Climate Detectives and TuKoKe 2023–2024
The European Space Agency ESA invites teachers and students between the ages of 5 and 19 to participate in the Climate Detectives project that starts again in the 2023–2024 school year. In the project, children and young people become climate detectives and learn about Earth’s environment and climate. The task of the climate detectives is to identify a local climate problem and investigate it with satellite images or their own ground measurements. Finally, the detectives propose a solution for reducing or monitoring the effects of the problem.
The Climate Detectives 2023–2024 edition will be part of the TuKoKe competition.
The Climate Detectives challenge has three phases:
Identifying a climate problem
The students identify a climate problem that they will investigate as climate detectives. They will also create an investigation plan. NOTE! Feedback can be requested by email at esero.finland@heureka.fi on the investigation plan or the problem to be investigated, but this is not mandatory.
Investigating the climate problem
The detectives collect, analyse and compare data, and draw conclusions on the problem they are investigating. Using research data in the investigation is mandatory. The data can be Earth observation data collected with satellites, or measurement data collected on the ground. The data can also be collected with measurements carried out by the detectives themselves, or it can be a combination of data produced by scientists and the detectives themselves. The teams can carry out weather measurements and compare their results to previously collected weather data, for example.
Sharing the results and making a difference!
The detectives submit their investigations to the TuKoKe competition. In the competition, each submission gets feedback from a specialist. Some of the competitors will be invited to the final event, during which the competition judges interview the competitors. Everyone invited to the final event will be monetarily awarded, and Finland’s representative to the international competition will be chosen from among them. Success in the TuKoKe competition can also result in getting a study place.
The detectives may also save and share their report in their own language on the ESA Climate Detectives platform. All teams that share their investigation report are given a certificate to confirm their participation in the project. The best investigations are presented on the online platform, and the investigation teams are sent an ESA Climate Detectives themed award.
How to participate in the TuKoKe competition?
Carry out an investigation or product development or make an invention. You can work alone or in a group, at your school or at home. You can have a mentor, or you can work independently. Your mentor can be your teacher, your parent or a specialist in the field of science related to your investigation.
Write a report on your work and submit it to the competition by the deadline. Submit your report and enter the competition online at tukoke.osallistumme.fi. When entering the competition, indicate that you also wish to participate in the Climate Detectives challenge. See the deadline for competition entry on the How to participate page.
More information on the TuKoKe competition: https://www.tukoke.fi/what-is-tukoke
What support is available?
More information about supplementary training on Earth observation for teachers is available here.
The Climate Detectives guide in Finnish is available here.
More information about school projects, and ideas and resources are available on ESA’s Climate Detectives website: https://climatedetectives.esa.int/
If you have any questions, or you need support with implementing a project, you can contact us directly through the contact form (‘Ota yhteyttä’) or by email at esero.finland@heureka.fi.
