Climate Suitcases Unpacked: Engaging Dordrecht’s Youngest Citizen Scientists

Climate Suitcases Unpacked: Engaging Dordrecht’s Youngest Citizen Scientists

Life Critical is grounded in a simple belief: cities become truly climate-resilient only when local citizens are actively involved in understanding, shaping, and safeguarding their environment.

Citizen science offers a powerful way to support this goal by inviting the public into environmental and climate research – empowering people to collect data, monitor changes, and see firsthand what challenges climate change poses in their own neighbourhoods. This might include observing how temperatures or rainfall patterns are shifting, or tracking the impact of climate adaptation measures already in place to reduce the urban heat island effect or protect against flooding.

For these efforts to result in accurate data monitoring and inclusive decision making, it is important that as many local citizens as possible are involved. A city’s youngest citizens should not be forgotten within these efforts.

Pulsaqua, an organisation specialised in developing and supporting citizen science projects on water, climate and the environment, was commissioned by the municipality of Dordrecht (Life Critical’s lead partner) to support the project’s citizen science components. To involve children in these efforts, Pulsaqua have developed a series of educational climate suitcases designed to help children explore their nearby green spaces, observe and measure climatic changes, and recognise their role in shaping their local environment.

The suitcases are currently in a pilot phase at a school in Dordrecht. So far, around 90 students across five classrooms have taken part, with two final pilots planned for early 2026. The aim of the pilot process is to test the suitcases with their end users – teachers and students – so the contents and materials can be refined before hopefully being rolled out to schools across Dordrecht and beyond.

What the suitcases do

Each suitcase has a dual purpose:

1. To teach – by giving children the tools to be curious and learn about their surroundings and its climatic conditions. 
2. To help children understand and contribute to real science – by making observations and taking measurements that can meaningfully support climate analysis and local decision-making.

There are currently seven thematic suitcases, each focused on a specific topic such as water quality, biodiversity, temperature, or stagnant water and each applying the citizen science measures also used elsewhere in the Life Critical project. Sessions begin with a short classroom video that introduces the theme, linking it to common phenomena that the children can recognise (like persistent puddles or the feeling of hot concrete on a summer’s day) before connecting these observations to the broader challenge of climate change. Students then head outside with measuring tools and a booklet to explore their area, observe what’s around them, and collect measurements related to their suitcase’s theme.

The activities differ by age group. For younger students, the focus is on exploring their surroundings and learning to identify key climatic and environmental phenomena. For example, the water quality suitcase centers on spotting aquatic life in nearby bodies of water. Older students take more of an active role in standardised methods of data collection: comparing temperatures between paved and green areas, or mapping persistent puddles to help identify areas that may be at risk of shallow flooding.

The data collected is not just for educational purposes – it also feeds directly into national databases on water quality and other climate factors. The climate suitcases form part of the broader monitoring efforts used to track the progress of climate interventions implemented in and around Dordrecht’s Wielwijk Park as part of Life Critical. These efforts also include a steady team of resident volunteers who have been measuring the effects of these interventions over the past two years. Learn more about how local residents can participate in Life Critical’s monitoring efforts.

Lessons learned so far

As the climate suitcases are designed to empower both students and teachers to take an active role in monitoring their environment and its climate, the pilot phase is essential to ensure the suitcases meet the needs of both groups.

Three key insights have emerged from the pilot process so far:

1. The data collected must have a real purpose. Teachers emphasised that if the information collected isn’t actually used, the activity risks becoming “busywork,” reducing motivation for long-term adoption.
2. Experiencing science in action is just as important as the measurements the suitcases result in. This is particularly true for the younger students who were often too excited by discovering bugs, plants, or puddles to count consistently, while still gaining a lot from the overall climate suitcases experience.
3. Practicality is key. The materials are now being refined for even smoother use so that they can be used as standalone classroom tools that teachers can confidently pick up and run with, without requiring additional preparation or facilitation from the Pulsaqua team, making the process as easy as possible for busy teachers who already have more than enough on their plates.

Looking ahead: replication and scale 

After the lessons from the pilot process have been implemented, the plan is to roll the suitcases out to schools across Dordrecht. This currently includes those schools involved in the Netherlands’ Green-Blue School Yards initiative, though the potential reach is much wider.

This replication potential for the suitcases also feeds into Life Critical’s wider objectives. The programme is designed not only to support climate adaptation in its pilot cities of Dordrecht and Bradford, but to generate practical, tested approaches that other cities can pick up and use. The climate suitcases fit directly into this mission. As Pulsaqua’s Sharon van den Burg notes, with thoughtful adaptation, the model could be replicated “everywhere”, empowering children in cities across Europe to become active observers and guardians of their environment.

Want to learn more about how Life Critical is supporting community-driven climate resilience across European green spaces? Read our report on Lessons Learned in the City of Dordrecht and our Guidebook to Climate Resilience Through the Involvement of Local Citizens.