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Context
Capitalism and development brought many problems regarding the environment and pollution is all around the earth that is dying slowly. We focused our workshops on the following issues:
| Plastic | Food & water waste |
| Paper | Recycling/upcycling |
| Renewable energy | Online campaign |
Plastic is a material which can be shaped or molded with heat and pressure. It is produced at high volume and low cost for the most common disposable items and durable goods. The main problem with plastic is that it can’t disappear from the earth and it has materials that are very unsafe for the planet, animals and for humans. It also contributes to global warming as it is primarily produced with petroleum products.
Because of all the thrown away plastic, there was an 8th continent which was formed by trash: is a huge patch of rubbish evolving in the northern Pacific Ocean. It is 6x the size of France (3.4 million km2), while the mass of plastic is 6x than the one of plankton. Finally, not all plastic is recyclable, there are 7 families of plastic, separated by the origin of the materials they are made of and only families 1,2,4 and 5 are recyclable.
Waste is also one of the main problems in our world : overconsumption is pollution, it’s useless and many people don’t have the same resources as we have like water or food. Food waste can be defined as the fact of throwing away food intended for human consumption. It occurs throughout the supply chain, from agricultural production through storage, processing, distribution and management to consumption. In the EU, approximately 88 million tonnes of food waste are generated each year with their associated costs. While 20% of all food produced is lost or wasted, 36.2 million people cannot afford a quality meal every other day. This also impacts the quantity of energy we need and how we can obtain it.
Globally, about one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Food waste is not only an ethical and economic problem but also an environmental problem. Natural resources are used to produce food, including water. If food is wasted, these resources are also wasted unnecessarily.
This is why today, it is necessary to be educated about sustainability, recycling. It is necessary to have information about pollution to think about solutions in order to save our planet.
Methodology
Our workshops are based on non-formal education. Non-formal education refers to any education received outside of traditional educational institutions. Therefore, everything we learn outside the classroom and school context is non-formal learning. Indeed, our aim is to help the students to open their minds by themselves. Most of the activities proposed involve the students discovering problems related to ecology and searching for solutions. This opens up dialogue, perspectives and points of view.
All of our workshops start with an ice-breaker to get the students in a state of mind open to non-formal education. Indeed, as all workshops are based on non-formal education, volunteers need students to be open to play and discuss. The icebreakers also allow the volunteers to get to know their audience better and give them a clue about the energy of the class.
Feedback: In the spirit of non-formal education, the workshops conclude with feedback from the students. During this time, the volunteers ask the students questions: what they liked, what they did not like, what can they improve? This allows the volunteers to adapt the workshops and also to measure the impact of their intervention. The feedback is also useful for the students: they feel listened to and understand that their opinion is useful. It also helps to develop their critical thinking skills and to use their voice.
Workshops
The Eco-Echo workshops are a series of 6 workshops facilitated by our European Solidarity Corps volunteers. They go in the high-schools to explore sustainability topics with the students by using non-formal education to share information, open discussion and push students to reflect on this topic. They want to support them to be more aware of the environmental crisis and to give them ideas of tools that they can use to take action.
They cover the following topics: Plastic, Food & Water Waste, Paper, Recycling & Upcycling, Renewable energy and end up with the last workshop, Online Campaigns that makes the students acknowledge what they learned and to conclude the experience.
| Eco Echo Clubs format | |
|---|---|
| Workshops duration: | 45-90 min |
| Number of workshops | 6 |
| Language(s) available: | English, French, Romanian |
This workshop starts with an ice-breaker which allows us and the students to get to know each other a little bit more and to give them information about GEYC. After introducing the subject of the workshop, we have created a game of cards where the aim is to find out in teams which type of plastic can easily be recycled and which type can not.
We also explain to them the different families and talk about the 8th continent and/or have a little quiz about fun facts on plastic.
Green skills
- Work in groups with the aim of exchanging points of view and finding the right answer regarding plastic types.
- Public speaking by presenting to the class the result of their work and justifying their choices regarding plastic types.
- Assimilation of new information about plastic.
- Expressing opinions by having a discussion about their plastic consumption.
The students will create presentations (posters), using their creativity on the topic of Food waste and water waste after searching information to respond to guideline questions. They will present what they found to their classmates. Green skills
- Practice public speaking by presenting their research and the poster to the class.
- Ability to summarize the content that they acquired during the workshop on the topic of food and water waste.
- Organize themselves in time to achieve the tasks given to them.
- Produce a relevant presentation on their posters based on their oral presentation.
The workshop starts with a "True or false" game to share information with the students about recycling paper in Europe. Then, students will prepare a debate about the use of digital and the use of paper. Green skills
- Assimilate new information about paper and the recycling of paper.
- Finding arguments in teams for a given topic connected to paper consumption.
- Express their opinion on the given topic.
- Searching and presenting arguments about the pros and cons of paper and digital.
- Listen and respect what the other teams have to say.
In this workshop, we created a game where students are in competition and have to guess which objects are recycled and which are upcycled. This activity shows them the differences between recycling and upcycling and makes them realize the ressources everyone has that can be used in everyday life. Green skills
- Understand the differences between upcycling and recycling.
- Work in groups in order to guess the right recycling/upcycling objects.
- Engaged creativity to think about how to do upcycling.
- Assert their own opinions on recycled and upcycled objects.
During this workshop, students have the opportunity to learn about the types of renewable energy, their sources, and their purpose. To make the learning process more enjoyable, we split them into 4 groups and give them cards represent the renewable energy types. The challenge is to divide them into 2 categories:
Optional activity:
we display a sticker with a renewable energy type on each student's back. The objective is to find out what type of energy the person is and which group they belong to. They are not allowed to directly say what type of energy the person they are interacting with is, but they must guess from a discussion in which they have to put themselves in the shoes of the energy type, for example, "You like the heat, and the sky to be clear."
Green skills
- Increased knowledge and understanding of renewable energy sources and their purpose;
- Improved teamwork skills through the group activities and games;
- Practice public speaking by presenting their work;
- Assert their own opinions on renewable energy.
This workshop will be customized based on the classroom vibe, energy level and time availability, the facilitators choosing one or both of the following activities:
- a short revision of the previous workshops, followed by splitting the participants in four groups of students and asking them to create a Tiktok/Reels format video during which each group needs to choose a topic from the four workshop that they have done. Its goal is to convince their community about its importance in 15 seconds.
- a short revision of the previous workshops by playing the game „throw the ball”. When a student catches the ball he/she has to say her/his favorite workshop and one thing about it. Next step is to move from all those reasons that surround us regarding environmental challenges to each of us, and our individual impact on a global level. In order to do it, we ask them about ecological footprint and Earth overshoot Day, and then we calculate it using this tool.
Green skills
- Summarize information learned during all the workshops;
- Work in teams and create a social media content to raise awareness in your community;
- Conclude what they learned during the workshops;
- Find out the individual impact on a global level;
- Work independently by filling the ecological footprint calculator.
Impact
“the idea of traveling”
I really liked the idea of traveling around Europe, and gathering information this way. And I will forevermore that teens can have such a significant impact on the international panorama and, I am looking forward to your next project!
“openness and kindness”
I liked the fact that you were so open with us and tried to make things funnier, while talking about an important matter for the Planet. I didn’t like that my French skills were so bad :’) I’ll always remember the eighth continent and the orange ball game. Au Revoir! (at first I thought it was a tangerine)
“raise awareness”
The class was pretty fun. I enjoyed it a lot and I think it’s really important to bring awareness on this topic. Most children don’t care about it and that’s why we should educate them
“enthusiasm in communicating useful informations”
I really liked the way of choosing the next person who was supposed to speak (using the orange ball). I also appreciated the enthusiastic way of communicating and all the useful information. The most helpful part was the usage of different languages :). All in all it wasn’t a thing I personally disliked.
“appreciation of the volunteers”
« J’aime beaucoup vos personnalités, vous êtes très gentils et, pour moi, cette activité a été une grande joie parce que j’aime la France. Je ne savais pas qu’il y avait autant de types de plastique et c’était très intéressant pour nous. »
I really like your personalities, you’re really nice and for me this activity was a great joy because I like France. I didn’t know there were so many types of plastic and it was really interesting for us.
Contact
If you would like to bring Eco-Echo workshops in your hishchool, please contact us.
| Location(s) currently available: | Bucharest, Romania |
| Eco Echo Clubs are organized free of charge by GEYC with the support of the European Commission through the European Solidarity Corps programme as part of our Sustainability commitment. |  |
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