate change education has revealed insufficient integration in teacher knowledge, teacher training techniques, curriculum, and curriculum applicability (Anyolo et al., 2018). As in the rest of the world, the Turkish national education system also requires new, innovative, and contemporary practices that are appropriate to the changing climate change agenda and technologies, in line with the needs and problems related to adapting to and combating the increasing effects of climate change. In Türkiye, technical, social, and socio-scientific projects on adaptation and combating climate change have been and are being developed under the leadership and support of TÜBİTAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Institution). These projects, which have very important and valuable content on combating and adapting to climate change, do not include educational parts at the primary, secondary, high school, or even university levels due to the advanced levels of their content. However, proposed solutions to climate change can be transformed into educational materials for students at all levels through collaborative work between educators and researchers. Adapting these projects to educational materials that school children can understand easily has a great potential to become important resources for them to understand reasons, results, and recent technologies for combating climate change. Therefore, we believe that evaluating and adapting the scientific and technological content of the completed projects related to climate change as educational materials will enhance the vision of young generations in the fields of global issues, science and technology and support their 21st-century skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop the criteria and the framework for finding best suitable projects to be transferred to education materials and to develop project – to – educational material framework. Based on this perspective, the research question of the study is

1)     “How science projects related to climate change can be transformed to educational materials?”

1. What are the characteristics of science projects to be transferred as educational materials?
2. What are the items of the framework to be used to transform science projects into education materials?

So, our target for the long term is to inspire Climate Change Education researchers for a new trend and the project funding agencies to consider an “From Project to Education – Pandora’s Project Box -” section to call for proposals.

This study utilizes qualitative research methods, which focuses on more social phenomena by examining human experiences rather than analyzing numerical data of real-life problems (Tenny et al., 2025). Also, the project contains document analysis method that is used for interpreting written documents (Chanda & Armstrong, 2021). Within the scope of the research, scientific projects containing the keywords "climate change”, “global warming”, “sustainability”, “renewable energy”, “greenhouse gas emissions”, “fossil fuels”, and “carbon footprint” in TÜBİTAK archive that formed between 2022-2024 were examined, and the process of transforming these projects into educational materials was set up. Document analysis first applied for listing the projects according to the keywords assigned; we focused on the abstracts of the projects while listing. After having the list of 189 projects, they were analyzed for their features suitable to transform as educational materials through a rubric developed by the writers. The documents taken as a background for developing the rubric are SDG 13, UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development Goals Learning Objectives and GreenComp the European Sustainability Competence Framework. As well, Bloom’s taxonomy and 21st Century science process skills were also considered for the target audience’s cognitive level. Accorddingly, cognitive learning, emotional-social, and observable skills together with embodying sustainability values, understanding the complexity of sustainability, imagining sustainable futures, and taking action for sustainability were determined to be used as the criteria to grade the scientific research projects in the TUBITAK archive. According to the grading system, among the graded projects the ones with grades > 50 were accepted as suitable for adaptation as education material. The five projects having such potential are being re-examined for their content. Following the re-examination, design of educational material will be initiated. Thus, the researchers are now working on developing a frame for designing education materials from projects.

Although the education material design phase is not yet complete, the expected outcome of this research is to contribute to the science education literature by converting academic data on climate change and sustainability into educational sets using various science education methods. Accordingly, each of these five planned materials is designed to incorporate different science teaching methods. Research has revealed that projects retrieved from the TÜBİTAK archive possess the potential to be adaptable and functional educational resource compatible with the science education curriculum. The educational materials are planned to be designed using methods such as problem-based learning, project-based learning, STEM, and gamification. These science education methods will enhance students’ inquiry-based learning skills, their understanding of the nature of science and their science process skills. Additionally, the multidisciplinary subject of climate change and sustainability will enhance students’ multidisciplinary perspectives. Furthermore, it is anticipated that these educational materials will increase students’ awareness of SDG 13, climate action. The aim is for students to understand the seriousness of climate change as a problem, the importance of its local and global impacts, and to develop the awareness to act within the framework of SDG 13. In short, this study aims to contribute to the applicability of climate change education, one of the SDG 13 objectives, by making complex and abstract scientific information more understandable and concrete for students. This will facilitate the dissemination of complex scientific knowledge to the public and reach a wider audience for climate change action. Finally, the aim of this project is to serve as a model in climate change and sustainability education, to be integrated primarily into the national education system, and subsequently to inspire the integration of education system policies in other countries. *This project is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK 2209-A).

Anyolo, E. O., Kärkkäinen, S., & Keinonen, T. (2018). Implementing Education for Sustainable Development in Namibia: School teachers’ perceptions and teaching practices. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 20(1), 64–81. https://doi.org/10.2478/jtes-2018-0004 Calvin, K., Dasgupta, D., Krinner, G., Mukherji, A., Thorne, P. W., Trisos, C., Romero, J., Aldunce, P., Barret, K., Blanco, G., Cheung, W. W. L., Connors, S. L., Denton, F., Diongue-Niang, A., Dodman, D., Garschagen, M., Geden, O., Hayward, B., Jones, C., … Ha, M. (2023). IPCC, 2023: Climate change 2023: Synthesis report, summary for policymakers. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change [core writing team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland. IPCC, 2023: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (Eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland., 1–34. https://doi.org/10.59327/ipcc/ar6-9789291691647.001 Chanda, S., & Armstrong, A. (2021, 29 Aralık). Key methods used in qualitative document analysis. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3996213 Tenny, S., Brannan, J. M., & Brannan, G. D. (2025). Qualitative study. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470395/ United Nations. (2015). Goal 13 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal13#targets_and_indicators World Health Organization. (2015). Sustainable development goals. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/europe/about-us/our-work/sustainable-development-goals#:~:text=The%20Sustainable%20Development%20Goals%20