As part of the information and awareness campaign within the project, the second meeting with teachers took place at Şcoala Gimnazială „Dimitrie Gusti” in Nereju village and focused on the ways to protect biodiversity and the importance of the natural protected area Căldările Zăbalei.
The thematic presentation highlighted the fact that the educational process has to be seen as a decisive element for biodiversity conservation. Teachers acknowledged their responsibility in this respect as well as the numerous teaching methods and tools at their disposal to provide children with high-quality ecological education. As for developing critical and creative thinking among students from the local community, the participants came to the conclusion that this is the ability that will help children distinguish between attitudes, behaviors and decisions that are favorable or harmful to nature.
Another aspect addressed during the meeting was related to the objectives of environmental education. Each of these was defined as an important gain that students will enjoy throughout their lives. Teachers were invited to an imaginative exercise to go on the ”road” that students have to go on in the process of ecological education: starting from becoming aware (when they understand the environment and its problems), then to knowing (when they understand the interaction of people with the environment and the way environmental problems arise), defining an attitude (when they acquire feelings of care towards the environment), training abilities (when they learn to identify environmental issues and how they can help solve them) and finishing with actually participating (when students engage in actions with a positive impact on the environment).
Going on this ”road”, teachers stated that they had a better understanding of the need to constantly provide students with guidance, so that all learning steps could be taken in order for children to adopt appropriate environmental protection behavior. At the end of the presentation, teachers received information materials specially designed for them within the project and their responsibility for a whole generation’s mentality on biodiversity conservation was once again highlighted.
