BIOPROFILES – Implementation of practical environmental education in schools Erasmus Project

Project Title

BIOPROFILES – Implementation of practical environmental education in schools

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

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”.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 256703 Eur

Project Coordinator

INAK & Country: SK

Project Partners

• VITA XXI SLP
• Learning through Landcapes Trust
• CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE
• Strom zivota
• UNIVERZITA KONSTANTINA FILOZOFA VNITRE