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GoF EnvEd project meeting
Aegna Island, Estonia, 14.6.2016
10:30 AM
Project partner participants:
Ljudmila Vesikko, SYKE
Soile Tirri, Finland-Russia Society
Päivi Kärnä, Finland-Russia Society
Gennadi Gramberg, Tallinn City Environmental Department
Olga Senova, Friends of the Baltic
Ekaterina Uspenskaya, Friends of the Baltic
Other participants: 33 participants - teachers and principals of schools and kindergartens,
experts. List is enclosed.
Agenda:
1) Päivi Kärnä told the participants that we are in the process of planning a new
environmental education project. In this meeting in Aegna the goal is to collect project
ideas and good examples and practices from local actors.
2) Gennady presented the Estonian working group of environmental education of the City of
Tallinn. The working group was founded last year in order to coordinate the work in
environmental education between three local actors: 1) the Environmental department,
2) the Educational department and 3) The Department of Culture. The working group
gathered all the people together that are active in environmental education work and
they convene once a month.
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The Environmental department manages the House of Nature on Aegna island and the
Botanical garden. In the Tallinn Botanical garden there also is a Centre for
environmental education.
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The Educational department is in charge of the work in schools and kindergartens.
There are over 60 schools and over a 100 kindergartens. They also manage their own
Centre of Environmental education.
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The Department of Culture manages the Tallinn Zoo with a new Centre for
environmental education.
As a result of this cooperation the Environmental department together with the Educational
department organized a Flower festival with 600-700 participants and 50 teachers, where
everyone planted their own flower. The idea of this campaign was to show children how they
can have an impact on their own neighbourhood: the children will see their own flower grow.
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3) Discussion: In each city the budget questions vary. The Estonian government is asking
how much money does Tallinn City need for environmental education, what kind of
actions are needed, who will do what etc. Also the Estonian working group would need
this information since they get their funding from the city government budget.
What kind of results have previous actions and projects had on children? What new things
can they learn? What new things can teachers learn? Where do we find good examples?
This is why it is important to ask, e.g. the Estonian teachers, what they would need.
Ljudmila Vesikko pointed out that this kind of feedback was received previously in Saint
Petersburg. Their answer was new interactive and innovative ways for teaching. In
Finland there is a new teaching curriculum with the themes water and sea.
In Estonia many of the school principals have wanted to find out what kind of activities
have been carried out in other countries and what has worked and what has not.
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The Estonian teachers arrived at 11.21 to Aegna after which everyone convened
together:
4) Päivi presented the coordination team of the project: The Finnish, Russian and Estonian
partners and then presented some background of the project:
In this planning stage we have different level partners involved: A research centre, city
administration, NGOs. One of the ideas of the main project would be different actors
working together.
We have one year for the planning stage of the project after which we will apply for
funding from possibly several funding programmes.
The goal is to develop environmental education teaching forward by collecting good
examples and methods that have been used before.
There is an abundance of good scientific research from the Gulf of Finland year, that
needs to be made accessible for the public, the main project will be based on this idea.
After the Gulf of Finland year is was clear that there is still lots of work to be done.
The goal of the main project is to influence peoples’ attitudes on a local, regional and
national level. We need to create a network of cooperation that will work transationally
by collecting different methods and good practices from different actors.
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There were altogether 30 teachers that came to Aegna as part of a training day
organized by NGO HARE and the Tallinn City Environmental department.
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All the participants were divided into groups to discuss questions about their work
after which each group presented their results.
1) What is well-organized in environmental education in Tallinn?
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It is good that under the guidelines of the Estonian curriculum it is possible to
hold classes outside. Also the city museums have many interesting programmes
and exhibitions that could be more beneficial.
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There are many good parks in the city as well as areas for learning outside inside
school premises. Also nature houses are good.
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The Estonian kindergarten curriculum includes environmental questions as a
priority.
2) List up to five challenges for environmental education.
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There is not enough money to transport children from school to somewhere
else and travelling somewhere abroad is even more expensive and taxing.
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There is not sufficient equipment, we have a lot of wonderful places outside in
the nature but we need more equipment.
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There is no access to Russian language materials, materials in order languages
apart from Estonian. It is not possible to find out information about interesting
courses for teachers in Russian.
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There is not a sufficient amount of playgrounds on the yards of the
kindergartens.
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There is not sufficient access to free programmes, to participate in them,
there are not enough spots.
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Access to a lot of information about courses or programmes is limited, usually
the information is limited to school or kindergarten principals only.
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Children are not so interested in nature anymore because they are attached to
their phones or computers and do not want to go outside.
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There is not enough money and funding. If there is a need to use a bus,
parents usually have to pay. The government or city should pay more.
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In kindergartens the groups are big and not everyone knows the proper
teaching methods.
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If you have some teaching material on a website, it should be marked
according to an age group so that there are different materials according to
the age group.
3) What would you change about how environmental education is organized? What’s
currently missing in environmental education?
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Funding. There is a need for continuous and permanent funding for
environmental education teaching. It would be good to know about possible
funding schemes. It is also important to include the parents in the process, so
that they know what they are paying for.
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There is not sufficient equipment for teaching outside as well as methodology
for it.
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There should be a joint calendar, so that everyone knows what is going on in
the environmental sector.
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We should develop applications for phones, digital material.
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We should organize teaching for parents in order to break some fears about
the nature.
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Textbooks should have links to more materials.
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There should be material on YouTube and links to this site.
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In schools the teaching is too concentrated on being inside the classroom, it is
difficult to leave the classroom when you only have 45 minutes per class.
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There should be more games for small children. Teaching games about the
environment.
4) Which additional teaching/learning materials would you need? Would you prefer
materials about methods, how to teach, or more information about some objectsecostystems, species, places, environmental problems etc?
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We would need material for ecological teaching of environmental education,
especially methodology. There is no systematic source for these kind of
materials but you can find information from different sources.
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More materials on methodology, also some specific material on different
species. There should be more equipment, such as magnifiers. Also more
material on ecosystems.
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Interactive teaching games. Material on different chain of events: what,
where, when? Why do things happen in a specific order?
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Material on endangered species.
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Methodology on how to compile material and equipment yourself.
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How to teach in a way that will be interesting for the children themselves?
How to teach sustainable development?
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A database of information on good practices and activities in other
kindergartens.
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More trainings for teachers. The trainings should provide written material that
can be used in later teaching.
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Schools should have their own gardens, so that children will see different
plants and flowers. How to plant them etc. The children could then mentor
each other.
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5) What would you like covered over an extended training period (a week or so)?
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Training on playing games outside with students in every time of the year
Courses on water (rivers, seas, oceans) and its inhabitants
Seminars on cooperation projects
6) What are your expectations towards a new environmental education project?
What kind of support do you expect to receive from a new environmental project?
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Interactive information on environmental education so that you can find all
the materials on-line where you can access it in your own language.
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Sharing experiences there. Getting information about different projects in
your own language.
Turku 21st of June, 2016
Soile Tirri