HoB’s adventure – Hands-on Biodiversity Erasmus Project

Project Title

HoB’s adventure – Hands-on Biodiversity

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Health and wellbeing; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Our children grow up in a world that is more urban, global and digital than ever before. With new opportunities come challenges such as children’s alienation from nature, a lack of physical activity, living under a deluge of new information and under the spotlight of always online social media. We aim to mitigate the resulting negative consequences such as high dropout rates by improving education and children’s enjoyment of school.
We call the project HOB’s adventure or Hands-on Biodiversity adventure because we want to use hands-on and active learning methods utilizing biodiversity in outdoor areas and potted plants in the classroom to educate 5-9 year-olds regarding topics and values such as global citizenship, reasonable consumption of goods, variety in nature, the needs of plants and animals, health and welfare.
The project topics fall under the UN’s Global Goals and the well-established framework of the global Eco-Schools programme of which all five project partners and ten schools and kindergartens are members. Our partners will be leading environmental education organizations in Estonia, Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia that have established national networks of teachers and unique competences that are relevant to the project. Among other things, Estonia is experienced with outdoor learning that utilizes digital tools, Iceland has years of experience with global environmental issues, Latvia has developed fascinating hands-on methods with potted plants and Slovenia has extensive experience building large sustainable networks of teachers to find best practices teaching about biodiversity in children’s immediate environment.
We want to bring together teachers from four European countries with different teaching environments, experiences and skills and build a network where teachers can share best practices and use what they have learned to develop new methods and materials. Altogether, at least ten schools or kindergartens will participate in the transnational workshops, although more have expressed interest already. Planned multiplier events have more than 230 slots. Cooperation will continue in between meetings over Skype and social media. Interaction will occur in English, allowing teachers to practice their language skills and build up confidence to continue their international collaboration well after the project is concluded.
By the end of the project, we will have produced a multitude of illustrated instructional materials for teachers of 5-9 year-old children, combining best practices from all participant countries. These materials will be made available online for free in English, Estonian, Icelandic, Latvian and Slovenian, so the impact will be even wider.
In the long term, using innovative new methods to improve children’s education regarding the environment, physical activeness and enjoyment of school, we will have better prepared a generation of children for the challenges of the 21st century and reduce downstream issues such as high school dropout rates.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 174085,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

NPO HARED, Center for Training and Development & Country: EE

Project Partners

• Landvernd
• Drustvo DOVES – FEE Slovenia
• Vides izglītības fonds
• MTÜ Lehola Keskkonnahariduskeskus