The main objective was to create an educational resource that can support secondary school teachers in integrating environmental sustainability and plant biodiversity education (the Handbook). The project aimed at: - DEVELOPING TEACHERS' KEY SKILLS on the use of an innovative teaching approach in the field of plant biodiversity, transferable to other subjects, e.g. water resources monitoring. -Promoting interdisciplinarity and stimulating critical thinking in pupils from an early age. The competence framework aimed at competence-based teaching with reference to EU frameworks such as GreenComp. - Strengthening teachers' environmental competences. The educational approach of the project, including practical actions implemented at school and community level: the importance of plant biodiversity for nature conservation and human well-being, as well as raising awareness of the need for monitoring activities. -offer a tool that can teach them to make plant biodiversity an interesting and attractive subject - increase the involvement of pupils in the use of digital tools: WElab kits.
The project was created to respond to the needs highlighted in the 2022 proposal to the Council Recommendation on Learning for Environmental Sustainability, emphasizing the importance of integrating education for environmental sustainability into all levels of education with a multidisciplinary and learner-centered approach. To address the complex issues of sustainability, including biodiversity conservation, sustainability needs to be integrated into education, inside and outside the classroom, to educate learners to become catalysts of change who are willing to take initiatives for society and take responsibility for the planet. To do this properly, teacher training is most important Secondary school teachers were chosen as the main target group of the project. There was a need to develop an innovative methodology for teachers to improve their teaching skills in environmental education and to develop a set of competences in students: critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, teamwork. Therefore, the project provided teachers with an innovative methodology to approach biodiversity and practical benefits for students.