Nature for Sharing (N4S) began from something both personal and familiar. I remember watching my children (then 7 and 5) spend long afternoons in our garden, absorbed by insects, leaves and small seasonal changes. What stayed with me was how naturally they shared those discoveries with their cousins in another city, comparing what grew in each place and noticing differences in their surroundings.
Around the same time, children their age were starting to speak about climate change, droughts and environmental loss. Some wondered aloud whether the planet would still be safe when they grew up. The information was there, yet many lacked space to process it or act on it.
Over nearly two decades of working with millions of children through Education for Sharing (E4S), we have seen this pattern again and again. Children care deeply about the natural spaces around them, even when those spaces are limited by water scarcity, pollution or lack of green areas.
We felt the need to strengthen that early sense of connection and give it direction. Play, exploration and shared reflection have always been central to E4S. Environmental themes were already present, yet we saw the opportunity to make them more intentional. Grounded in principles such as interdependence and regeneration, N4S invites children to explore their ecosystems and take small, concrete actions rooted in care and responsibility.
Nature for Sharing turns nearby natural spaces into living classrooms. Over ten sessions, children move between outdoor exploration, creative reflection and intercultural exchange, deepening their understanding of how ecosystems function and where they fit within them.
Each cycle introduces one principle of Nature’s Intelligence, such as interdependence or regeneration. Children step outside with a specific lens: observing insects in school gardens, noticing how plants adapt to dry seasons, or mapping biodiversity around them. They document what they see, discuss patterns and connect local observations to broader environmental processes.
Back in the classroom, these experiences take form through drawings, poems and shared portfolios. When they meet partner schools online they compare climates, species and daily realities. In one exchange, students discovered they shared hummingbirds across borders while facing different water and temperature challenges.
As sessions progress, children move from simple actions (“don’t litter”) to proposing collective responses, composting, conserving water, reforesting and educating others. Teachers report stronger understanding of biodiversity, adaptation and regeneration, and students increasingly speak of their role as nature ambassadors.
The programme concludes with each child defining a concrete commitment within their school or community. By this stage, many shift from “I help” to “we organize,” “we protect,” and “we learn together.”
Nature for Sharing has expanded through a structured capacity-building model centered on educator training and close implementation support. The content was initially designed with support from the Volgenau Initiative, and later implemented as part of the National Geographic Wayfinder Award backed by the National Geographic Society, enabling refinement and cross-border expansion.
After its initial implementation in San Diego, N4S was introduced in five primary schools across Mexico, connecting classrooms in both countries through guided virtual exchanges. Between August and December 2025, the programme trained 16 teachers and reached 365 students across six schools. Implementation included 96 sessions and 48 virtual exchange sessions, supported by local facilitators who provided training, classroom observation and feedback to ensure quality and fidelity.
The model is designed for replication. Educators receive structured pedagogical training and implementation guides, while facilitators accompany the process to adapt activities to each ecological and cultural context. Because it relies primarily on nearby natural spaces, such as schoolyards, parks or community gardens, the programme can be implemented in urban or rural settings with minimal infrastructure.
This combination of educator preparation, intercultural exchange and adaptable design allows N4S to expand across diverse environments while maintaining its core focus on building children’s agency for planetary health.
Following the pilot phase, we refined Nature for Sharing in three key ways.
First, we expanded the model from strengthening children’s connection with their immediate environment to intentionally integrating cross-border virtual exchanges. By incorporating structured dialogue between classrooms in different countries, the programme evolved from a primarily local experience to one that highlights shared responsibility for planetary health.
Second, based on evaluation findings, we strengthened the progression from observation to collective action, making children’s agency and global citizenship more explicit throughout the sessions.
Third, we reinforced the educator support model. Facilitator accompaniment was expanded to include more structured classroom observation, feedback and preparation for virtual exchanges, ensuring stronger alignment between training and implementation.
These adjustments have clarified the programme’s trajectory, deepened children’s understanding of interdependence across ecosystems and communities, and strengthened consistency across diverse contexts.
Nature for Sharing is implemented through institutional partnerships with schools, learning communities and youth-serving organisations. The first step is to connect with our team to explore alignment, context and implementation capacity.
Once a partnership is established, educators participate in structured training to become familiar with the methodology, session sequence and guiding principles. The programme then unfolds over ten sessions, supported by facilitator accompaniment to ensure quality and contextual adaptation.
For educators who would like to better understand the experience before implementing, we can invite them to observe a virtual exchange session when available. This offers a first-hand sense of how children share observations, compare ecosystems and reflect together across contexts.
The model can be implemented at the level of individual schools, school networks or regional initiatives. We are also open to collaborating with education systems, ministries and mission-aligned partners seeking to integrate planetary health and agency-based learning at scale.
Because the programme relies primarily on nearby natural spaces and simple materials, it can be adapted to diverse ecological, cultural and institutional contexts.
