In this application, we sought an answer to the question of how we can protect bees based on climate change, and we integrated nature-based solutions with the body environment. We had our activities done sequentially according to the 5E model.
Because of climate change, flowers bloom untimely, making it difficult for bees to make honey. In our survey with children, they found it appropriate to build a greenhouse based on what has been said before about climate change. Are we teaching students that we will protect flowers, bees and use renewable energy in this greenhouse construction? First, by looking at the map of our region, empty areas were determined and greenhouses were planned to be built in accordance with this area. Flowers that bees love will be planted in these greenhouses.It is aimed to make greenhouses in certain places in and outside the city and to protect these greenhouses from rain and extreme cold in winter and to provide nutrients to bees by protecting them from extreme heat in summer. . It will be thought about heating and cooling using only solar or wind power, without the use of fossil fuels.
As a part of STEM Discovery Campaign 2021, I implemented the learning scenario “Waste Management” with my students.
Climate change, biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems services are some of the biggest problems we face in the 21st century. Rising levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are causing changes in our climate. Reducing waste and recycling are real ways to help mitigate climate change. It is important to minimize waste that reduce greenhouse gases. An alternative way to do this is composting food waste. We can use compost in urban gardening. This supports sustainable life.
Because of food wastes affect our environment negatively, we need to reduce food waste, use organic wastes in the most efficient way, eliminate wastes with the right methods. For all these reasons, our aim is raising awareness of students and developing positive behaviors. We also aimed that students plan and conduct research in the field of STEM in order to develop nature-based environmental, social and economic beneficial solutions, analyze, interpret, use their Mathematical knowledge and skills for research results and apply them to create solutions. Students can take action within their daily lives to reduce food waste at school and their homes and influence their families, friends and communities to make behavioral change.
The event “From compost to meta-competence” took place on February 24, 2021 from 3 pm to 5 pm, by using the online Classroom platform because in our locality the education takes place online.
The activity was carried out by the mathematics teacher Voinea-Axinte Costica in the 10th grade of high school in the online presence of five teachers from the school. Sustainability education is a prerequisite for post-crisis economic competitiveness COVID 19. Composting is a good excuse to motivate the study of STEM disciplines in the context of climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption. Competence for sustainability, which will be increasingly in demand in the labor market, such as leadership, will be a meta-competence that includes both multidisciplinary knowledge and all classical transversal competencies. It is obvious that such competence cannot be learned in a course, but it must be trained throughout the education because some of the included competencies can be and it is more effective to be developed from an early age. In my teaching endeavor, I tried to develop environmental protection skills starting from learned notions to biology, geography, chemistry, mathematics, ecology but I took into account the fact that many students are from rural areas and have knowledge related to compost. The webinar was the first step. In the other online webinars I will use interactive, collaborative, integrative methods, adapted to the age level, multiple intelligences, and different learning styles with the participation of fellow teachers of physics, chemistry, biology, and geography to present students specific notions of disciplines and curricular contents necessary for understanding. phenomena that take place in compost. The theme of the webinar was one of the main objectives of creating a human resource that can develop a sustainable economy and communities. The approach uses innovative teaching techniques, teaching models such as integrative studies, project-based learning or problems, the main themes of the curriculum can be enriched with current themes of the planet and human life and approached through participatory methods that develop in children and young people the motivation to learning, transversal competences, including innovation, creativity, and independence in thinking necessary for sustainability competence. Sustainability in education does not mean creating a separate course added to the topics of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, but it means including the key themes of sustainable development in everyday teaching and learning. Making compost is a good excuse to motivate the study of climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption. These webinars motivate and mobilize students and make them change their behavior and act for sustainable development. My students were happy with the approach taken, they were actively involved, they shared their experience related to the subject of the webinar and they proved the desire to implement the studied notions.
