More information
Description
The project proposal is aimed at developing, in an innovative way for our education, educational programs and campaigns to raise awareness of climate change, namely by presenting them in the form of educational comics, which in an easily accessible and a fun way to pass on knowledge and skills aimed at protecting the environment and raising awareness on climate change and science.
In them, children will participate in certain challenges in the form of themes-missions, which are subordinated to global problems related to nature protection in general in this way (for example, topics related to water, soil, biobuilding, biodiversity, air, etc.). The comic storyline will integrate into a system themes within which children will gain knowledge and actively participate in missions with their characters, experimenting with specific tasks in kindergarten or at home, and creating their own artefacts.
Team of experts will create the content of six thematic comics entitled “Time Travelers”. The textbooks will be delivered to six kindergartens along with relevant equipment for class activities and thematic bins for separate waste collection.
By turning educational programs into games and activities, we will be able to turn learning into a pleasant way for everyone, as well as for each of the participants to become like their hero, actively participating in the mission of saving the Earth.
More information about this initiative is available here:
Summary of project results
The project aimed at developing educational programs and campaigns to raise awareness of climate change, namely by presenting them in the form of educational comics, which in an easily accessible and a fun way to pass on knowledge and skills relared to protecting the environment and raising awareness on climate change and science.This method helped to increase the number of educational institutions (kindergartens) carrying out activities to raise awareness/education on climate change and adaptation among the youngest population.
As a first step, a specialized expert team conducted a research, analysis and establishment of an innovative and unique content to be illustrated in the form of a comic. During the implementation of this research, a series of activities involving the target group (children from kindergartens, from 4 to 6 years) were held, which aimed to contribute to raising awareness of the topics of climate change awareness as well as to the development of comprehensive specialized educational content. These activities included: building a specific psychological-pedagogical profile of the target group - children from from 4 to 6 years (level of development of motives, interests, age characteristics, visual thinking, dominant type of memory and others.); diagnosis of the sensory experience of adolescents in the field of comics; selecting specific content from the curriculum for this age group to be used for the design of the educational comics. 4. Pedagogical design of specific pedagogical situations based on comics and additional activities with children in the context of the topic (didactic games, modeling, art workshops, etc.); adaptation of pedagogical design to specific pedagogical situations based on comics for children with different educational needs; implementation of pedagogical approaches to improve relations between children of different social status and improve interpersonal relationships; testing the prototypes of educational comics with the target group; analysis of the obtained results.
After the research was carefully completed and analyzed, the content of the educational programs in the form of comics was elaborated. Thus, 1,600 pcs. colorful sets of comics, each containing 6 comic books of different themes, including various entertaining and educational games and materials for children were printed.
As a next step in the implementation of the project, educational campaigns for the presentation and use of comics as an educational tool and its imposition as a permanent educational material were organized in 6 different kindergartens. Also, these 6 kindergartens presented various methods and techniques for conducting activities that actively engage children and involve them in environmental protection activities. This activities included interactive games, drawing, singing and dancing aimed at developing children''s deeper understanding and commitment to climate change issues. Open pedagogical situations on the topics "International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer" and "The most precious resource on the planet Earth - water" in kindergartens were held with the aim of demonstrating to parents, the public, etc. of accumulated knowledge to raise awareness/education about climate change.
Stakeholders from the point of view of the developed educational programs and the conducted training campaigns for children aged 4 to 6 inclusive, can be identified as follows:
- Kindergartens - provide attractive and innovative entertaining ways of education, through comics, passing missions, answering questions, tasks, playing and making various materials for children;
- Parents of children of this age, who, through the comics, provide their children with a pleasant entertaining and educational material;
- Various institutions related to work with children - to use the series of edicationas comics as part of their activities.
Last but not least, the language of comics is almost universal, the methods and materials used can be easily modified for any language and used worldwide by various organizations.