Lesson Plan Competition for Teachers in the Congo Basin

Background

The establishment of the Congo Basin Teachers' Network in 2022 enabled us to reach thousands of students with articles from the Pulitzer Center. Trained teachers have prepared and delivered lessons based partly or entirely on these articles. Others brought together several students from different classes in mini workshops to discuss the facts reported in the articles.

This experience proves that the role of teachers remains crucial in inspiring action and mobilizing the next generation of leaders on pressing global issues, such as the environment, climate, health, and the rights of Indigenous communities.

Considering this central role of teachers, we'd like to give visibility to those among them who stand out by sharing climate and environmental lessons in an innovative way to their students and communities.

The lesson plan competition is a Pulitzer Center initiative that aims to promote the teaching of climate and environmental concepts in basic education; to reinforce within the African educational environment the need to use journalism to enrich lessons and give students a realistic experience of current events; and to give worldwide visibility to outstanding teachers.

The concept of the competition is simple. Teachers wishing to participate will be asked to do the following:

• Read one or more articles supported by the Pulitzer Center.
• Prepare a lesson inspired by the article.
• Film themselves (using a cell phone) giving the lesson to their students.

The first stage of the competition is the video submission period, followed by an evaluation of each video's content by judges selected from Pulitzer Center staff, educators, and journalists. The final step will be the publishing of the results and the awarding of the prizes to the winning entries.

Why you should participate  

The lesson plan competition will showcase the profiles of teachers who are champions for climate and the environment. Teachers who apply will have a unique opportunity to contribute to environmental protection and the fight against climate change while doing what they already do on a daily basis—teach. The competition's winners will be featured across the Pulitzer Center's platforms, resulting in global visibility.  

Prizes for winners

The Pulitzer Center will award a jury prize of up to $500 to the four best video lessons.

Criteria for participation  

To enter the lesson plan competition, participants must be:

• elementary school teachers 
• secondary school teachers 
• teachers in specialized schools (schools for the disabled, schools for children with special needs, etc.).  

Teachers wishing to participate must reside in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, or Uganda.

Evaluation criteria  

The following criteria will be used to evaluate the video entries:

• Use of one or more Pulitzer Center articles (30%) 
• Quality of the lesson plan presented (20%)
• Presentation structure and student participation (20%) 
• Innovation in the use of teaching aids (20%) 
• Quality of video (10%)

Judges will focus on the quality of the lesson, not the quality of the video. 

How to participate

• Select one or more articles related to Climate and Environment topics from the Pulitzer Center website.
• Read the selected content. 
• Prepare a lesson inspired by the content. 
• Deliver the lesson to your students. Use your cell phone to film the lesson inside your classroom. 
• Please follow this link to submit your video lesson.

The deadline for submission of video lessons is November 20, 2024, at 23:59pm (Kinshasa time).