The Mediterranean, a living sea - A kit for environmental education and awareness for children.

22nd Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation (4-7 April 2002, Miami, Florida USA).

THE MEDITERRANEAN, A LIVING SEA - A KIT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND AWARENESS FOR CHILDREN Lily Venizelos1 Zabel Mouratian2 Alexa Apostolaki3 Calliope Lagonika1 Nafsika Papageorgiou1 Vaya Manoli2 1

MEDASSET-Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles, 1c Licavitou St., 106 72 Athens,Greece 2 HELLENIC CHILDREN’S MUSEUM, 14 Kidathineon, 105 58 Athens, Greece 3 KALEIDOSCOPE PUBLICATIONS, 50 Omirou St., 106 72 Athens, Greece

INTRODUCTION With extensive knowledge and experience of environmental issues in the Mediterranean region, MEDASSET has produced an educational KIT in partnership with the Hellenic Children’s Museum and Kaleidoscope Publications.

The initiative, which has been funded with a grant from the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation, focuses on the Mediterranean basin and is initially being produced in Greek and English.

In contrast to some environmental education initiatives, and in a departure from the reward/sanction approach to raising awareness often seen in games, this package focuses exclusively on the region in order to engage users in a critical assessment of the role and value of its cultural and environmental heritage.

Furthermore, the KIT will be distributed free of charge to schools around the Mediterranean to be used at their discretion.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION Over the past two millennia, the Mediterranean region has fostered the emergence of civilizations, religions and ideologies that have spread and influenced the world. Today however, this cultural and environmental heritage is bearing the brunt of unrestrained development.

In addition to the Mediterranean’s 145 million coastal inhabitants, each year sees an increase in the more than 187 million tourists that annually visit the region.

This combined pressure, exacerbated by the lure of cheap package holidays, results in severe degradation of the coast, including localized yet dangerous instances of pollution, unregulated and often inadequate tourism infrastructure development and consequent loss of biodiversity.

Because many of the Mediterranean’s threatened species such as sea turtles and monk seals do not recognize borders, their survival depends on the concerted action of all the region’s stakeholders. As legislation and agreements can only go a certain way towards achieving this, the real break-through lies in

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22nd Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation (4-7 April 2002, Miami, Florida USA).

the awareness and empowerment of the Mediterranean people. In effect, the consequent involvement of the public is essential to stir policy-makers into implementing legislation and conservation measures.

MEDASSET firmly believes that in order to reach its’ aims for sea turtle conservation in the Mediterranean, action must be undertaken both at the research level and in the field of environmental education. Moreover, these initiatives must go beyond an immediate focus on sea turtles and delve into wider issues related to i.e., pollution, loss of biodiversity and protected areas, and must introduce notions of responsibility in children. In other words, it is essential to stress the crucial interconnectedness of all natural and man-made elements that constitute the Mediterranean region.

The ages from 6 to 12 correspond to a period where children gradually become familiar with concepts of space, time and numbers and are eventually able to provide logical explanations to the outcomes of a given task. On this account, the aforementioned age group was selected, split into two segments 6 – 9 and 9 – 12, as a realistic target for the KIT. The activities included do not provide answers but create a framework that facilitates critical thinking, and are intended to catalyse tangible actions amongst the target group. Changing attitudes by instilling values and a sense of regional responsibility are processes more likely to be successful at this age group than at a later stage in development.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES To build up eco-consciousness and present the richness of the region’s natural environment, the threats it is facing as well as the highly multicultural character of the Mediterranean peoples, in educationally innovative ways.

With regard to the target age group, the KIT aims to: • • • • • •

Increase knowledge of the physical and cultural environment of the Mediterranean region Develop environmental awareness Enhance analytical and problem-solving skills Trigger interest and creativity Develop team skills Promote capacity building for environmental education.

MEDITERRANEAN KIT CONTENTS The material featured in the KIT uses children’s developmental theories, and relies on a ‘hands-on’ approach to learning to engender critical thinking, satisfy curiosity and encourage involvement. To this end, the range of activities that are offered cover the analysis of environment and culture-related news items, the

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22nd Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation (4-7 April 2002, Miami, Florida USA).

development of observational skills in natural contexts and the analysis of short stories involving different stakeholders that children must enact.

The KIT will be produced as a loose-leafed A4 package within a folder, and will contain the following items: 1) 4xA4 size Map: the Mediterranean region featuring the main UNESCO World Heritage historical and cultural sites, as well as key protected areas along the coastline.

2) Eight fact sheets: Sea Fauna (3 sheets), Important Coastal Mediterranean Ecosystems, Threats facing the Mediterranean (2 sheets), Protected Areas, and Peoples of the Mediterranean.

For example the ‘Important coastal Mediterranean ecosystems’ sheet lists a number of National Parks, with associated photos. Ranging from wetland areas to marine national parks, these sites are presented together with the threats to which they are exposed, and notable endemic and rare species.

3) Working sheets: 8 sheets, with material for both target age groups.

A word hunt with words relative to ecosystems and role-playing activities where children impersonate community stakeholders in the context of an environmental issue, are featured.

For example, a simulation scenario for 6-9 year olds: Children are asked to imagine themselves as a sea turtle returning to lay its eggs on the beach where it was born 20 years earlier. The beach has now become a sprawl of hotels, tavernas, deck chairs, umbrellas and tourists, while the sea is buzzing with jet-skis and speedboats.

The children are then posed questions on what they would say as a turtle to all these people, and are asked to enact the story into a play.

4) Educator’s material: 16 sheets include an educational guide, detailed information related to fact sheets, glossary, bibliography and an evaluation sheet.

DISTRIBUTION In order to maximize its’ impact, the KIT will be distributed free of charge to elementary schools, non-profit and youth organisations in countries around the Mediterranean coast. Currently, 2000 copies of the KIT in Greek are being made available through the Greek Ministry of Education while the UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) network will handle the distribution of the 1000 English language versions. MEDASSET believes that the UNEP/MAP comprehensive and unique structure, through its’ ties with all countries around the Mediterranean, is the most appropriate tool to guarantee the correct exposure for such an initiative. Meanwhile, the MAP office has offered to

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22nd Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation (4-7 April 2002, Miami, Florida USA).

translate the KIT into Arabic and will assist in its’ distribution throughout the Arabic-speaking Mediterranean countries.

The distribution process will also involve sending the KIT to the relevant state ministries of the Mediterranean countries with the objective for them to translate it, and finance its’ production.

In a testament of faith in its potential, Kaleidoscope Publications has decided that the KIT should also be released commercially in Greece.

PROMOTION The availability of the KIT will be publicised through press releases, specialised environmental publications (Marine Turtle Newsletter, UNEP’S MedWave magazine etc), educational publications and electronic media (EuroTurtle and other educational websites, sea turtle mailing lists etc).

ASSESSMENT In order to gain an insight into how effective the educational KIT has been in schools around the Mediterranean basin, an evaluation sheet has been included in the package. Coordinators in charge of implementing the game activities will be required to rate which sections were the most successful, how the material was adapted to the particular group and how they intend to pursue their involvement in environmental education. Thus, in the event of further forays in such educational ventures, feedback from the KIT will be incorporated into the next production.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the support of the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation, as well as Lena Levidis for coordination, Liza Vavouri for the Greek to English translation, Popi Moupaiatzi for editing of the Greek version, Marc-Antoine Dunais for compilation and last but not least Dr Gregory Tsounis for his kind input. MEDASSET is also deeply indebted to the organisations, National Parks and individuals that provided photographs free of charge for use in the KIT.

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