According to the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 (2018 / C 189/01), Member States should promote the acquisition of skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), taking into account the links with arts, creativity and innovation, and motivate young people more. However, international surveys such as the PISA or the OECD PIAAC indicate that a constantly high proportion of adolescents and adults have insufficient basic skills. This project's main objective is not only to improve the scientific expertise of the teacher and the pupil, but also to provide an educational tool of high pedagogical value that is versatile and able to satisfy the requirements of the teacher. This requires not only stimulating the discussion of scientific topics, which are often difficult to convey in the classroom, but also encouraging schools to reinvigorate how they organise the teaching of the natural sciences, using inclusive and integrative didactic strategies to actively involve all pupils and to improve the quality of the lessons. To achieve this goal, teaching aids have been prepared to help primary school teachers to design and implement Wild Gardens where pupils can experiment, observe, and become directly acquainted with the mechanisms that regulate natural ecosystems. The plants and animals in the small ecosystem of a Wild Garden achieve a balance similar to that found in nature: these living things carry out their lifecycles under the curious gaze of the young pupils, giving teachers the opportunity to make learning about the natural sciences more engaging. The project foresees the development of four Intellectual Outputs: 1. The Wild Garden and Science Education: the State of the Art. An analysis of the state of the art in raising primary school pupils' awareness of environmental and scientific issues, with particular reference to the Wild Garden. It will report the results of the extensive research that will be carried out relating to both environmental education and pedagogy. 2. Teaching in the Wild Garden. A comprehensive 100-page training manual to enable teachers to approach teaching activities in the Wild Garden more effectively, divided into two sections: - Teaching the Natural Sciences; - Nature Pedagogy. 3. Educational Proposals for the Wild Garden: a Handbook for Teachers. This handbook will be a practical guide and a solid basis of support for the teacher who uses the Wild Garden as a teaching tool. The handbook will outline the basic principles of the project, and provide step-by-step instructions for the implementation of the Wild Garden, detailing strategies and opportunities to encourage pupil engagement and involvement. 4. E-course for Teachers. An e-learning training course aimed at teachers, to be created using the Moodle platform, providing a virtual classroom for teachers who want to start a Wild Garden project with their class. The training will go over the sections and topics covered by IO 01, IO 02, and IO 03, using established distance learning techniques. Preliminary versions of the Intellectual Outputs will be prepared for initial trials in partner schools, involving some 400 pupils and 40 teachers, following which the final versions will be produced. All the results of the research and trials, as well as the Intellectual Outputs themselves, will be uploaded to the project website. The site will be accessible and monitored throughout the course of the project, and for at least three years following its conclusion. Furthermore, information, materials and links will be published and publicized on the websites of partner organisations and through their distribution channels. This will ensure a good spread of the project, offering constant support and making sure the materials continue to be made available. After the conclusion of the project training, seminars will be organized for teachers, where the project will be exhibited and all the materials produced will be made available to participants. The Wild Garden offers an opportunity to promote practical activities that allow for total individual involvement, encompassing the heart, the senses and the mind. The project provides a firm foundation for the development of good citizenship, encouraging sensitivity to environmental issues and a wider knowledge of how to engage with nature more sensitively and consciously. This project aims to create an educational tool that can facilitate the teaching and socialization of pupils. Beyond this, the Wild Garden project has the potential to have a 360° impact, galvanizing a sense of civic duty and respect for nature in general, and for public green spaces in particular, not only among pupils, but throughout the community as a whole. For this reason, the activities will be diffuse and on-going, encouraging the involvement of parents and local residents, eventually establishing international connections that will potentially evolve into a European network of best practi
The project develops teaching methods and tools based on the naturalistic garden, a place in which to experiment, observe and learn about the mechanisms that regulate natural ecosystems that can be recreated in school spaces. The implementation of the project intends to achieve the priority objective of improving the scientific skills of learners thanks to teaching tools of high pedagogical value, capable of responding to the needs of the teacher not only in dealing with scientific topics in the classroom, but also in innovating school planning using inclusive and integrative didactic strategies. Through the development of the Wild Garden model, the aim was to experiment with cooperative teaching and learning, collaborative problem solving between students, the formation of groups in teaching activities and the use of alternative strategies in learning, important for planning a teaching. aimed at providing all students with a good learning of scientific subjects and creating constructive aggregation and social relationships. Fundamental supports were created for teaching science for primary schools, triggering virtuous mechanisms based on the curiosity and emotional and socializing elements of the child.
Notwithstanding the Rec. 2018 / C189 / 01, for which Member States should "(2.3) promote the acquisition of skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and motivate more young people [...] to undertake STEM careers [...] (3.4) by strengthening the collaboration between educational, training and learning contexts at all levels and in different fields ... ", from the OECD-PISA data on the scientific skills acquired by 15-year-old students, the excellent positioning of Portugal and Poland with a positive trend over a decade. Also Romania, from the middle of the table, shows a significant recovery. Italy, on the other hand, is in a medium-low position with a stable trend. It was therefore considered necessary to develop the project at an international level in such a way as to develop a confrontation and an open dialogue based on "practices", to respond more effectively to the need to 1) make the study and practice of STEM more attractive for students and enable the improvement of key competences in an inclusive way; 2) develop shared paths between teachers and innovative tools able to systematize training, teaching and pedagogy in real learning situations.