Karatasiou for environement education

Hi, 

In this first post I’ll present the collective reflection of the Esai en Roi members on the topic of environmental education and why the Polichni school garden is a precious tool to protect and develop further. 

In 2019, the head teacher of the 4th primary school of Polichni convinced the Pavlo Melas municipality to lend a 300 meter square abandoned place of Karatasiou disciplinary park. Since, many volunteers from Esai en Roi with the support of ESC and Erasmus+ program, worked to develop this place and welcome the students of the school for them to experiment with activities connected with environment, sustainability and enjoy an outdoor space with birds, insects and plants to discover. 

The ultra urbanization of our contemporary life style and the rarefaction of biodiversity due to concreting over, climate change, industrial-chemical agriculture tend to separate the youth generation from the essential knowledge of nature cycles and organization. What is pollination? Photosynthesis? Germination? How do plants reproduce? What is the difference between a flower and a seed or a tree and a mushroom? 

The objective isn’t to replace science classes but to provide a more practical and sensitive approach which may lead to a better understanding and lead to the realization of the importance and fragility of our ecosystems. 

Above this we believe in the importance of outdoor time for the right development of the children. Along with their social and environmental awareness. Several studies point to the correlation between natural environment access and better well-being. 

The first feed-backs were so positive from the students, parents and teachers that we decided to continue further. But because every initiative must be explained and understood, even more so when it applies to public education, we decided to create a manual connected to the garden. In which you will find examples of lessons, descriptions of Greek ecosystems, papers about the different types of agriculture, wildlife presentation and of course  plants and mushrooms. 

You will here be able to follow the on going work about that hand book. 

Balance_Rng for Karatasiou blog.