THE FIRST WORKSHOP OF ARGONAUT’S ECO-PATROL “KORNATI – IT’S IMPORTANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE SEA 8” WAS HELD.
On January 13, 2024, the first workshop within the project “Kornati – it is important to know about the sea 8” of Argonaut’s Eco-Patrol was held in the premises of Vodice Elementary School. The goal of the project and extracurricular educational workshops is to strengthen awareness of the values of nature and the environment that surround us and to create a positive attitude towards sustainable development. The first workshop was attended by 19 students from Elementary School Vodice, who demonstrated their knowledge, skills and creativity.
The first activity “Friendship Ball” aimed to create a pleasant atmosphere for getting to know each other and teamwork, and to motivate participants for active participation and learning in the following activities. The familiarization game is performed so that the participant introduces himself when he gets the ball in his hands and passes the ball to another participant who was not the ball before so that he can also introduce himself. If the ball falls, the game starts from the beginning, and the first round is over when the ball passes all the children without repeating or falling out and returns to the leader. After the game, children develop an awareness of how they should act as a team, because sustainability is only possible if we work together.
The second activity “Sustainability Simulation” develops responsibility towards the rational consumption of natural resources, develops sensitivity to the needs of others and encourages solidarity. The activity consists of three rounds and each round has one new rule. The children are divided into 5 groups and have to collect the balls that are found all over the classroom. In the second round, they should choose a representative of the group who will actually be a representative of a country that is fighting for its resources. If they picked up a green or blue ball in the second round, in the third round they must collect another ball of those colors. The blue and green balls represent water and forest resources. The groups that had a larger number of green and blue balls in the second round failed to collect the required number of balls in the third round. The children compared the game to the functioning of today’s world and at the same time looked at resources from a different perspective and questioned what is sustainable.
In the third activity called “Ecological Debt Day”, we learned about the same term and its meaning, we noticed and recognized unsustainable concepts and understood cause-and-effect relationships using a concrete example. At the very beginning of the activity, the students discussed whether they would take a bag of candies, go on vacation…and that one day their descendants would have to pay off that debt.
In this workshop, we introduced ourselves by date of birth and tried to line up without talking, from the oldest to the youngest. After a short reflection, we talked about significant dates for planet Earth. The participants had not heard of the date when people become indebted to future generations, so they came up with the term “ECOLOGICAL DEBT DAY” with the help of a questionnaire. They concluded that we consume much more resources than what can be regenerated in one year, so we “borrow” resources from the next year, i.e. we spend at the expense of future generations.
In the fourth activity “My ecological footprint”, we found out with the help of the application how much the Earth would need for humanity if they lived like them? We found out what date their ecological debt starts and we calculated the ecological footprint for five categories (food, accommodation, transport, goods and services). The children were surprised with the obtained results and filled out the application several times in order to make their ecological footprint as small as possible, thus thinking about what needs to be changed. Children developed the ability to connect knowledge and reflect on the wider context of the story, they developed the ability to think and make logical conclusions.
In the fifth activity “Wheel of Consequences”, the children had to think about the ecological footprint of their community when summer comes and the place is filled with tourists. One of the examples they cited was the event: pollution of the sea with waste, which had consequence 1: the death of organisms, consequence 2: fishermen have no work, sell their fish quickly and cannot offer tourists local food, consequence 3: local fishermen lose their jobs, due to the lack of food, fewer tourists want to visit the place. This activity encourages curiosity and willingness to find solutions, encourages teamwork, develops willingness to share ideas and respect others’ opinions, and encourages critical thinking about the wheel of consequences after the tourist season.
In the sixth activity “Round Table”, the patrolmen listed the rules by which they can reduce their own ecological footprint. Some of the rules are: I will carry cloth bags to the store, I will take a quick shower, I will participate in nature clean-up activities, I will use public transportation instead of my parents driving me to the Eco Patrol, I will come to the Eco Patrol on foot, I will use my cell phone less and more to be in nature… With this activity, children perfect the formation and verbalization of their own opinion based on available information, develop the ability to grade suggestions according to importance and effectiveness.
In the seventh activity “Time capsule”, each child is given a piece of paper on which they address themselves for the 30th
