“Think Nature!” February: “Ecology” presented to school staff

In February, together with our partners from WWF Adria Zlatan Musić, Zoran Šeremet and Nađa Sinanović, and Emina Veljović from our partner organization Aarhus Center in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which coordinates Eco HUB Sarajevo, we held an online meeting with the Environmental Advisor in Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection KS Zijada Krvavac where we discussed various opportunities for cooperation in environmental protection and support to the civil sector in this area. Great start to the new year.

The month was especially marked by the presentation of “Ecology”, a manual for primary and secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the author Smilja Mrđa presented to about 90 teachers, professors, principals, and other educators from schools in BiH. The manual was created through the program of the Certification Mechanism of Eco-Schools in BiH. The manual was created in ten modules, five for each type of school, with topics that are very important in the process of developing environmental awareness in children. Modules are defined in the form of preparation for the unit which in addition to basic instructions such as children’s age, subject (s), goals and objectives of the unit, methods, and forms of work, learning outcomes, and correlations with other subjects contains a part created in the form workshops describing the implementation of a timed teaching unit that should make it easier for teaching staff to access children when it comes to solving certain environmental problems. The author of the manual and the author of the illustrations in the manual have enriched the content of the manual with original stories and illustrations that make this manual a particularly interesting text. The handbook of Ecology can be downloaded free of charge by anyone interested.

Members of the nine Eco HUBs formed within the project “Think Nature!” learned about the innovative approach to educating young people on environmental topics during the four days of training. Through regular workshops, HUBs try to transfer knowledge in the field of environmental protection to young people and attract them to this topic, and the training sought to increase the capacity of Eco HUBs in supporting children, youth, schools, civil society organizations, and others interested in knowledge transfer. “Ecology” was also presented at this training.

The February guest of the podcast was eco-activist Mario Crnković, who dedicated his life to making his and our river Una drinkable, and Bosnia and Herzegovina a safe country to live in.

From the activities of grant beneficiaries, we will single out the cleaning action in Ljubinje of Eco HUB Blagaj, as well as the action of Eco HUB Široki Brijeg with the kindergarten “Mali hrast”.