Decision makers, scientists and individual citizens generally accept that air, water, soil and noise pollution can have negative impacts on human health. Education is an important tool for change and shaping the future of our planet. The aim of our project is to inspire excellence in teaching through innovative teaching methods and tools in an environmental context. More and more schools are engaging in Citizen Science projects attracted by their educational added value. Citizen science projects use to be contributory, meaning that professional scientists produce the design, the project planning and the analysis of the results. The main activity of the students and teachers is to collect data following a specific scientific protocol. However, there is another type of Citizen Science project in which the participants might contribute to all the scientific research phases including the design of the project, the data collection, the analysis of the data and the dissemination of the findings. Most teachers and educators never participated in authentic scientific research. The primary challenge for NGO’s and schools to engage in co-created CS projects is to build the necessary confidence and credibility to connect with scientists. Sometimes teachers lack the support, resources and confidence to use innovative approaches without external assistance. This project will bring together researchers, teachers and students. Every partnering school has experience or has assisted in research on pollution. By cooperating with NGOs, universities, businesses etc. during the learning events the participants will get aware of the scientific research process. Teachers (together with students) will be able to make an innovative teaching tool kit about pollution research. Environmental awareness will grow: There will be an important increase of students and adults who are aware of the consequences of pollution. At the end motivation of the students for sciences will increase as well as for school learning in general. In an educational situation when Europe is confronted with phenomena like early school leaving, lack of motivation for learning and low achievement of basic skills, environmental research offers rich and contextualised learning environments for basic and science education, for practical and problem based learning and for interdisciplinary learning projects. Environmental education in schools is an essential and structural tool to promote responsible and conscious behavior towards the environment.. In total 12 teachers and 15 students of every partnering school will be participating directly in this international project, but they will disseminate the new tools. So the project will have an impact on more than 380 teachers/staff members and 3000 students from five different European countries (Poland, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and Turkey) in learning to think globally and to work on activities that contribute to the community’s well-being.
The aim of the project was to inspire excellence in teaching through innovative teaching methods and tools in an environmental context. Environmental education in schools is an essential and structural tool to promote responsible and conscious behavior towards the environment and the conservation of nature. The promotion of actual research projects associated with the environmental issue, promotes an interest and sensitivity to the surrounding natural environment. Activities should serve as a starting point or as a practical example of ongoing work done at school, where the teacher / educator has the key role to build, structure and complement all the information acquired on the topic addressed.
Education is an important tool for change and shaping the future of our planet. Environmental education in schools is an essential and structural tool to promote responsible and conscious behavior towards the environment and the conservation of nature. Young people hear about climate issues and pollution through many channels, but their knowledge and understanding of these problems remains patchy and superficial. In an educational situation when Europe is confronted with phenomena like • early school leaving, • decreasing attractiveness of learning in schools and natural sciences and • low achievement of basic skills, environmental research offers rich and contextualised learning environments for basic and science education, for practical and problem based learning and for interdisciplinary learning projects. As problems and methods differ from region to region and influence the local and regional environment and climate, pollution research is an interesting field for practical comparative research for students and teachers in joint European learning projects.