GREECE
Fine art in fine green environment
ΝΑΤURE ART WORKSHOP
Caretakers of the Environment
GREECE in cooperation with the “Friends of Botanic Garden” organized a NATURE
ART workshop with material
from the nearby forest in the Botanic Garden . This workshop was placed among
the activities of the Grundvig project “Forest for all all for Forest”.
As it took placed on the 23rd
of April 2013, a week before Orthodox Easter the theme of the workshop was
“Decorating with nature for Easter”.
In this workshop participated 7
teacher trainers, members of CARETAKERS OF THE ENVIRONMENT GREECE and 18 young students. Trainer was Mrs Nana
Hatziathanasiadou member of CARETAKERS,
founder of NGO “Friends of Botanic Garden”and former curator of the Botanic Garden.
GREENING SCHOOLGROUNDS (HERE)
The period November 2012-March 2013, between the 4th and th Mobility of the Grundvig project "Forest for All all for Forest" the Caretakers of the Environment, Greek partner in the project, have undertaken the following activities. HERE
“Feeling the forest “
Activities in the Suburban forest of Chortiatis
Sunday 4th November 2012
Adults, members of
the Greek team /teachers and also young learners, participated enthusiastically and had great
fun in “Feeling the forest” activity, organized by Caretakers of The Environment
Greece as part of their action plan for the “Forest for All-All for Forest”
Grundvig Project.
We had a great ally, the
extraordinarily good weather. Also, the astounding autumn colors, the
breathtaking landscape and above all our good will to feel and enjoy the
forest, contributed to the success of the excursion.
We all split into groups and
participated eagerly in the following activities which were carried out in the
forest.
Description of the activities
1.Enjoy
the forest with all our senses
We forme a circle holding
hands in order to feel the warmth running from body to body.
We embrace the
person next to us to establish contact.
We lie on the ground in a
circle, close our eyes and our ears with our hands.
Hearing – First we open our ears and put our hands on the
ground, palms down. We try to hear the sounds coming from the forest.
Touching – With our palms we
try to catch and feel the things that are beneath them and guess what they are.
Sight – We open our eyes, see the sky, the trees around and we
keep all these in our mind in order to express them later.
We get up slowly trying to
visualize what we have experienced during the activity.
Then we start
walking in a circle vigorously.
With the order of
the group leader we stop.
We make pairs then we keep on
walking, stop and form groups of five-four-three etc and finally we all form a group in< a big hug>.
2.Activating our senses
The purpose of the activity is
to make us realize what we see, hear, notice in the forest changes depending on
the season.
This activity can be done by a
group of 5 people. The group leader writes down the findings, filling in the
following table.
Season of the year
Hearing –
predominant sound. Is it pleasant or unpleasant?
Vision – predominant
colour. Is it the same throughout the year?
Smell – detect different
odours. Sort them out into pleasant and unpleasant. Where do they come from?
Touching – Finger different
things. Describe and classify them into smooth, harsh, tough, soft.
3.How we measure the height of a tree
We measure the
height of a student and then the height of his shadow.
We measure the shadow of the
tree and calculate its height with the following ratio:
Height of the tree shadow
of the tree
----------------------- = ----------------------------
Height of the student shadow of the
student
We multiply the height of the
student by the shadow of the tree and divide it with the shadow of the student.
How we calculate
the age of a tree
We measure the perimeter of
the trunk at the height of 1.30m from the ground and then apply the mathematic
rule:
Perimeter x 1.30
Age= --------------------------
2,5
4. Signs of pollution
Many times we see traces of
pollution in the forest. We detect and record them. Glass, plastic, tires,
paper, tin, electric appliances, metallic objects
Which of the above
are recycled in nature?
5.Human interventions
Spot and write down human
interventions in the forest like the following ones: road, structures, hunting,
grazing, felling timber and others.
Finally we photographed trees,
bushes, flowers, rocks, living creatures and their traces on the ground.
We collected
leaves, oak apples, chestnuts- tiny but delicious.
As a follow up we wrote
messages for the protection of the forest and impressions.
POLLAND
In September 2012 we organized two outdoor activities promoting rosa rugosa plant. We demonstrated how to preapare healthy products from the fruits of Rosa Rugosa and we distributed the sidlings among inhabitants and representatives of local institutions.
ACTIVITIES OF LITHUANIA here
GREECE
5th JUNE UNIVERSAL DAY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Teachers members of Caretakers of the Environment Greece Anthoula Chatzitheodorou and Eleni Nikolaidou – trainers of the Grundtvig project “Forest for all all for Forest” and their students participated actively in the celebration of the day at the Botanic Garden of Stavroupolis.
Ms Nana Chatziathanasiadou had organized activities for the participants and the team of students and teachers read poems written by a famous Greek poet “ Nikiforos Vretakos” with the theme “trees – forest – environment”.
We also created a “forest” with drawings of trees suggesting that we are ALL FOR FOREST.
The poster we made had inventive messages about the environment.
We all united our voice to demand
MORE GREEN FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT
Learning about trees and forest
You can see here the living experience and acquaintance of Greek flora through a guided visit to the Botanic Garden
SEMINAR
“SYSTEM THINKING AND NATURE: LEARNING FROM NATURE”
On the 3rd of May a seminar was coordinated by teacher members of the Greek partner of the project” Forest for all all for forest”. The seminar was organized by CARTETAKERS GREECE as an activity of the “Forest for all ,all for forest project”GRUNDVIG PROJECT.
The 25 participants were teacher students, teachers and second chance school students.
The topic was “SYSTEM THINKING AND NATURE: LEARNING FROM NATURE”
The venue place was the conference room of the Department of education of the Aristotle University Thessaloniki”.
The seminar introduced the idea that is based on the emerging notion of circular or closed loop economy which is explored in the book “Sense and sustainability:Educating for a low carbon economy”. Mapping the core ideas of ‘how Nature /and in our case Forest works’ onto how educationist and students see the modern world it can generate ‘bright green thinking
Most of the earth’s natural ecosystems are driven by the Sun (‘current sunshine’). In nature, ‘waste=food’. Natural systems are self sustaining and abundant. In healthy ecosystems competition and cooperation (participation) usually go together. Everything connects and closed loop, circular feedback mechanisms help to ensure a dynamic balance and continuity in the system.
Using the ‘Nature as teacher’ framework of thinking, industrial products and systems are designed and developed to mimic Nature they are driven mainly by renewable energy sources and mimic the closed loops of natural ecosystems. Industrial products are designed in what is called a ‘cradle to cradle’ process. What end products cannot
be composted (e.g. metals) go back to industry in a closed loop– as a valuable, easy to manage ‘nutrient’.Waste is designed out using natural systems for inspiration. Education for sustainability becomes the debate around how the insights of Nature can be best applied explicitly to a modern world in transition and to the processes of learning itself, which is also based on participation and feedback.
Bringing nature in the city...
Students visit botanic garden in Stavroupoli-Thessaloniki-Greece HERE
Caretakers Greece/Forest for all all for Forest
May 23, 2012
Visiting the Botanical Garden of Sravroupolis- Thessaloniki
Adult students of the 1st Second Chance School of Thessaloniki participating in the activities of the Grundtvig project “forest for all” visited the Botanical Garden of Stavroupolis
Ms Chantziathanasiadou, member of Caretakers Greece , is the agronomist who first had the idea to organize such a garden in the region of Thessaloniki
With her inspiring guiding all of us enjoyed learning a lot about the various plants and the importance of biodiversity in nature. She gave us useful information concerning forest species ,the cultivation of forest trees and shrubs in our home gardens and answered the many questions of our learners. Since May is the best time of the year to enjoy the beauty of a garden in Greece
Thank you Mrs Chantziathanasiadou!
