Blue Eco-Patrol Virtual Workshop: “Adopt the 7R’s concept!”.

Argonauta Association as the holder of the Blue Eco-Patrol project, together with the Local Action Group More 249 and other project partners, and within the “Pilot implementation of the Blue Eco-Patrol educational program” for the 2019-2020 school year, has organized 4th educational workshop for students from 5th to 8th grade called “eRRRRRRR-iziraj se!” (in free translation: “Adopt the 7R’s concept”). Owing to the new situation and the global pandemic caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19), the fourth educational workshop was held online, on a virtual platform called Schoology.

The goals of the fourth educational workshop were: to raise awareness of the quantity of waste that we generate and investigation of the waste path; to become aware of the overconsumption impacts and human careless attitude toward the waste we generate; to encourage environmental conservation for humans and other living beings; to become aware of their activities that contribute to unsustainable waste production and management; to become familiar with activities and solutions of waste management, and activities that encourage changes in people’s thinking and behavior; to encourage adoption of the 7R concept in daily life.

Meeting with the local coordinators of Patrols was held before the implementation of the 4th workshop where the following activities of the virtual workshop were agreed:

1. Introduction: Greetings from all coordinators and an overview of patrolling children’s research: How much do we throw?

2. Guided Fiction: The Life of a Mermaid in the 21st Century.

3. Escape Room.

4. Creative workshop (making a bag and selecting 7 most beautiful bags, each per school included in the project).

For the first activity, patrol children had to research how much waste they generate in their homes. In the first video, one of the local coordinators analyzed their observations and made a statistical summary of the above, as well as a presentation on waste and waste sorting options.

In another activity, the patrol children listened to the guided story, using only the sense of hearing, and imagination. The aim was to raise awareness of the overconsumption impact and human careless of the waste we create and to encourage environmental conservation for humans and other living beings.

In the third activity, patrolling children, through a series of tasks and clues discovered the meaning of the 7R concept: REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE, REPAIR, REGIFT, RECOVER, and RECYCLE. The solution for the activity was posted on the Blue Eco-Patrol website (https://eko-patrola.org/ucenici/), where they sow how to put gained knowledge into practice.

The last activity was a creative workshop – making bags of an old T-shirt. After students made their bags, they took pictures of them and uploaded photos on the e-learning platform. This was made as “competition” where patrol children posted their bags and liked for the one they like the most. Seven bags that had the most likes (one from each school) were posted on the Blue Eco-Patrol website (http://eko-patrola.org/najbolje-torbe-izradene-u-okviru-radionice-errrrrrriziraj-se/).

After the activity, the patrolling children wrote down their observations and critical reflections true the evaluation – how they felt after activities, how much they liked the particular activity, whether they had difficulty implementing the tasks and what are the recommendations for the next workshop.

One of the most important aspects of the workshop was the fact that in the virtual world they were able to be the main actors of the activity, think critically, make conclusions, and recommendations of changes that can be implemented in the local community. They took responsible behavior towards nature and developed a sense of belonging to a group that positively affects their community and shared resources.

The Blue Eco-Patrol project started on June 1, 2019, and lasts for 22 months and is co-financed through the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Program with 1,152,000.00 HRK, while its total value is 1,280,000.00 HRK.

Three more educational workshops are waiting for us – Acidification, Green and Blue, Together for a Cleaner Environment, and a joint trip to the Kornati Islands planned for June 2020! The form of the next workshops will depend on the situation with the global pandemic.

We look forward to all the upcoming educational workshops and activities within the project, whether they are in the virtual world or not! By then, follow us on the Blue Eco-Patrol web site and Facebook page, https://ekopatrola.org/, https://web.facebook.com/plavapatrola/