The BUND children’s wilderness, on the photo Klaus Milde as a volunteer, is one of the places where schoolchildren can experience nature. (Christina Kuhaupt)
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“When children experience nature intensively, this is an important contribution to sustainable development,” says Sabine Schweitzer, Head of the Environmental Education Coordination Office in Bremen, “because future-oriented thinking and acting also means appreciating biodiversity.” Studies have shown that adults only care for Use biodiversity if they came into contact with native nature as children. “
Such nature experiences are possible in out-of-school learning locations in Bremen, such as the BUND children’s wilderness or in the blue classroom in the Borgfelder Wümmewiesen nature reserve: there, for example, children learn about local herbs and their health benefits or experience the diverse cosmos of aquatic animals. With such experiences, knowledge for sustainable living as well as an emotional connection to nature would be acquired, says Sabine Schweitzer. But the alienation from nature among children has now spread widely. The situation could be improved if the existing environmental education institutions in Bremen cooperated more intensively with schools.
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Hans Wendt Foundation in Borgfeld
-Youth farm offers the opportunity to experience animals and nature
A lot is possible and allowed on the Hans Wendt Foundation’s children’s and youth farm. In the …
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The Education and Science Union (GEW) has recently called for greater involvement of extracurricular learning locations, especially in Corona times (we reported). For example, youth camps, museums or environmental education facilities could be used to a greater extent. This would make the required teaching in half groups much easier without having to switch to digital distance teaching for one group.
Several representatives of environmental education institutions in Bremen have taken up this suggestion and are demanding a joint strategy from the Bremen education authority. “In view of the diverse offers of environmental education in Bremen, regular and permanent cooperation with schools should be established. This could also relieve the teaching staff ”, says Sabine Schweitzer.
Convey environmental, climate and nature protection clearly
In other federal states such as North Rhine-Westphalia or Baden Württemberg there would already be such framework agreements between schools and extracurricular learning locations. “Because environmental, climate and nature protection are too important for the future of all of us,” says Schweitzer, “and in the extracurricular learning locations they are conveyed to children in a vivid and lively manner on specific topics.”
Tanja Greiß, who heads environmental education at BUND Bremen, can tell you a lot about how nature is usually only brought closer to school through language and images: “For example, my son only got to know snails through photos and words. His task was to label the body parts of a snail – he never saw a living animal in class. ”On the other hand, learning on site, outdoors in nature, is a contact with all of the senses, and new ones would arise automatically with the students Open up questions – curiosity that exploratory behavior is aroused, says Tanja Greiß.
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-Environmental project for students
In cooperation with the comprehensive school Bremen-Ost and the Borgfelder Hans-Wendt-Foundation, the …
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Environmental Education Bremen, supported by the environmental authority since 2007, is currently coordinating twelve Bremen environmental education institutions that offer a wide variety of topics on environmental and climate protection as well as knowledge of nature – from insects to bats to exploring forests or ponds. The demand from schools is huge, says Sabine Schweitzer. “For example, the Nord West Natur Foundation recently created another pond for the ‘Blue Classroom’ in order to meet the many inquiries from schoolchildren”, says Rebekka Lemb, Managing Director of Nord West Natur.
And even in the cold season, children and young people could be active in the extracurricular learning facilities – for example, researching the survival strategies of animals and plants in winter. “Bird watching is easier with bare trees and bushes,” says Tanja Greiß, who also advocates focusing more on nature in the immediate vicinity of the schools. “Environmental educators can go to schools and, for example, offer weekly nature working groups. But at the moment there is mainly a lack of money for such offers ”, says Tanja Greiß.
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-Students discover nature
The teacher Regine Siebers led her first class, the so-called bee class, from the …
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The actors in environmental education would like a concept to be worked out for greater cooperation between the education authority and non-school providers. And such a concept should also do justice to the great differences between the Bremen districts. “In areas that are shaped by the educated middle class, children often already have a lot of knowledge about nature. In socially disadvantaged areas, on the other hand, we often have to work first to overcome a negative attitude towards nature, ”says Tanja Greiß from BUND Bremen.
Further information
The current offers under the coordination of environmental education Bremen can be found at www.umweltbildung-bremen.de/angebote.
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-Environmental project for students
-Students discover nature
