International recognition for Mount Carmel students
Schools
Mount Carmel College’s Mary MacKillop Centre (for students with an intellectual disability) has been recognised internationally for a through a unique climate change project that connected the centre with schools in Austria and Singapore.
The project won a Gold Award at the 17th Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) ClassNet Conference 2024.
The ‘Climate Alliance’ project emerged through Inclusion teacher Hang Ngo’s participation in the ASEF ClassNet program which involved eight months of online learning, international collaborating, innovative teaching and on-site reporting.
The implementation of the project for the Mount Carmel unit focused on air quality and asthma – topics that directly affect several students. Over four weeks, students created personal stories, songs and digital postcards exploring how climate change impacts their daily lives. AI tools were used to help students express themselves in new and creative ways.
Hunter and Quan, for example, wrote two thoughtful songs about climate change’s effects on breathing. Max used AI tools to transform his powerful message ‘Go Away Asthma’ into an impactful multimedia presentation. Hannah worked with an AI-generated dog named Bolt to share her story through a creative postcard format.
As international partners, students from International Highschool Herzogberg (Austria) and St Andrew’s Secondary School (Singapore) responded enthusiastically to Mount Carmel students’ works through their shared platform.
Ms Ngo said this global connection helped students understand how climate change affects different parts of the world while giving them confidence in sharing their own experiences.
“What truly stands out is how this project allowed our MacKillop students to overcome their usual literacy challenges,” she said.
“Using AI tools like ChatGPT, Magic School AI (for image generator and writing support), Suno (for music creation), and Canva (for artwork), they found new ways to express their thoughts and participate in global discussions about important issues.”
The teaching resources developed have been selected as exemplars by the Asia-Europe Foundation and will be shared with schools worldwide. These resources can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/asefedu-test/home.
“This achievement reflects our school’s leadership support for using technology in empowering education and our Centre’s commitment to innovative, inclusive education,” Ms Ngo said.
“More importantly, it shows what our students can achieve when given the right tools and support to express themselves.
“I’m incredibly proud of our students’ work and growth throughout this project. They’ve shown that everyone’s voice matters in the global conversation about climate change, regardless of their learning challenges.”
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