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.