One Challenge Per Class, Per Year will give us Millions of Solutions: A Vision for Global Challenge-Based Learning

Imagine walking into a classroom where the walls between subjects have literally disappeared. Not just the physical walls—though those are important too—but the invisible ones we've built between mathematics and art, between science and literature. That's what Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) does. It takes real problems from our communities and turns them into opportunities for learning that actually matter.

Breaking Down the Barriers

You know what's funny? We've spent decades teaching kids that subjects are like ingredients in different jars that should never mix. Heaven forbid your chemistry knowledge spills into your history essay! But here's the thing—life doesn't work that way. Life is messy and interconnected, and the problems we face today don't care about our carefully labeled subject boxes.

The Power of Integration

The beauty of Challenge-Based Learning lies in its natural integration of different subjects. When students are able to find ways to solve real community challenges, they use skills and knowledge from ALL subjects, if you think about it, they're doing everything at once. They need statistics to understand data, communication skills to interview experts, and artistic abilities to create compelling presentations.

The Global Impact

Think about it. What if every class, in every school—and I mean every single one of the many millions of schools worldwide—took on one meaningful challenge each year? That's millions attempts at making the world better. That's millions of opportunities for students to realise they don't have to wait until graduation to make a difference.

Quick Start Guide for Educators

1. Start Small: Choose a local Sustainability challenge that directly affects your school community
2. Build Partnerships: Connect with local organisations helping to solve those challenges or are interested in helping solve new challenges
3. Let Students Lead: Give them agency in choosing and defining the challenge
4. Document Everything: Create a learning portfolio rather than traditional tests

Looking Forward

When we reframe all learning as challenge-based learning, we open our eyes to the pressing sustainability issues that shape our world. Our planet faces interconnected challenges that demand innovative solutions: accelerating climate change, increasingly extreme weather phenomena, devastating environmental damage from plastics, ongoing dependence on fossil fuels, and our wasteful linear economy.

I believe by integrating these global sustainability challenges into our educational framework, we transform abstract concepts into tangible learning opportunities. One challenge, per class, per year. It's not that difficult to work out.

This approach bridges the gap between classroom learning and real-world impact. When students engage with actual sustainability challenges, they develop not only deep subject knowledge but also critical thinking skills, environmental awareness, and a sense of global citizenship. They learn to see the interconnections between different systems and understand how their actions can contribute to positive change. You don't need to pretend you know how to teach the 4cs, this approach has all the skills needed for our future.

Through challenge-based learning, every classroom becomes an innovation lab, every student becomes a problem solver, and every lesson becomes an opportunity to shape a more sustainable future.

Millions of Sustainability projects a year, surely, we can do that.

Phil