DAPHNE's English School Programs
Mission
DAPHNE considers education to be a very important, inseparable part of the nature conservation process and so the environmental education department's goal is to help in developing positive attitudes towards nature, which will foster environmentally-friendly behaviour. From a long-term perspective, appropriate education is the most effective way of changing our technocratic perceptions and understanding of the natural world.
Objectives
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Increasing the effectiveness of environmental education by inspiring and helping teachers to include environmental topics into their lessons.
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Passing ecological scientific knowledge to the public by making it more understandable and accessible.
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Increasing understanding of the importance of and possible threats to biodiversity at the ecosystem and species level.
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Enhancing support for nature conservation and active participation of the public in practical conservation work.
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Presenting nature as a source of joy and beauty and as an ideal place for getting first hand experience in outdoor education.
DAPHNE's education
and information activities resulted in the establishment of the Ecocentre
DAPHNE, opened on October 1st, 1999 in Devin in the western part of Bratislava.
The main mission of the centre is to promote awareness of, and interest
in, Slovakia's natural and cultural heritage at a local, national and
international level. The establishment of the Ecocentre DAPHNE was the
result of long term co-operation between DAPHNE and local communities
and a cross-border project, Nature without Boundaries, prepared and implemented
with Distelverein, an Austrian non-profit environmental organisation.
The main mission of the Ecocentre is increasing children and adults awareness
of nature protection and improving of environment. We focus on improvement
of environmental education, on development of the Morava floodplain region
and on practical conservation work.
Thanks
The Ecocentre is involved in a number of activities focused on environmental education, nature conservation and eco-tourism. Since 1999 the Ecocentre has offered ecoprogrammes, seminars for teachers, educational materials, environmental education for local and regional schoolchildren, special events days for the public, summer camps for children, guided walking and bicycle tours, environmental English lessons and much more. The demand for our programs is increasing day by day.
Practival environmental education for kidergartens - We create model of sustainable landscape
The goal of the project is to improve effectivity and reinforce environmental part of education in kindergartens. Project will take place at 2 kindergartens by model form. During regular meetings kids together with teachers and led by instuctors will create interactive aid - model of sustainable landscape. While creating this model, kids will learn about particular parts of lanscape and their meaning for people. Experiences gained after fulfilling of practical part of environmental educational program will be used in creating didactic-methodical handbook for kindergarten teachers. This handbook will be presented at teacher´s workshop and also will be published on CD.
Coordinator: Viera Chrenkova
Period: May 2008 - February 2010
Funds: foundation Ekopolis within Block grant EMVO-TUR
Project webpage
World of Carpathians - Awareness Raising about the Carpathian Biodiversity
In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) selected the Carpathians as one of the priority ecoregions of the world the protection of which is crucial in maintenance of natural diversity. One of the significant obstacles in effective nature protection is lack of information available and low awareness of local people and visitors to Carpathians about their extraordinary natural and cultural value. That is why the project is focused on building awareness and promoting Carpathian mountain curricula throughout the region. It supports the preparation of methodical handbook for teachers and other educators World of Carpathians and information material about Carpathians for public. Both materials will be published in three language versions: in English, Slovak and Polish and will be distributed in seven Carpathian countries and in other EU states. Their distribution will be linked with the media promotion and their presentation at various international events. To transfer also know-how, the main form of distribution of the teaching handbook will be training session for teachers and other educators. A set of teaching tools prepared on the basis of the handbook will be presented together with possibilities of use of the handbook during the classes.
As the project will lead to the improvement of environmental awareness, and thus, to the enhancement of conservation of mountain ecosystems, the project ought to significantly contribute to implementation of Carpathian Convention.
Co-ordinator: Andrea Královičová
Period: December 2007 - December 2009
Funding: German Fund for the Environment (DBU)
Partners: Thüringer Ökoherz e.V., (TÖH), Germany (leading organisation), DAPHNE - Institute of Applied Ecology, Carpathian EcoRegion Initiative (CERI)
Project webpage
Project webpage in German: www.oekoherz.de/aktivi/2083.htm