Comprehensive Curriculum Design for Sustainability Education and Activation
Now part of a larger global learning group, SEAC was a leading provider of professional development services in Southeast Asia, with beautiful learning centers in Bangkok, Vietnam and Singapore. In 2019, they commissioned Leyla to develop a learning system that supports active and global citizenship for youth and emerging leaders in the region. Driven by a company-wide desire to be at the forefront of bringing sustainability and positively disruptive thinking to the region, they sought an end-to-end curriculum design solution that would both educate, inspire and activate.
Over an extensive on-the-ground research and development period, the result was the Changemaker Lab learning system—a 12-part, bilingual (Thai/English) curriculum comprising 36 modules that spanned sustainability, social entrepreneurship, gamification, systems thinking, active citizenship and creative change making. The system was supported by an online system to upskill trainers in both subject knowledge and experiential learning approaches.
In keeping with our equity access policy that provides open access to at least 20% of a project, the card deck content is available as a free download.
The full system includes:
- 12 facilitation workbooks
- 60+ in-class activities
- Bilingual 56-card deck
- Facilitator’s manual
- Train-the-trainer workshops
- Educator training platform
How we did it
A multi-phase, multi-visit collaboration with SEAC, our brief was to create a learning system that would help the next generation become active, globally minded citizens capable of designing a future that works better for everyone.
Over several trips, Leyla and long-time collaborator Emma Segal immersed themselves in the local community to understand what resonated and supported culturally relevant content and curriculum design. From touring museums and galleries to running workshops, several trial sessions with university and high school students and consulting with SEAC’s trainers, these insights shaped a culturally relevant 12-module curriculum that covers sustainability, active citizenship, creativity, change-making, disruptive design and more.
As part of the content, we created an open-access card deck, designed for cultural resonance with colors and illustrations inspired by the team’s local community exploration and refined after being tested with the target community.
Given that many of SEAC’s facilitators had limited prior content knowledge, we designed highly visual teaching materials that served as prompts, allowing them to co-learn. Our team also engaged in train-the-trainer sessions to ensure they could deliver the program with confidence.
The outcome is an extensive pack of educational content that can be used in a variety of ways, modular and interactive by design. Incorporating games, activities and a critical learning arc based on student inequity and discovery.
Free Resource: ChangeMakers Lab Card Games
As part of our equity access policy that involves distributing 20% of commissioned content for free, we offer a free version of the universal card deck, featuring all 56 cards and 36 activities.
Download for free now!
This deck can be downloaded and used by anyone to advance sustainability and creative problem-solving.
