We don’t Throw, We Transform

Resources are used unconsciously due to industrialization and urbanization. Therefore, domestic waste is increasing. The increasing waste problem affects the individual, family and society negatively.
With the eTwinning projects I carried out at my school, we aimed to raise awareness about making our world more livable by controlling waste. We reused various wastes (glass, plastic, paper, food, etc.) generated in our house. We enabled students to gain awareness of recycling and to transfer this awareness to their environment.

OBJECTIVES

  1. To increase the awareness of students about recycling.
  2. Understanding that not every waste is garbage.
  3. To ensure that they are individuals who love and care about nature.
  4. It enables them to find solutions to the problems they encounter in daily life.
  5. Learns to use available resources without wasting.
  6. Gains environmental awareness at a young age.
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Topic: Guardians of the Natural Treasures

Area: Ecology; Natural Science

Author: Snezhana Kostova, 125 High School “Boyan Penev” Sofia, Bulgaria

Beneficiaries: students 8 years.

Duration: 12.04. – 22.04.2021

Summary: Studying the nature around us, mastering ecological knowledge and skills for its conservation, development of analytical thinking.

Resources used: Akademico; Skratsch; Ucha.se; Slideshare.net; Presentation;

Building the right worldview and behavior is one of the main goals of education, giving scientific knowledge about nature and developing their cognitive abilities, observation and aesthetic taste to be able to see the beauty in nature. Formation of habits and habits related to nature conservation and education of moral qualities, developing the need to communicate with nature.

In April, a series of events entitled “Guardians of the Natural Treasures” took place, where the knowledge acquired by the students was strengthened and enriched.

In the course of the events, the students in a fascinating and interesting way entered a subject not very familiar to them. They understood the significance of human actions in their interaction with our greatest wealth – Nature. They realized that anyone and at any time can help preserve it in the name of a better future.

In the first stage, students were challenged to become researchers, each with the task of conducting an experiment showing water, soil and air pollution. They kept a diary in which they recorded their assumptions, observations and the final result, with conclusions. Everyone shared that they found it very interesting and liked it.

A selection of pictures is the author’s own (Attribution CC-BY)
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FROM PAPER TO FLOWER POT

Production is one of the most important factors for the future of a society. Societies that support their own production have completed the most important step for development. This learning scenario is also celebrated in December each year in Turkey “domestic goods week” is intended to draw attention to domestic production. It is aimed that students
comprehend what production means and design pots that they can make their own production with recycling.

OBJECTIVES:

1- Understands the relationship between production and domestic goods.
2- learn the effects of climate change on our environment
3- Solving the problems they encounter in daily life according to the engineering design stages (STEM)
4- To increase the awareness that some of our wastes in our homes will be recycled.


Pots prepared by students
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Economic and social benefits of recycling

Image

Teacher: Ira Tuba, “Savremena” primary and secondary school – Belgrade, Serbia

Introduction

Environmental protection is not an overly interesting area for children. But, through the application of various modern technologies it could be. This post will be about implementing STEM subjects in order to make students aware of the problems of recycling and waste disposal. The topic is divided into four sessions. Each session aimed to help students acquire new knowledge in an innovative and creative way and, also, encourage them to educate others in their surrounding about the importance of recycling.

This scenario was implemented live in our school, but is also suitable for online teaching. Fifteen students ages 10-11 participated in this project. Their prior knowledge of this topic was very superficial. They never dealt with this subject in school. Everything they knew they heard on television or from their parents. Therefore, they weren’t sure if the information they had was accurate.


Class

Implementation

The first lesson took place on April 1st. In that class, students were introduced to the concept of recycling and the impact of waste on the environment. They shared their experiences related to waste and recycling with the class and commented on them. At the end of this lesson we suggested that they use their social media to send a message to the world about the importance of recycling. Our students really liked that, and I think any students would. The idea of using their social media for school is very exciting for them.

The next class took place on April 8th. It was all about the impact that irresponsible garbage disposal has on the environment. We played a video for students about plastic bottles that shocked them quite a bit. After watching that video they were surprised with some facts about the impact that waste has on our health. That motivated them to be even more creative in designing promotional posters about recycling. They were very happy to place them around the school to always remind us to protect the planet and thus our health. This is some of their work.

Posters to promote recycling

The subject of the 3rd class, that took place on April 19th, is economic benefits of recycling. After learning what a circular economy is and why it is needed, we gave them a research task. They needed to find out how different countries stimulate the growth of the circular economy. For this task they had to apply their technological and information literacy, as well as critical thinking. These are all 21st century skills they will need in their future careers. Students like to be in the role of researchers and to find the necessary information on their own using technology. Therefore, this task was very interesting for them. I think this is a great way to stimulate students to actively participate in class.

Highlight of the scenario

The last session, which took place on April 27th, was the most interesting to the students. The joint creation of an interactive panel was the first part of the class. On that panel were placed interesting facts about recycling. During this task, the students were very productive and engaged. They enjoyed group work.

Interactive panel

In the second part of the class, they made digital picture books that will be material for educating younger students of our school. There are a lot of foreign students in our school. As a result, we were able to make picture books in 4 languages (Serbian, English, French and German). It meant a lot to the children that they were given the opportunity to be in the role of the authors of the educational material.

Digital picture books

Our impressions

We think that this learning scenario went very well with the students. It was interesting to them and instructive. Above all, they understood how important it is to combine different subjects to solve a real-life problems. They have developed an awareness of the importance of preserving natural resources through recycling. Also, they have learned how they can contribute to it. In conclusion, we made this “boring” topic very interesting to them, so they were eager to learn as much as possible.

Working together

The cooperation between the teachers was excellent. We learned a lot from each other. We plan to continue to work together as often as possible as we have concluded that together we can do much more for our students.

LOVE THE WORLD, PROTECT YOURSELF

SUMMARY

Global Warming occurs as a result of the various activities of people in our world. The main theme of our project is to create environmental protection awareness in our students and to raise awareness about climate change in students. In order to achieve this, we will carry out various activities related to recycling.

OBJECTIVES

  • To give the students in our class love of nature
  • To understand that nature and the animals in nature have a right to life
  • To teach the effects of climate change on living spaces of living things
  • To increase the awareness that some of the waste from our homes will be recycled
  • Solving problems they encounter in daily life according to engineering design stages (STEM).
  • Creating Nature-Based Solutions

TIME: 

Three weeks

PROBLEM STATUS:

What activities can we do to prevent environmental pollution in our world? We will organize recycling activities with our students to find an answer to this question.

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