We believe in the power of change and that the best gift we can give to future generations, the most valuable legacy we can leave behind us is a world of educated and environmentally conscious people equipped with the sustainable attitude which is so sorely lacking in today's society. Environmental education in Slovakia, and also in other EU countries, doesn`t comply with its elementary mission and it`s more symbolical or theoretical than practical or real. Teachers in primary schools should implement environmental education into daily education of general subjects, though they might be missing relevant skills, knowledge or, more often, motivation for environmental education. Therefore there is an urgent need (confirmed also by NEEDS ANALYSES, ANNEX 1) for appropriate training programme and teaching materials for teachers in practice aimed at practical environmental education and its implementation into schools, to strengthen their skills and competences and to gain the knowledge about environmental issues. BIOPROFILES project, involving 6 partners active in area of environmental education from 4 countries, Slovakia (INAK, Strom zivota, Constantine the Philosopher University), Italy (IBIMET-CNR), Spain (VITA XXI) and UK (Learning through Landscapes), will be focused on development of innovative materials for practical environmental education for target group of teachers and pupils in primary schools, leading project participants towards increased interest in local communities’ life, with the aim to: - Support professional development of teachers and their skills in active use and implementation of environmental topics into teaching - Provide teachers of primary schools in SK, IT, ES and UK with innovative teaching materials, nowadays missing on educational markets of above mentioned countries, combining general subjects, while integrating practical environmental concept into teaching process - Deliver high quality teaching and adopt new pupil-centred method of research based learning - Increase the environmental awareness of teachers and pupils through monitoring of local environment. These GENERAL OBJECTIVES of project and OVERALL PROJECT GOAL aimed at “Supporting the skills of teachers in primary schools in the implementation of practical environmental education into teaching of general subjects” will be reached through development of 4 project outputs: O1/ TRAINING PROGRAMME as ENVIRONMENTAL MINIMUM for teachers, O2/ HANDBOOK for practical environmental education, O3/ INDICATORS BOOK for research of pupils and O4/ COLLECTION OF BIOPROFILES research results, which will all together provide complex teaching and learning materials to support practical environmental education in schools. The direct target groups of proposed project BIPROFILES are min. of 15 staff of project partners, 25 teachers & 56 pupils from primary schools in SK, UK, IT and ES. Partnership plans to implement following activities, while addressing project target groups and concrete participants: - Development of O1/TRAINING PROGRAMME, O2/HANDBOOK & O3/INDICATORS BOOK, involving project partners - TRAINING EVENTS, involving teachers and partners institutions - RESEARCH BASED LEARNING realized by pupils, facilitated by teachers and project partners, leading to development of O4/COLLECTION OF BIOPROFILES, through implementation of gained knowledge and increased skills from O1, O2 and O3. Other project events will be opened to any interested teachers, as well as students of teaching professions in all partner countries. After project end we expect long-term impact on potential beneficiaries: - Complex teaching materials available to support environmental education in 4 countries, to enable to provide practical real-life activities rather than formal and theoretical environmental education - New materials for research based learning available, supporting critical thinking of pupils in environmental context, in 4 countries - Possibility to attend training programme for teachers in practice in 4 countries, to gain skills and knowledge required for effective and practical environmental education - Increasing the environmental awareness of teachers and pupils through monitoring of local environment and motivating them to become active citizens Project results have potential to positively influence large group of teachers and can significantly contribute to filling the gap in availability of relevant training programme and materials for gaining relevant knowledge and skills in the field of environmental education, while complying with European priority in national context of “Strengthening the profile of the teaching profession”. We believe the expertise of above institutions will contribute to development of strong network, leading to successful fulfilment of project objectives, with developing bases of future long-term cooperation for the benefit of all involved.
Environmental education in Slovakia, and also in other EU countries, doesn`t comply with its elementary mission and it`s more symbolical or theoretical, than practical or real. Teachers in primary schools should implement environmental education into daily education of general subjects, though they might be missing relevant skills, knowledge or, more often, motivation for environmental education. One of the consequences of the absence of quality environmental education is that young people are not able to undertake the responsibility for their own impact on local environment, because they are missing the linkage between general information and knowledge presented at schools and real life in local community. Therefore one of the key roles of environmental education should be not only to deliver the knowledge but to change the attitude of young people and to increase their activities towards the sustainability of local communities. For this reason, within the project BIOPROFILES - Implementation of practical environmental education in schools, an educational program, teaching materials, worksheets and suggestions for teachers in practice were designed and developed, focused on practical environmental education with a link to the local environment and the impact of individual activities on the community, in order to strengthen their skills and competences and to help acquire knowledge of environmental issues and problems. Within the BIOPROFILES project, in which 6 partners active in the field of environmental education from 4 countries cooperated - from Slovakia (INAK, Tree of Life, CPU Nitra), Italy (CNR-IBE), Spain (VITA XXI) and the United Kingdom (LTL), innovative materials for practical environmental education have been developed for the target group of primary school teachers and pupils, with the aim of: - support professional development of teachers in environmental field, - support the skills of teachers in active use and implementation of environmental topics into daily teaching, - deliver high-quality teaching and adopt a new pupil-centred method of research-based learning, - increase the environmental awareness of teachers and pupils through monitoring of local environment, - provide teachers of primary schools in SK, IT, ES and UK with innovative teaching materials, nowadays missing on the educational markets of the above mentioned countries, combining general subjects, while integrating practical environmental concept into teaching process. These GENERAL OBJECTIVES of project and OVERALL PROJECT GOAL aimed at “Supporting the skills of teachers in primary schools in the implementation of practical environmental education into teaching of general subjects” was reached through development of 4 project outcomes: - TRAINING PROGRAMME “ENVIRONMENTAL MINIMUM” (O1) for teachers, divided into 4 days, aimed at acquiring the basic knowledge and skills needed to implement environmental education (EE) in practical teaching, - THE HANDBOOK “TEACHING GREEN” (O2), presenting in details 7 key themes of environmental education - water, biodiversity, natural and cultural heritage, air, energy, waste and the human environment, for the acquisition of basic knowledge of the teacher on the given topics, - INDICATORS BOOK (O3), representing 14 indicators for monitoring the quality of the local environment, in the form of inspirations for students` research-based activities, for the practical teaching of EE, - COLLECTION OF BIOPROFILES (O4), with 52 examples of research-based observation aimed at monitoring the quality of the local environment of selected cities in 4 countries - Slovakia, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The target group of the BIOPROFILES project were project partners and teachers of pupils aged 10-15 (i.e. 2nd grade of primary schools in Slovakia and relevant schools in the partners` countries). These teachers should implement environmental education in everyday education, mainly as cross-subject, though they often lack these skills, knowledge or, more often, motivation for environmental education. 29 teachers and 15 project partners were involved in the project activities as follows: - testing of O1 / TRAINING PROGRAMME through active participation in educational activities in Italy, Spain and Slovakia, - testing of O2 / HANDBOOK while using materials in their teaching, - monitoring the quality of the local environment while using the O3 / INDICATORS BOOK, - practical monitoring and summarizing their findings in O4 / COLLECTION OF BIOPROFILES. Project outcomes have the potential to significantly contribute to filling the gap in the availability of relevant training programme and materials for gaining relevant knowledge and skills in the field of environmental education while complying with European priority in the national context of “Strengthening the profile of the teaching profession”.