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Description
The project aim is to increase awareness of the causes and impacts of climate change, especially of droughts and floods, and to find a suitable way of engaging primary school pupils in active citizenship and participation in dealing with the issue of adjustment to climate change and reduction of its consequences.
We find it important to support active citizenship in children attending primary school and thereby guide them to responsibility and an active approach to challenges of life as well as boost in them a feeling that they, as individuals, can influence events around them. Active citizenship support, long-term project education and good materials for teachers have been missing in the Czech educational system.
We would like to create a methodology for a one-yeareducational project focusing on the above mentioned topics with emphasis on the water and landscape problematic. This methodology and experience from the pilot programmes will be passed on to the Norwegian partners to use and spread in their country. Educational methods will be consulted with the Norwegian school that will give us feedback concerning the methodology’s creation.
After the educational methodology is finished, we would like to introduce it at three primary schools in the following year and evaluate whether we used the right didactic methods and achieved the targets. We will fill it with children´s outputs, comments, photos and recommendations of teachers. The project will be concluded with a meeting of the Czech and Norwegian partners and teachers who participated in it. We will organize two seminars for teachers and lecturers of environmental education and make a short video movie which will help us to spread the new methodology among other schools
Summary of project results
The "With Children Against Drought" project focused on raising awareness of the causes and effects of climate change among children aged 6-11. The issue is important, but many educators lack a holistic tool to help them present this topic in its complexity to children in an engaging manner. The project focused on developing an innovative educational methodology for teachers, including an additional year of piloting in four primary schools, which involved gathering feedback and refining the methodology.
The methodology was presented to 27 teachers in 2 workshops which helped to facilitate its dissemination. A promotional video was also produced to showcase the project and its results. Partners shared their experiences throughout the project, both while working on the methodology, but also locally during the final meeting in Broumov (Czech Republic). This meeting proved very successful, as the topics discussed went beyond the methodology and led to a deeper understanding of similarities and differences in Norway and the Czech Republic, generating further interest in cooperation.
The main result is a new educational methodology accompanied by a set of worksheets. The methodology spans 196 pages and comprises 6 chapters: Water and me, Water in the landscape, Forest, Soil, Climate change, Landscape and me. It employs innovative educational methods and offers 81 activities for educators to carry out with children. The methodology includes tips for further development of the activity (ex-post dialogues with children, retrospectives), alternatives, additional tools and aids.
The project provides useful and attractive tools for educators who want to teach children about the nature around them, the relationships within it and between children and nature. The activities encourage children to develop a deeper understanding of these relationships. The methodology, with its wide variety of activities, is a valuable tool for educators, ensuring they can teach the subject in the best possible way.
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian donor project partner was quick to embrace the project idea even during the planning phase. As the project progressed, colleagues from Namsos contributed a valuable suggestion to expand the methodology by adding a chapter about the local initiative Lenne Marie for Rent Vann. This initiative emerged in response to the tragic events of the 2011 Norway terrorist attack, where one of the victims was from Namsos. Lenne Marie for Rent Vann is a foundation actively involved in establishing wells in Africa. The newly proposed chapter is about water in Africa, methods of locating water in diverse climate conditions, etc. The chapter underscores the idea that our actions and awareness of their impacts hold relevance on a global scale. The inclusion of this chapter enriches the project''s narrative, demonstrating the far-reaching implications of climate change and the importance of global collaboration and understanding.