HOB's Adventure handbooks translated

We have finished our project of creating lesson plans for teaching 5-9-year-old children about biodiversity. The activities incorporate innovative methods such as hands-on learning, digital tools, project-based learning. We also want to increase the physical activeness of children and the time they spend outdoors.

The handbook has been translated from English into Estonian, Icelandic, Latvian and Slovenian. Below, you’ll find links to all five versions. Note that we used the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA license, so you can freely use the activities. We intend interested teachers to be able to copy and adapt the materials, so that they’re applied to the cultural and environmental context that’s most appropriate for the children being taught. We only ask you to mention our project and not to use it for commercial purposes.

• English version

• Estonian version

• Icelandic version

• Latvian version

• Slovenian version

This project (2018-1-EE01-KA201-047083) was co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, and we greatly appreciate the dedicated support by Archimedes, Estonia. Note that the European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Latvian translation of the handbook Hob's Adventure

We rose to the challenge of showcasing the Latvian translation of the Hob’s Adventure Handbook in the middle of a global pandemic while still making the experience nice and interesting for teachers. We had to change our plans several times as the governmental restrictions were changing daily. Nevertheless, we feel (and the feedback from the teachers agree) that we found the best possible way to present this practical tool for our teachers to explore biodiversity together with children. We organised the seminar in two parts. First part was held over Zoom and we celebrated the release of the Latvian translation of the handbook together with 56 teachers, guests from WWF Latvia and Latvian team a.k.a. co-authors of the handbook. 

And for the second part we found ourselves in the bog. In the most innate and unaffected environment where you can experience nature. We were guided through this amazing natural world, told about the species and plants, about the importance and the impact of the bog for the environment we live in and how we can talk with children about the significance of all natural in our lives. Our guides showed us nice examples on how to teach children about biodiversity from the scratch taking bog as an example. They reflected to HOBs handbook and how to adjust the lessons according to the local context, such as a bog. For instance, they showed how to apply the lessons “Leaf herbarium” and “What is hiding in the ground?” among others. As all the lessons are designed to be easily adaptable and as the material is inviting us to use more digital tools, this expedition showed that being and learning outdoors is the best way to get in touch with nature and that we definitely should do it more with children.

After this expedition, teachers were very excited to organise similar events with their students in the nearest future. 

Description of the handbook in Latvian:

Šis materiāls ir apkopojums vienkārši piemērojamām nodarbībām par bioloģiskās daudzveidības tēmu bērniem vecumā no 5 līdz 9 gadiem. Aktivitāšu plānos iekļautas tādas mūsdienīgas metodes kā mācīties darot, digitālo rīku izmantošana un projektos balstīta mācīšanās. Nodarbību mērķis ir arī pagarināt ārā pavadīto laiku un vairot bērnu fiziskās aktivitātes mācību laikā.

Materiāls pieejams ŠEIT

Final transnational meeting

Reminder: the English version of the handbook is ready to download by clicking here.

The project`s final transnational session took place in Estonia from February 10th to 15th. During this time, we focused on making final adjustments to the compilation of activities for the handbook as well as learning from the various schools we visited.

The first school visit was to the green flag school in Rakvere. There we were introduced to the zero-energy building, their environmental education principles, and all their amazing facilities. We participated in digital learning activities where we were introduced to the many uses of QR-codes and programming toys. We were truly amazed and inspired by the school.

After that we took a bus to Lahemaa National Park where we took a nature walk in the forest until we arrived to the sea shore village Altja. Finally, we ended up in Sagadi nature school, where we stayed for the next 2 days. During our stay there, we focused on working towards making the final adjustments to the handbook.

The monotony of analysis and writing was broken up by sessions when the Estonian team intoduced various activities and games for children. Even though these games would not end up in this version of the handbook, they continue the tradition of experience sharing between the countries, with the aim of making the process sustainable once the project concludes. During this time, the groups from all four countries started to get to know each other better through the games, and socializing time during the evenings.

After all the hard work in Sagadi, we drove south to Tartu for a visit to the Tartu Environmental Education Centre. That was a very special institution intended for children in the area to come for shorter periods at a time and learn specially about nature. The facilities were amazing, the number of gadgets and tools the children could use to learn were staggering. And the diversity of plants and animals is a testament to their dedication to teaching biodiversity.

The visit to Rannamoisa kindergarden also stood out. The location of the kindergarten seemed perfect for environmental teaching, as the kids had access to domestic animals on the kindergarten grounds, and the forest and beach was very close by. The environment around the school and their use of self-grown vegetables for food was very inspiring.

The farewell party that evening was the perfect icing on the cake, and a very fun event rounding up the trip and cementing all the new friendships created during the project.

Soon after the session, the COVID-19 pandemic was announced, so our plans for dissemianting the handbook have been put on hold. We plan to hold the dissemination seminars in the autumn as well, hoping that the situation calms down by then. As for the coming months, the teams are hard at work finalizing the Estonian, Icelandic, Latvian and Slovenian versions of the handbook.

Authors: Egill Helgason, Martin Aher

The handbook

HOB’s teams have finished (the English version) of the Handbook with lesson plans, projects and activities for 5-9 year old children.

Click here to download it.

It’s a large file, so please give it a few minutes to load. There’s also a download button in the top right (down arrow) to save it on your hard drive.

The handbook is a collection of easy to use lesson plans for teaching 5-9-year-old children about biodiversity. The activities incorporate innovative methods such as hands-on learning, digital tools, project-based learning. We also want to increase the physical activeness of children and the time they spend outdoors.

We want teachers to be able to pick and choose activities that are most appropriate for their context and children, so each lesson plan starts with a brief summary and a listing of its topic, objectives and requirements.

The first two sections are intended for kindergarten children age 5-7 and sections 3-4 are for 7-9 year old children. As the lesson plans need to be applicable across different environmental and educational contexts across Europe, we limited local references. To illustrate how to localize a lesson plan to your country and city, we’ve added examples of how they have been adapted to specific locations in the fifth section.

All the lesson plans have been published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA license which means that you can freely use the activities. You can also copy and adapt the materials as long as you mention HOB;s Adventure and don’t use it for commercial purposes nor try to impose a different license on the materials developed based on these lesson plans. We want this handbook to be a free resource for everyone who’s interested in it.

In the coming months, the handbook will be translated into Estonian, Icelandic, Latvian and Slovenian. Follow this space to be updated when they are ready. We will also organize meetings to introduce the handbook and some of the activities in each country. Feel free to get in touch for more information.

We would like to thank all our contributors from Estonia, Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia. The project (2018-1-EE01-KA201-047083) was co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, and we greatly appreciate the dedicated support by Archimedes, Estonia. Note that the European Commission's support for the production of this publica- tion does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Winter works

Like Santa's little helpers, the teams of Hob's Adventure had its busiest period yet this winter. As we have mentioned in previous posts, we've been working on finalizing lesson plans and activities for the handbook.

Recall that last autumn, teachers from all countries tested the lesson plans and activities at their own schools. The feedback gathered from this testing was compiled and reviewed in Slovenia, in October, at our transnational meeting. After the meeting, the feedback was taken back to each country for discussion, so that the lesson plans could be improved and finalized. Everyone was working on a tight schedule, so each country organized national meetings quickly after the Slovenian trip. Teachers and project members looked at how results differed across countries, modifying them to be as universally applicable as possible. The process was also very enjoyable, as the feedback was generally positive and encouraging, with mostly polishing out rough edges. This process was finished early in December.

After the review process, the lesson plans were compiled into a single document, streamlined and standardized as much as possible. While there’s great value in producing lesson plans organically in each different country and context, the resulting lesson plans differed greatly in style and format. This made the handbook draft difficult to read. To make it as easily accessible as possible, we re-wrote most lesson plans, keeping the substance but trying to present them using a single voice. This process took all of December.

In January, while I write this blog post, the handbook draft has been handed to a professional for typesetting and illustration. While the resulting handbook will look like the final product, there are undoubtedly more regional intricacies to account for before it can be finalized. On the one hand, you have simple problems such word lengths differing across languages, but there are also more in-grained questions such as which requirements do national curricula pose that the presentation of the lesson plans could mitigate.

All of the above questions and topics are going to be discussed at the February transnational meeting in Estonia, where we will discuss the handbook draft at length and hopefully reach a version which we can quickly finalize so that it can be translated, and we can begin the last phase of the project in which we publicize and disseminate the handbook.

HOB'S ADVENTURE PRESENTED AT THE ECO-SCHOOLS' NATIONAL OPERATORS MEETING

Our project, Hob’s Adventure, was presented at the Eco-School’s National Operators Meeting (NOM) in the Netherlands. The meeting took place over three days, November 12th until November 14th, 2019. There were over 90 participants from 57 countries from all over the world.

The 2019 NOM was themed: Learning from the Past, Building for the Future – Building a movement of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through Eco-Schools. Our project was a natural fit, so Gregor Cerar (NO Slovenia) and Daniels Truksans (NO Latvia) mentioned the project and outlined the main objectives and activities at several occasions during the meeting: the project was first presented at the workshop “Moving forward” and at the plenary session. On the second day, it was explained in depth at the Regional meeting for Southern and Eastern Europe and also mentioned during the conclusions of the day workshop. On the third day, the organizers held an “Inspirational sessions market” where the project was presented with Powerpoint and a short video.

On the third day, the operators discussed the project the Great Plant Hunt, which brought the Hob’s project teams together in the first place and which shares many common traits with our project. Thus, it was warmly welcomed among the broader Great Plant Hunt community. Several people came to tell us afterwards that they are looking forward to the release of a handbook with lesson plans that they will integrate into their work and also disseminate among other Eco-Schools.

Mountains, ravines, rivers, ancient castles on the rocks – Hob`s Adventure met in wondrous Slovenia

The project`s third transnational session took place from October 8th to 11th in Slovenia. This time participants focused on lesson plan testing results and how to improve the tested materials. The session opened in Grosuplie with a visit to kindergarten Kekec where teachers saw several outdoor activities such as a “mud bath”, “maize tickling” and cutting corn, targeting of waste packaging, etc.

Next, participants took part in the international conference on biodiversity and climate change and presented examples of good practices. For example, Urska Gorjar from Slovenia presented the lesson plan „Getting to know flowers in the school neighborhood with the use of digital technology“, Jasmina Mlakar introduced how she used digital technology with pupils to explore biodiversity in the school surrounding, Kadi Seeme from Estonia explained how to combine many different modaltities into one activityt and, Anna Ros Finnsdottir from Iceland made the presentation „No one is too small to make a difference“. 

The hobsian team also visited the learning path „Follow the Kingfisher (a bird)“ in Grosuplje Cerovo. Alongside seeing the activities and outdoor classroom setup, the participants got to enjoy the magnificent view of the meadows, pond and forests The guide mentioned that the educational trail area is entirely enclosed by hedges, as this is the only way to secure peace and safety for the residing birds and other animals, as they find shelter in the hedge and reed.

The agenda for the next day involved a visit to the primary school Artice and involved participation at the outdoor activity. With the pupils, the HOBS team discovered and passed different stop points where they had to do different tasks (recognize the herbs, measure and do the flavored water etc). 

The rest of the day was a workshop where the teams discussed results, took stock and started incorporating feedback from national and international testing into the lesson plans. The project now enters the final phase of compiling the handbook, where we focus on selecting and finalizing lesson plans for the handbook.

Activities on the third and fourth day involved also visits to three primary schools and two kindergartens, where participants were inroduced to each school`s and kindergaten`s activities. In every school and kindergaten. outdoor learning and teaching about biodiversity was an everyday occurence. Also many HOBS project lesson plans and activities were tested in these educational institutions. For example, the Ihan primary school showed a good example of teaching biodiversity through crossing a nature trail with using the Actionbound app. Visiting the Roma Kindergarten in Kerinov Grm was very memorable as we saw how teachers do their best to help and educate Roma children, and the innovative methods they employ to overcome challenges. 

To better understand the Slovenia environment, the participants visited the Kostanjevica carst cave where they discovered an underground treasure – stalactites and stalagmites of all shapes.

The next transnational meeting will take place in Estonia in February and i will be the last one as hopefully all the lesson plans will be done and edited into their final form. 

Hobsian team meeting in Varstu, Estonia

On the 17th and 18th of August, teachers from Estonian schools and kindergartens met in Varstu, in southern Estonia for a national meeting on Hob’s adventure. As it was a beautiful sunny day, the teachers focused on physical activities and learning by doing, both in theory and in practice. They used the opportunity to develop new lesson plans and hone old ones in the wild, where most of them would be put to practice. This proved to be a fruitful strategy as the teachers made good progress and seemed to be genuinely inspired. Our experience demonstrates an important facet of this method – people tend to work better when they combine physical exercise with mental work.

Another important goal was to further develop a sense of cooperation and teamwork. So in between meetings and educational hikes, teachers got to play disc golf, a relaxing physical activity. We want to achieve a future for our children where they grow up in an environment that is cooperative and supporting, and this often requires practicing doing competitive activities in a friendly and nurturing setting. While our teachers clearly didn’t have problems with cooperation, everyone seemed to have a good time putting this idea into practice during the game.

During the sit-downs, we took stock of progress on project goals, seeing which lesson plans cover which topics and aims, and which require additional lesson plans or amendments to existing drafts. We were surprised to find that most goals were already covered in one way or another, and very few changes have to be made. This allows for a more free and creative approach in the months ahead.

In the same vein, we discussed the two projects that were not finished in Iceland: one on photosynthesis and another on insects and plants. Teachers came up with new ideas for these lesson plans, including games such as the “photosynthesis incantation”, which goes something like this:

Slurp water from earth,

suck gasses from air,

feed using the sun!

Give us back lifegiving air,

green leaves to eat and share,

lest the Earth ends up bare!  

Due to the fact that the project is nearing the national and international lesson plan testing phase, we went over the planned schedule once again. There will be several rounds of testing. First, a national testing phase with a deadline on the 12th of September. Then an international testing phase concluding on the 4th of October. The question of distributing lesson plans for testing was raised. We decided to allow teachers to pick some of each other’s lesson plans to test. It was interesting and useful to see which lesson plans were chosen and why, as it gave an indication on which ones are going to be universally applicable and considered innovative by teachers themselves. There was so much enthusiasm, some teachers wanted to do preliminary testing immediately.

This is a run-up to perhaps the most interesting transnational meeting coming up in Slovenia, where we finally get to discuss all the lesson plans and make a preliminary selection for the handbook of all the different ideas and resulting lesson plans we’ve been working for over a year to compile.