The evaluation of waste is very important in terms of economy and environmental protection. Waste assessment and environmental protection education start in the preschool period. Studies have shown that the impact of environmental education given at an early age continues throughout life. For this reason, waste assessment and environmental protection activities are very important in raising awareness in child education.

Becoming aware of waste!

With this project, we aim at preventing six-year-old children from irresponsibly wasting different types of litter and raising awareness about waste in general. In the first part of the study, “good” litter and “bad” litter will be introduced to children via videos, slides, trip and STEAM studies. In the second stage, activities regarding “What should we do to protect the water?” will be carried out. In the third stage, aquatic animals contaminated with garbage will be investigated. Overall, we aimed to create environmental awareness in children with fun STEAM, travel, play, etc. studies.

Objectives of the project:

• To give children environmental awareness
• To ensure that children have awareness in protecting natural resources and to gain positive behaviors
• To ensure that children gain a scientific perspective in protecting nature
• To encourage students to be productive in the fields of science and technology
• To enable students to gain knowledge and skills by using scientific ideas, methods and techniques in their studies
• To contribute to the development of self-confident individuals who can direct the future of the country, who can produce original and different ideas in scientific fields
• To encourage students to be inventors with experience in project preparation, development, creation and implementation
• To explore the participants who have the potential to become future scientists and to develop their existing skills, *To encourage the conduct of the courses with experiments and activities

Waste Reduction Challenge:
“What do we know about garbage?” “What is trash?” “Is garbage good or bad?“

Students have learned what garbage is, where it comes from and how to dispose of it. We found out that household waste must be sorted and thrown into a specific container, some types of waste can be recycled for reuse without harming the environment. The children learned to sort the garbage themselves by putting used paper and cardboard, plastic, etc. into separate containers.

Where does the trash come from and where does it go?

The children found out where the hazardous waste collection point is located in the area. They discussed exactly which waste was hazardous and that it should not be thrown into garbage containers. Also, they learned to hand over the used batteries in the Primus store to a box, specially designed for this purpose.

STEAM: “Make a new item of garbage.etc“

First, we saw a lot of stories and listened to songs, made computer games about caring for the environment and also about recycling. Most of us didn’t know how to sort out the trash or what was in the different Eco points. After our lunch, we decided to sort out the trash we had in the classroom. We found that food scraps like apple pits, other scraps and bread go to another kind of garbage called organic. We were really surprised! Now we train every day and even put a mini Eco point in our room !!

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RESULTS

• Raised conscious children about protecting nature
• Encouraged students to think with flexibility and confidence
• Developed  students; self-confidence and self-efficacy through collaboration and independent work
• Increased learning motivation
• Allowed students to discover new discoveries and better understand the relationship between events
• Provided shorter solutions to the problems they face
• Allowed design-oriented thinking and being innovative
• Provided a refreshing learning environment for the contents of the  training program
• Students  learnt that not every litter is bad
• Students have become more sensitive to conserve their resources
• Students learnt the importance of water and ways of protection
• Became aware of  the ecosystem by introducing new products