Taking Seaflower to the Classroom: A Proposal to Bring Sustainability Education to High Schools in an Oceanic Archipelago (Western Caribbean, Colombia)

Taking the outside world and global sustainability issues into the classroom is a major challenge in high school (secondary or middle) education, particularly in the natural sciences (Church and Skelton 2010; McGee et al. 2018; Zoller 2012), given the pressing need for the involvement and further mobilization of young people in discussions on the global climate crisis (Bentz and O’Brien 2019; Sanson and Bellemo 2021; Han and Ahn 2020). This is particularly critical in small insular states and territories where high schools are in a position of double isolation caused by the sum of geographic distance and technological barriers (see discussion for Trinidad and Tobago: De Lisle 2012). Despite the fact that students in those learning communities experience strong negative impacts derived from the globalized economy and global climate change, they may not be fully aware of global sustainability issues and discussions (Douglas 2006; Crossley and Sprague 2014). In particular, computer rooms and internet connectivity are lacking or, at best, limited in many places (e.g. islands off the coast of Belize: Curry et al. 2018), a situation that has clearly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, even at the higher-education level (Seetal et al. 2021). In Colombia, schools located in the insular territories of the Caribbean coast, suffer from the prescribed highly-segmented official curriculum which offers few opportunities for dialogue among disciplines or knowledge areas, for example, between the social and natural sciences (Medina Cobo 2022). In particular, mathematics, arts, native and foreign languages, and other courses, are taught independently from the rest of the curriculum, leaving little room to incorporate the learning process into daily life and social and environmental contexts.

In the case of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina (hereafter, the archipelago), the major islands of Colombia’s territory in the Southwestern Caribbean, high school teachers face major difficulties to establish a dialogue between the prescribed official curriculum and the island’s reality, as well as with national-level contexts related to nature, society, history, and culture (Sanabria James 2014; Cadena Livingston 2018). The curriculum standards, guidelines, and textbooks are designed by the Ministry of Education, mostly considering mainland learning communities of white/mestizo ancestry and overlooking the different backgrounds and needs of ethnic minority students, which in turn results in a total absence of a culturally responsive approach (Medina Cobo 2022). Unsurprisingly, high school students from these islands perform poorly in national tests, (“Pruebas Saber 11”, Cárcamo Vergara and Mola Ávila 2012). In addition, developing an optimal learning environment for students in the archipelago represents a challenge given the uniqueness of the geographic setting (see Parsons 1985; CORALINA-INVEMAR 2012; CCO 2015 for a detailed description of the physical, biological, and human geography of the archipelago). On the islands, school communities are located nearly 800 km from the Colombian mainland and 240 km off the coast of Nicaragua in Central America, but despite their condition as Caribbean islands, many dissimilarities are found between them and the Greater and Lesser Antilles (e.g. Heartsill Scalley 2012; López Marrero and Heartsill Scalley 2012; López Marrero et al. 2012). For instance, while the climate is predominantly maritime, the influence of strong cyclones is not as frequent as in the Leeward Islands and the volcanic and karstic geology of this large archipelago is proximate to features of the Nicaraguan continental shelf.

On the historical side, local populations remain strongly influenced by the mixed heritage from the cotton field workers and slaves from Jamaica that occupied the deserted island in the eighteenth century, after the English Puritans that arrived in Providencia on board the Seaflower vessel in 1629 (Parsons 1985; Aguilera Díaz 2016; Meisel-Roca 2016a, b, and references therein). This anglophone heritage poses difficulties for students on the islands because Spanish is not their first language, and thus reading comprehension, grammar, and compositional skills are deficient (Abouchaar Velásquez and Moya 2005; García León and García León 2012). Spanish was first introduced as the official language in 1818 when the islands became part of the Colombian territory following independence from Spain. But it was not until 1953 that the mainland culture was strongly brought to the archipelago, when San Andrés was declared a “Free Trade Port”. As a consequence, scholars commonly express that the island culture has been “continentalized” or “colombianized” (Parsons 1985; García 2013 Meisel-Roca 2016b) during the second half of the twentieth century. Moreover, the case of the archipelago can be defined as “tri-lingüismo” (three languages), given the predominance of the creole (“kriol”) dialect -a legacy of the blending of African and British heritages- among the native Raizal population, posing further tensions with formal English language learning (García León and García León 2012). Finally, performance in mathematics and natural sciences is below the national average, which can be attributed to language barriers between teachers and students, as well as to a lack of a contextualized learning process in complex topics such as chemistry (Cárcamo Vergara and Mola Ávila 2012; De La Rosa 2011). In response to this problem, efforts have been made by the local government to provide complementary guides to teachers to support ethno-education, highlighting the particular conditions derived from living on an island, as well as the creole (“Raizal”) ethnicity (CORALINA and ORFA 2016a, b, c).

Finally, the IPCC’s AR6 has recently documented an increase in tropical storms and hurricanes, as well as an increase in mean sea surface temperature and a reduction in annual precipitation as the result of global warming (IPCC 2023). These trends are expected to continue over the next 50 years. Recurrent El Niño events are also a natural hazard, as demonstrated by the economic and ecological impacts observed in 2015–2016 (DANE 2016). The recent COVID-19 pandemic also demonstrated the vulnerability of the socioeconomic system of the islands, particularly related to limited health coverage, deficient public services, and strong dependence on tourism as the main source of income (Bonet-Morón et al. 2021). Despite these threats and hazards, the natural system of the archipelago is so unique that it was declared a Biosphere Reserve in 2000 by UNESCO’s “Man and Biosphere Program”, and it offers multiple ecosystem services that have not been fully integrated into the planning of the socioeconomic system.

In summary, we consider that the main challenge faced by high school teachers in the islands is to connect students with Raizal cultural heritage, the wonders of local nature, and sustainability issues while achieving the specific goals prescribed by the Ministry of Education. Accordingly, the objectives of this chapter are the following: (1) to describe the most salient features of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve (SBR) that can be used in different areas like educational resources, (2) to summarize the main sustainability issues, (3) to propose geo-literacy as a foundation to connect different areas of the curriculum while allowing both students and teachers to contextualize new information, and (4) to propose a general guideline for incorporating novel geographic approaches—both conceptual and methodological—into secondary education, while providing an opportunity for dialogue among disciplines in the classroom. The final aim is to promote sustainability education as a permanent element of schools’ learning goals.

The SBR protects 180,000 km² of a prime coral reef barrier (Fig. 1), the third largest worldwide, behind the Australian Great Barrier and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Only 57 km² corresponds to terrestrial areas, including the large islands (San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina), various cays, and numerous sandbanks (CORALINA-INVEMAR 2012; CCO 2015). The Colombian Government protects 65,000 km² as a marine protected area (Seaflower MPA, SMPA; Fig. 1).

8 maps. The maps zoom in and highlight Seaflower Biosphere Reserve in 1, 2, and 3. 4. A map of San Andres Island. 5. A map of Providencia Island. 6 and 7. The maps of San Andres and Providencia Islands, respectively, highlight mangroves in Colombia. 8. A map of Colombia highlights mangroves and climates.

The SMPA preserves ca. 2000 km² of seagrasses, coral reefs, and mangroves, providing habitat to numerous terrestrial and marine species, including fish, sea turtles, and marine and shorebirds. This is a biodiversity hotspot, particularly for marine life. There are also small fragments of tropical dry forests that provide habitat for terrestrial birds, reptiles, and amphibians, as well as large invertebrates. Some of them are charismatic endemic species such as the black crab (Gecarcinus ruricola), and the endemic anoles and lizards. Other non-endemic but charismatic species are the queen conch (Strombus gigas), the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), the butterflyfish (Chaetodon striatus), and the emerald parrot fish (Labridae family: Scarus and Sparisoma genera). Finally, the conservation goals of the SBR are the following: (a) promoting sustainable human economic development with social, cultural, and ecological goals in mind, and (b) supporting logistics for demonstration, education, training, and research projects.

The seascapes and landscapes protected by the SBR offer a rich spatial template for context-based teaching and learning (Rose 2012), particularly in local high schools. For instance, the extensive maritime territory offers an opportunity for “virtual navigation and exploration” in the Caribbean Sea, while learning concepts about geography and cartography, as well as about natural sciences and history. The different marine, coastal, and terrestrial ecosystems may facilitate the teaching of concepts such as the physical, chemical, and biological properties of nature, as well as highlighting the complexity and uniqueness of Western Caribbean islands. The great variety of life forms constitutes an opportunity to understand ecological concepts such as biodiversity, ecological interactions, roles within ecosystems, and evolution. The presence of migratory species, both terrestrial (e.g. the black crab) and marine (e.g. sea turtles), as well as shorebirds, can be seen as an opportunity to introduce population concepts such as geographic range, habitat connectivity, and gene flow. Finally, some of these species of importance for folk fisheries might also be useful examples for discussing sustainability issues such as overexploitation, habitat deterioration, conservation efforts (including MPAs), and climate change.

By observing San Andrés using nightlights (Fig. 2), the high level of urbanization (particularly at North End) and the concomitant overpopulation are evident, in great contrast to Providencia, which is dominated by grassroots culture and ways of life (e.g. traditional wooden houses and folk fisheries).

4 nightlight emission intensity images. 1 and 2. The images of San Andres and Providencia Islands, respectively, highlight the boundary, mangroves Colombia, and degree of urbanization. 3 and 4. The images of Northern South America and the Caribbean region, respectively, highlight the degree of urbanization.

By 2013, 73% of the inhabitants of San Andrés lived in the North End (INVEMAR 2014). Many studies, as well as the environmental authority, indicate that the main sustainability issues (using traditional definitions) in San Andrés are (1) land use conflicts and urban sprawl, and (2) overpopulation, both of which are partially related to unregulated growth of the tourism sector since 1953 (CORALINA-INVEMAR 2012). The promotion of the island as a “Free Trade Port” and the “3S” (sun, sea, and sand) tourism policy after the construction of the airport speeded up the immigration of investors from the mainland, with the consequent increase of hotel constructions and displacement of Raizal people from their lands, which were usually purchased at very low prices (James Cruz 2009; García 2013). This rapid urban sprawl has also been explained by poor planning (Parra 2009). As a consequence, the total population increased exponentially during the second half of the twentieth century (Fig. 3).

a. An aerial view photo of North End, San Andres. b. A line graph of population versus year plots a fluctuating increasing curve. c. A scatter plot of population versus year plots a fluctuating increasing trend.

After slow linear growth between 1800 and 1950 (<400 to ca. 4,000 inhabitants, respectively, during the agriculture-based economy period), the population grew exponentially reaching ca. 56,000 inhabitants by 1993, as the consequence of the economic shift to commerce, industry (processed coconut), and tourism (James Cruz 2009; Meisel-Roca 2016a; DANE 2020). Ethnicity also shifted in dominance from Raizales to immigrants from the mainland. Such rapid population growth and illegal immigration required intervention from the national government in response to local civil groups’ advocacy (e.g. Sons of Soil Movement 1984) (García 2013). In 1991, the reformed National Constitution of Colombia included Article 30, which states the need to regulate immigration to San Andrés, while Decree 2762 of 1991 issued norms to control population density and regulate the rights to circulate and reside on the islands. In addition, the Office for Control of Circulation and Residency was established. Accordingly, a carrying capacity was defined and the population is forecasted to reach ca. 59,000 inhabitants by 2035, as a consequence of multiple regulations, law enforcement, and economic shifts (DANE 2016, 2020).

The semi-arid climate of the archipelago combined with the low-elevation topography and the carbonate lithology, limit the permanence of superficial freshwater runoff. Therefore, inhabitants of San Andrés rely on collecting rainfall and underground water for household purposes and drinking. However, the island suffers from water stress, as consumption by the tourism sector is double that of domestic consumption (James-Cruz and Barrios-Torrejano 2020). There is poor sewage and stormwater infrastructure that, in the lowlands, collapses during heavy rainfall events and spring tides, thus polluting the aquifer and wetlands in the North End, as well as coastal waters. As a partial consequence of overpopulation, the enormous production of solid waste has collapsed various dump sites over the past three decades. Solid waste recollection systems and recycling are very limited, particularly in rural areas.

Given the dependence of the archipelago on fishing resources, populations of several species have declined, thus requiring management actions such as ban periods and minimum-size regulations (e.g. Sánchez Jabba 2016a). During the mid-1990s, the decline of the queen conch (Lobatus gigas) urged the local authority to issue a ban on its fishing, purchasing, and selling from June 1 to October 31 each year. Other species protected with similar regulations, either permanent or temporary, are the spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) and some species of white fish.

Finally, illicit activities such as drug trafficking provide extra income that can worsen these sustainability issues by increasing constructions in the littoral zone or in prime ecosystems (e.g. mangroves and swamps) and by producing more solid wastes with the import of goods or with increased tourism (Sánchez Jabba 2016b). Finally, illegal economies also spill over to marine resources, adding pressure on valuable fish and shellfish stocks by expanding fleets and promoting demand.

Various scholars in Colombia have emphasized the need for innovative policies as a means to close the breaches between high schools in the Caribbean region and those in the Andean region (Meisel-Roca 2011). Specifically, the Caribbean region has a deficit in terms of school numbers and education quality in the public system (Bonilla-Mejía and Martínez-Gonzalez 2017). In order to tackle this situation, teacher training and institutional capabilities are the points of intervention that have been proposed to close the educational breach by 2030. We here propose that the geo-literacy umbrella may help to achieve such goals.

Geo-literacy is defined by the National Geographic Society (n.d.) as “the ability to use geographic understanding and geographic reasoning to make far-reaching decisions”. This geographic understanding deals with three components of the world we live in: interactions, interconnections, and implications. Geographic understanding is an important ability to be developed in learning communities living on islands, since, as previously established, they have unique interactions with natural and human systems. Nowadays, these communities are interconnected with other proximate islands and distant geographic regions through maritime and air transportation, as well as through the Internet. At this point in time, when students have gained more internet access, due in part to the unusual learning environment imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, geo-literacy is a timely approach for building on cultural identity and values. The implications of geo-literacy as an educational resource are broader than simply offering new information to students, it also helps in setting innovative goals for teaching and learning, designing activities that best support learning and, ultimately, encouraging students to envision environmental scenarios for their islands.

Geo-literacy activities start by discussing basic cartographic concepts and geographical names. Three important cartographic concepts are: the spatial or graphical scale, the location of geographic north, and the convention or legend. Additional concepts such as projection and coordinate systems can be introduced to more advanced students. Learning about geographical names also offers students the opportunity to further explore the history and geography of continents, countries, and regions, as well as their physical and biotic features. This allows teachers to use geo-literacy as a framework for interdisciplinarity by establishing dialogues with mathematics, natural sciences, and the arts.

Geo-literacy might be also useful for introducing general knowledge about sustainability in islands. Emerging from the Brundtland Report, sustainable development can be defined as the use of natural resources by present generations without compromising their availability for future generations. More recent definitions such as environmental sustainability also stress the right to a healthy environment, including healthy ecosystems, and clean air and water. Finally, climate justice is a crucial contemporary concept behind youth climate activism such as “Fridays For Future” (https://​fridaysforfuture​.​org/​).

The complex geographic setting of the archipelago, added to the well-defined historical phases, provides an excellent template for geo-literacy. For instance, with more than 2,000 species (197 of them included on the IUCN’s Red List), the SBR offers the possibility to discuss issues around the geographic range of distribution (including the concept of scale) of marine and terrestrial species, and how species with a restricted range are more susceptible to human threats and prone to extinction. As another example, coral reefs and seagrasses, as extensive marine ecosystems in shallow areas, offer an opportunity for teaching about the geography of the archipelago in the context of the wider Caribbean and the mainland, as it exhibits biogeographic affinities with Central America and Jamaica. As a third example, sand beaches, rocky shores, and mangroves are the dominant coastal ecosystems, and hence they might be useful for touring around the islands while discussing local variability of rock types (lithology), interactions with the marine environment (waves and currents), and climate conditions. Finally, as a salient feature, in the largest islands (San Andrés and Providencia), fringing mangroves form small patches within embayments or behind large coral reef barriers protecting them from strong waves on the eastern coasts (Old Point Regional Mangrove Park and McBean Lagoon National Natural Park, respectively). In contrast, with the exception of Cove Bight, the northern, southern, and western coasts of San Andrés are almost deprived of large mangrove areas. It is also noticeable that the tall canopies of inland mangroves in Salt Creek and Smith Channel are shaped by the strong winds, a feature also observed in sand dune vegetation.

Under the geo-literacy umbrella, while discussing the geography of San Andrés, teachers from social sciences can also introduce the influence of climate on the variability of a single ecosystem. Conversely, teachers from natural sciences (particularly biology) can discuss the island’s geography and climate while explaining selective topics of botany, zoology, or ecology. For Raizal people, land and landscapes are not only physical spaces but imaginaries (sensu James Cruz and Soler Caicedo 2018), thus geo-literacy can be a useful approach to establish a dialogue between individual preconceptions of the world and the outside world in high school learning communities. Eventually, improving geo-literacy among high school students could be the foundation for a shift from the currently dominant “3S” tourism in San Andrés to a more sustainable, high-value model, such as the “3L” (landscape, leisure, and learning) (see James Cruz 2009).

Over the past two decades, geo-literacy initiatives in high schools around the world have benefited from the proliferation of computational free or open-access platforms. Google Maps is a good example of a user-friendly application that can be installed on most mobile devices (phones and tablets), and it can be easily browsed from desktop and laptop computers with an internet connection. Although many students and teachers are familiar with this software for basic navigation purposes such as address searches and geo-location, this application has many other functions that can be incorporated into classrooms as didactic technologies, for example, different layers (relief, traffic, public transportation routes and bicycle lanes, satellite imagery, and street view) and the image exploration menu. As a complement, Google Earth Pro, a more advanced program, can be installed for free on mobile devices, desktops, and laptops, or it can even be used online. This application offers tools such as distance and area measurements, and allows object drawings that can be used in advanced grades for introducing cartographic concepts and basics of map creation. Google Earth Outreach (www.​google.​com/​earth/​outreach) is an educational program to promote geo-literacy as well as to provide networking opportunities for educators using geo-tools.

OpenStreetMap (OSM, www.​openstreetmap.​org) is a growing open-source crowd-mapping platform that allows contributions to the making of a global map while building a global network of mapping communities (www.​youthmappers.​org). With basic training (e.g. TeachOSM, teachosm.org) teachers and students can learn to create objects (buildings and roads), and, after signing in, they can contribute to enriching the local map using their knowledge. With further training, they can contribute to humanitarian mapping initiatives elsewhere, either independently or as part of coordinated efforts called “mapathons” (www.​hotosm.​org). Finally, Mapillary (www.​mapillary.​com) is an open-source mobile application and computer platform that improves ground-level navigation by capturing street-level imagery (pictures or video), multi-scale integration, automatic mapping, and computer vision. High school communities can use Mapillary only as a navigation platform, or they can be actively involved in imagery capture with smartphones to help improve local maps.

Applying the sustainability concept in the case of the archipelago requires the use of a definition from a systems perspective (Ben-Eli 2018). This definition emphasizes the limit to human population growth imposed by the carrying capacity of the environment—a fundamental issue in clearly-delimited geographic spatial units like islands—based on five core principles: (1) material domain, (2) economic domain, (3) domain of life, (4) social domain, and (5) spiritual domain. Thus, here we apply this definition to the SBR as follows: (a) it is a complex system, hence sustainability depends on the interactions of many islands (elements) (populated, large to small islands, and unpopulated cays and shoals), (b) each element can also be defined as a complex, human-nature coupled system, (c) SBR as a system isolated by distance from Central America, South America, North America (the Florida peninsula), and other Caribbean islands, (d) isolation by distance is offset by sea- and air-borne transportation, further strengthening the dependence on local resources defining the carrying capacity, (e) the complex system can be seen as a hierarchical arrangement of the space, with the entire SBR exhibiting a certain carrying capacity while each element exhibits its own carrying capacity depending on the characteristics of the human dimension, and (f) at different spatial scales, either a single island (e.g. San Andrés) or a group of islands (e.g. San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina), the complex systems consist of five domains (materials, economics, life, society, and cultural values). Finally, we also advocate for including education as part of the sustainability definition (see the discussion on “education as sustainability” versus “education for sustainability”).

According to the environmental authorities with jurisdiction in the archipelago, the sustainability concept must involve adaptation to climate change (INVEMAR 2014). As a consequence, the departmental adaptation plan to cope with climate change outlines the following strategic lines, according to which actions and projects were proposed: (a) ecosystem-based adaptation, (b) infrastructure for adaptation, (c) adaptation-oriented planning, (d) empowerment and local development, (e) education and training, and (f) research and monitoring. This plan also includes an extensive glossary that must be understood by decision-makers, stakeholders, and learning communities, in order to move from agendas to actions, as broadly discussed in climate change adaptation literature worldwide. Here we propose improving the use of such terms in the vocabulary of students and teachers in local high schools through geo-literacy.

The national legal framework for the first stage of the present “Geo-literacy for Sustainability Education” (GeoSE) proposal is the Institutional Pedagogical Project (IPP; Proyecto Educativo Institucional, PEI, in Spanish), defined by the General Law for Education in Colombia (Law 115 of 1994). The IPP is the framework that allows high schools to adopt a conceptual and methodological approach to ensure full compliance with curricular requirements. This law allows flexibility to cover the minimum topics required for the curriculum to be assessed in national tests (Pruebas Saber 11), as long as schools follow national educational standards. In addition, the School’s Environmental Project (SEP; Proyecto Ambiental Escolar,¹ PRAE, in Spanish) is an important dimension of the IPP. The SEP provides an extracurricular platform for students to integrate concepts and methods learned in the curriculum while involved in activities related to the conservation of the environment, thus challenging them to think about real-world problems. Some umbrella topics used by high schools nationwide include: recycling, responsible consumption, sustainable agriculture, urban agriculture, school biodiversity, water protection and conservation, wetland conservation, and urban ecosystems. We encourage local schools in the SBR to redesign their SEP (and even their IPP) using the umbrella concept, which constitutes the goal and main methodological approach of the “Geo-literacy for Sustainability Education” (GeoSE) proposal.

The GeoSE, as a SEP, is built on three pillars: Sustainability as a concept, improved Adaptation to climate change as a goal, and Geo-literacy as a methodological approach (comprising geo-concepts and geo-tools). This triad can be referred to as SAG. In turn, these three pillars are supported in ethno-education (specifically Raizal education). The present proposal for the pilot stage has been developed through collaboration among university researchers (Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín) and high school teachers (Institución Educativa Antonia Santos, Sede Phillip Beekman Livingston, INEDAS, San Andrés).

The Antonia Santos School (Institución Educativa Antonia Santos, INEDAS), is a public institution, consisting of two separate locations in different parts of San Andrés, depending on the age group they serve. The Phillip Beekman location is situated on the eastern coast, in the El Bay sector, south of the downtown area, surrounded by a mosaic of residential and natural patches. The main facilities comprise a three-story building containing classrooms, meeting spaces, and a lunchroom. This school hosts middle and high school levels, but it also offers students the opportunity to obtain a technical degree—Culinary Services or Network Systems—as part of a strategic partnership with the Colombian public system of trade schools (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje, SENA). The school also features an adult education program, intended to assist older neighborhood residents in meeting their graduation requirements. Traditionally, 90% of the student population comes from the surrounding neighborhoods (San Luis area, Little Hill, Tom Hooker, Pepper Hill, Loma Barack, Orange Hill, South End, and Schooner Bay) and belong to the Raizal community, with Creole being their mother tongue. The academic performance of the students has been classified as low according to the analysis of the results obtained in the Colombian national standardized test (ICFES), between 2014 and 2022. The analysis identified four areas of improvement that included Literacy and Social Sciences skills in addition to critical thinking skills applied to Mathematics and Natural Sciences (De Armas-Castañer 2023).

The general approach was discussed by email and a pilot extracurricular activity (“Experiencia significativa”, or “Meaningful experience”) was designed for volunteer teachers and students at the secondary level. The pilot extracurricular activity, named “Taking the Seaflower to the classroom” took place on September 9, 2021, and an assessment was carried out with teachers the next day. The pilot was developed in two stages. During the first stage, which took place in the computer room, a focus group of teachers and advanced students was introduced to the general concepts of geography and cartography and the basics of navigating in Google Maps and Google Earth Pro (including “Street View” mode). The second stage incorporated other students in addition to the focus group. An icebreaker included an outdoor ludic activity, where each participant introduced themself and “invited” the coordinator of the workshop to visit a place in San Andrés, to introduce a “sense of space” within the island’s geography. They then formed a circle and passed out an inflatable world map globe while singing the rhyme (in English) “Taking the Seaflower to the classroom”, to reinforce listening comprehension and fine-tune coordination among the participants. Finally, a short game (“Human compass”) was played to refresh the “cardinal points” concept. The indoor activity was similar to the first part. The morning finished with an exhibition of drone piloting. On September 10, 2021, the teachers and coordinators, including the school principal and the academic coordinator, had a hands-on workshop to draw a map of the island or a neighborhood, using the concepts learned the previous day, working in small teams. After completing the drawing, each team presented their results in front of the class, followed by feedback from the coordinator (Fig. 4).

2 drawings. Left. It features a beach at the foreground and vehicles on the road parallel to it, and in the background a house at the left and trees and plants at the right. Right. It features San Andres Island.

The session ended with an evaluation. It must be noted that the activity involving students was run mostly in English, while the activity with teachers was mostly in Spanish. This strategy was used as a way to make the pilot activity more culturally responsive, as Creole, followed by English, are the languages Raizal students use in their daily lives. A graphic abstract of the activity is shown in Fig. 5.

A. A map of the Caribbean region. B. An aerial view of the Hurricane Iota. C. A map of the Caribbean region highlights the Hurricane Iota's passage. D. A word cloud. The key terms include adaptation, hurricanes, monitoring, vulnerability, planning, insular, climate variability, Caribbean region, and ethno-education.

The teachers provided feedback on the activity based on three factors: pertinence to Competency-Based Education (CBE), interdisciplinarity, and alignment with the IPP. In general, they concluded that this kind of activity facilitates effective communication with the students as they are familiar with new technologies and devices like smartphones and apps. Better communication, in this case, translated into increased motivation and collaborative effort. In terms of CBE, the activity helped improve scientific, social, and mathematical competencies. For example, students classified numerical and spatial–temporal elements using established criteria, worked in teams, and contrasted ideas about natural phenomena. The teachers’ workshop encouraged the exchange of opinions and perceptions to solve unfamiliar tasks by means of comparing different approaches based on individual expertise. The teamwork also proved effective as it helped to set short-term goals and anticipate results, therefore, the general consensus among teachers was that interdisciplinarity may help in developing common learning objectives. Finally, teachers stated that the learning objectives and results of the pilot align with the PEI and the SEP, which makes “geo-literacy” a concept of ample applicability.

Since this workshop, the first three authors of this chapter have led the drafting of recommendations for a SEP titled “Geo-literacy for Sustainable Education in the SBR” (Box 1 after the conclusions, see also the word cloud in Fig. 5). We followed the guidelines from the Ministry of Education, the departmental Secretary of Education, and the “Raizal Heritage, Nature, Tradition and Culture” guides² (CORALINA and ORFA 2016a, b, c), with inputs from the coauthors, high school teachers, and other actors. The ten recommendations can be summarized as follows: (1) to define the umbrella and ancillary sustainability problems, (2) to define immediate and extended geographic areas of interest, action, and application, (3) to declare concepts, activities, methods, and technologies to be covered during each encounter, (4) to select target ecosystems and flagship or charismatic species, representative of the biodiversity present on the islands, (5) to include elements of human society to introduce sustainability issues, (6) to promote dialogue among teachers from different disciplines, (7) to establish an annual calendar of activities (e.g. monthly or bi-monthly), (8) to outline grade-specific themes to be covered and skills to be developed, and geo-concepts and sustainability concepts to be incorporated into the vocabulary, as well as geo-tools and activities.

By way of conclusion, here we propose a guide for teachers and students for a 3-h activity (Experiencia significativa or “Meaningful experience”), conceived by one of the co-authors (J. Lasso-Zapata, INEDAS), as a concrete example of geo-literacy for sustainability education. This guide, titled “Mapping mangroves in my island”, is an activity aimed at introducing spatial concepts and basic knowledge about a key ecosystem within the SBR to 6th-grade students, bearing in mind the socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of the learning community. Guidelines for teachers are included in Box 2, whereas Box 1 contains recommendations for an activity with 6th-grade students. These include guidelines on how to define a specific theme, expected skills, concepts, geo-tools, and sustainability problems. We suggest carrying out this activity either on the International Day for Mangrove Conservation (July 26th) or the International Wetlands Day (February 2nd). This school is located between Cocoplum and San Luis, thus online tours or field tours can target mangroves nearby (i.e. Old Point Regional Mangrove Park). Tours can also explore the linkages between mangroves and coral reefs in the Rocky Cay area, just outside the school.

As an end result of GeoSE, we anticipate that activities with 10th- or 11th-grade students will provide simple cloud-computing skills to assess the impacts of Hurricane Iota on different natural and human systems by browsing and analyzing open-access satellite imagery online (e.g. Sentinel Hub EO Browser). As a sample output, in Fig. 6, we show the one-year aftermath on mangroves in McBean Lagoon National Natural Park, the area most severely damaged by the storm surge of Hurricane Iota. The extensive tree mortality is evident in both a Sentinel-2 satellite image and the ground panoramic picture taken during field verification. According to the visual information provided by these images, it is possible to confirm that red mangrove dominated areas (Rhizophora mangle) are not resilient to strong hurricanes (for comparison with black-mangrove—Avicennia germinans—and white mangrove—Laguncularia racemosa—dominated areas in South Florida after two major hurricane landfalls in 2017, see Lagomasino et al. 2021). As a final recommendation, we propose that the experiences gained during the implementation phase of the GeoSE program in INEDAS and other high schools in San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina should be shared at specialized meetings such as the “Geo for Good Summit”, “Geospatial for Good”, and “Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Conference (FOSS4G)”, as well as in specialized conferences on high school education.

a. A satellite photo of Providencia Island before the passage of Hurricane Iota. b. A satellite photo of Providencia Island after the passage of Hurricane Iota. A barren stretch is present at the north eastern end. c. A photo of McBean Lagoon National Natural Park.