Empowering Teachers and Pupils for a Better Life through Nature Erasmus Project

Project Title

Empowering Teachers and Pupils for a Better Life through Nature

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Environment and climate change; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

The main goal of the project was to enhance the quality of early years environmental education in order to develop children’s interest in and connection to nature and to achieve high quality learning outcomes that support basic core curriculum and lifelong learning skills. Teaching about nature is an excellent opportunity to develop a set of children’s skills and competences important for achieving better effects of learning in different fields of education and then for the wellbeing of individuals and more sustainable future of communities. And yet nature education is often under appreciated and its potential ignored in national curricula at primary and early year levels. Many educators suffer from a lack of dedicated materials and examples of engaging activities for such children. This project was based on experiences of the already operating international educational project Spring Alive that also involves the 6 BirdLife Partners (ornithological ngos) engaged in this project. The transnational dimension of the project is very important, bringing the best examples of how nature based education can deliver profound and lasting learning outcomes to countries and regions where the potential has not been realized. The international cooperation also provides a basis for future international networking. The practical knowledge and competence of pre-school and primary school teachers was enhanced by providing them with training and resources. Resources are also available to educators running informal education through making the supporting materials widely accessible. The training provided an opportunity for exchanging teachers’ experiences from their work at a transnational level. Academic educationalists and trainers were engaged to ensure the highest quality of the created resources.The project was addressed to teachers from rural areas and small towns to develop theirs skills and to enable them to access the most current knowledge, teaching practices and resources. 60 teachers from preschools and primary schools participated in the training. Over 342 teachers took part in national training events. At least 2360 teachers from primary schools and pre-schools as well informal educators from European countries will download the materials after the delivery of the demonstration lessons and free access to the uploaded resources online this and upcoming year. Main activities undertaken during the project’s duration:The activities of 1st half of the project timeline were focussed on: research on the most important obstacles and challenges in area of environmental education in primary and pre-school education; determining the innovative teaching methods and content of resources to overcome these obstacles; developing a set of engaging and effective teaching materials (O2, O3). During the 2nd half of the project, activities were focused on: continuing and finalizing the work on the teaching resources; adapting them to the partners national requirements (=language / curricula); organizing international workshop for teachers; disseminating the materials during multiplier events together with, mostly online, promotion. Teaching materials (O2, O3, O4), including the mobile application helping children to learn issues related to nature in an interactive way, were ready to use and presented at the workshop for teachers in July 2018 Ireland/Maynooth University. As a result of the project we delivered the following intellectual outputs: materials for pre- and primary schools, mobile app and a video tutorial. The project provided teachers of preschools and primary schools across six countries with innovative, relevant teaching resources. Moreover supported and trained them to deliver an effective nature themed programme of learning.The project also grealty improved the communication and cooperation of the project partners from Poland, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, Czechia and Macedonia as well as their interaction with the educational systems in their countries. All the intellectual project outputs are available for teachers and educators not only on the partners’ website but also on the Spring Alive national websites. They will continue to be used by teachers from countries where Spring Alive operates as each year they will be encouraged to use them. They will also continue to be available on the BL Partnership extranet for use of the BL Partners and teachers they work with. Project partners continue to maintain contact with interested teachers to further develop their teaching curricula. The results and impact are greater than expected. We have successfully shared the information through all our channels. The greatest impact are groups of teachers who have became advocates for our materials. A long-term benefit was achieved by creating a network of teachers at European level and at national level. Thus the project effects will be multiplied during next years after the lifetime of the project long term results.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 194654 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ogólnopolskie Towarzystwo Ochrony Ptaków & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Sociedad Española de Ornitología (SEO/BirdLife)
• Macedonian Ecological Society
• Irish Wildbird Conservancy
• Czech Society for Ornithology
• UNIWERSYTET GDANSKI
• Slovenska ornitologicka spolocnost/BirdLife Slovensko