This article is based on a report submitted by Detlev Lindau-Bank.

The conference "Bridging Education and Science for Sustainable Development" held in Daugavpils, Latvia on 2-3 December 2015, was organized by the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO in cooperation with the UNESCO Chair at the Daugavpils University, Ilga Salite and the National Centre for Education.

Several RCE members as well as Charles Hopkins, regional advisor to the RCEs of the Americas were present at this event. Detlev Lindau-Bank from RCE Oldenburger Münsterland presented the findings of the ACEWild initiative on outdoor learning courses already under way in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Germany. ACEWild is an ERASMUS supported initiative for disadvantaged or more vulnerable young people helping them to gain experiences, qualifications and work opportunities in the outdoors. The focus of this project is on vocational education, learning and training.

Tanja Tillmanns and Charlotte Holland both from RCE Dublin showcased a teaching method they call “disruptive pedagogical intervention” used to engage university students in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The conference was a good platform for networking and exchanging experiences especially in the area of methods used to teach and deliver ESD to young people. During a separate meeting between Tanja Tillmanns, Charlotte Holland and Charles Hopkins who also holds the UNESCO Chair to reorient teacher education to address sustainability, they all agreed to encourage the exchange of appropriate methods of teaching ESD with the European RCE community as a possible platform.

A brief article on ACEWild and the involvement of different RCEs in this particular initiative can be found here.