The Central Ebro River Basin (NE Spain) is the most northern area of truly semi-arid Mediterranean climate in Europe and prehistoric human occupation there has been strongly influenced by this extreme environmental condition. Modern climate conditions single out this region due to the harsh environment, characterised by the highest absolute summer temperatures of the Ebro River Basin. The Bajo Aragón region (SE Ebro River Basin) was intensively populated during the Early Holocene (9400–8200 cal yr BP) but the settlements were abandoned abruptly at around 8200 cal yr BP. We propose that this “archaeological silence” was caused by the regional impact of the global abrupt 8.2 ka cold event. Available regional paleoclimate archives demonstrate the existence of an aridity crisis then that interrupted the humid Early Holocene. That environmental crisis would have forced hunter-gatherer groups from the Bajo Aragón to migrate to regions with more favourable conditions (i.e. more humid mountainous areas) and only return in the Neolithic. Coherently, archaeological sites persist during this crisis in the nearby Iberian Range (Maestrazgo) and the North Ebro River area (Pre-Pyrenean mountains and along the northwestern Ebro Basin).

Outdoor learning has, for a long time, been an important instructional resource in school education, usually embedded in the natural sciences and social sciences curricula. Teaching geography, geology, or biology beyond the traditional classroom allows students to interact with physical and social environments for meaningful learning. Mobile devices that are based on geospatial technologies have provided more accurate data, but also a combined instructional design with other WebGIS, map viewers, or geographic information system (GIS) layers, which are useful to foster education for sustainable development. This paper analyzes the applications of mobile learning based on citizen science and volunteer geographic information, but also on the growing awareness that citizens and educators need a set of digital competencies to enhance and innovate lifelong learning and active citizenship. The empirical research aims to measure teacher–training experience, highlighting the potential of mobile devices and their applications in environmental education. Data collected from the research and results prove the positive impact of mobile learning in environmental education. Finally, a discussion about mobile learning and education for sustainable development is provided.

Because of its interdisciplinary approach as a social science directly related to the natural sciences, geography is the academic discipline and school subject that equips students well with knowledge, skills, and values related to education on sustainable development goals. This study is part of the results of MyGEO, a project funded by the European Commission, and it is based on a collaborative mapping of streets named after women in a medium-sized city (Zaragoza, Spain), in connection with the international initiative GeoChicas (GeoGirls) on OpenStreetMap. Its main objective is to obtain evidence to emphasize, through public and digital space, gender equality and the empowerment of women in teacher education by means of their achievements. The learning methodology consists of (i) standardization and correction of alphanumeric information referring to street names contained in the OpenStreetMap spatial database that identify gender and (ii) linking and creating thematic information through Wikipedia editing. The results show that Zaragoza is at the top of the ranking of Spanish and Latin American cities mapped to date in the “Women’s Streets” viewer, with 18% of the streets named after women, compared to the average 15% in the rest of the 30 cities involved in GeoChicas. The direct participation of trainee primary and secondary schoolteachers in this project makes it possible to consolidate a narrative as well as a specific instructional design on education for sustainable development, particularly on SDG number 5 (gender balance) and SDG number 11 (sustainable cities and communities).