On February 1, the three-year research project “#FREI DAY FOR FUTURE – Shaping living environments together in a healthy and sustainable way” was launched, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Together with the Hannover Medical School (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, MHH), the research team at the IDN led by Prof. Dr. Christiane Meyer is investigating the impact of the FREI DAY learning format in the sense of a whole school approach with regard to sustainable and healthy lifestyles and living conditions in schools. FREI DAY offers four lessons per week during core teaching time, during which students work in small groups over the course of a year to develop their own projects on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implement them in their community. The aim is for young people to acquire design and life skills for healthy, fair and sustainable living conditions and lifestyles and to experience self-efficacy.
60 secondary and vocational schools and 30 primary schools are to take part in the study. A process evaluation will be carried out at the schools using a mixed methods approach. For the effectiveness evaluation, around 10 key people will be interviewed by telephone at each FREI DAY school and one or more grades. Qualitative surveys (focus groups, photovoice, most significant change) will be carried out at selected schools that implement FREI DAY. The two project employees at the IDN - Jacqueline Kittel and Alicia Strauß - will carry out the qualitative research.
