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1. Visibility & Events
A. One-week training course on ESD & Marine Litter, Athens, 7-13 October 2018
B. Enabling Egyptian educators to implement ESD, Cairo, 2-6 December 2018
C. Piloting new educational interventions @ Ghajn water centre, Malta, 16-21 December 2018
D. Completion of the exhibition on marine litter in Nikaia, Greece, Oct–Dec 2018
2. Material & ICTs
A. The new online educational app on Non Conventional Water Resources soon to be ‘on air’
B. A new MOOC on odor pollution is in the pipeline!
3. Other News
A. MEdIES at the closing ceremony of AFKAR II, Lebanon, 9 November 2018
B. Upcoming MEdIES targeted trainings on ESD!
1. Visibility & Events
A. One week training course on ESD & Marine Litter, Athens, 7-13 October 2018
MEdIES was happy to host and organize a training course on ESD & Marine Litter in October. The course was intended to show how a series of educational tools and methods of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can be helpful to any formal or non formal educator who wishes to sensitise and inspire responsible behaviors in their learners to face the thorny issue of marine litter, especially plastic. During the week-long course, participants -24 educators from 4 EU countries- were introduced to educational tools, participated in hands-on workshops, did a series of site visits including a beach litter monitoring and clean-up and, finally co-created their own project proposals. By the end of the course they declared they have understood the scale of the problem and that they feel empowered to act on it together with their students! They highlighted that to tackle the complex problem of marine litter, education is one of the key actions needed, alongside with proper policies, law enforcement, green design, and concerted actions at national and global level, etc. The participants covered their expenses through the Erasmus+ KA1 (mobility of individuals).
More at: http://medies.net/articles.asp?cID=8&aID=1227
As Europe prepares to ban single use plastic very soon (see here) the topic of marine litter becomes highly relevant to any European formal or non formal Educator. If you are a teacher or adult trainer and want to be further skilled on what you could do with your learners, we will be happy to welcome you in Athens for the Oct-2019 edition of the course. If your school / organization is based in an Erasmus+ eligible country you can apply and get support for all your expenses (read more in 3B).
B. Enabling Egyptian educators to implement ESD, Cairo, 2-6 December 2018
In the framework of the SWIM-Horizon 2020 Support Mechanism, MEdIES coordinated two consecutive Training-of-Trainers on 2-3 and 5-6 December 2018 in Cairo (Egypt) in cooperation with the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). The trainings aimed to raise awareness and develop the competencies of formal and non-formal educators and of Ministries’ Officers on ESD, and showcase how educational projects about solid waste management (recycling, marine litter) can be designed and applied. To support the policy mainstreaming mainly between the Ministries of Education and Environment, an inter-institutional consultation took place on 4 December, focusing on all education levels. This meeting brought together staff of the Ministry of Education, the EEAA, Civil Society Organisations and university professors to discuss ways to boost the proper implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy on ESD through its Action Plan and to align this with the existing national ESD initiatives and programmes.
In total the three events gathered about 100 participants whom, in their vast majority expressed their need for more ESD joint actions in the framework of the SDGs and the Egyptian National Strategy on SD. More at http://www.medies.net/articles.asp?cID=8&aID=1241
C. Piloting new educational interventions @ Ghajn water centre, Malta, 16-21 December 2018
Early in 2018, the National Water Awareness Centre of Malta, or “Ghajn” (= water-pond) once again teamed up with MIO-ECSDE/MEdIES to further strengthen the educational activities taking place at the Centre. MEdIES undertook to develop four experiential educational interventions / scenarios to compliment the learning experience offered already to the students who visit Ghajn regularly. Following an inception mission earlier in 2018, the MEdIES team developed four different scenarios, each to accompany the four existing touch screen games that are in use at Ghajn.
Between 16 and 21 December, the MEdIES staff I. Alampei, V., Malotidi and V. Psallidas visited Malta this time to ‘field-test’ the newly developed hands-on activities with students and experts. The four scenarios that were custom-made to fit in the educational needs of the Centre were ‘tested’ on four school classes (primary and middle school level) and a group of ~15 experts and teachers. We are very pleased with our trials and we collected very useful feedback and comments to help us finalise the scenarios, together with the team of the Ghajn Centre.
All scenarios will start to be implemented at Gjahn in the coming months, while four appealing brochures to be handed to the visiting students are also being prepared. The four hands-on programmes (and brochures) are about: (a) the Water Cycle (& responsible water use); (b) Water management in the past (mostly in forts); (c) The water systems in Malta (with emphasis on the Non-Conventional Resources); (d) the ‘green’ elements of the Għajn Centre itself.
Read more about the Ghajn Centre: https://bit.ly/2QeGD4o
Read more on MEdIES activities: http://www.medies.net/articles.asp?cID=8&aID=1245
D. Completion of the exhibition on marine litter in Nikaia, Greece, Oct–Dec 2018
During the past 2.5 months, MIO-ECSDE/MEdIES in collaboration with the Nikaia A.I. Rentis Municipality (Greece) and the Piraeus Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education - sincere thanks to ESD Officers Mr. G. Voulgaris and Ms. A. Sourbi - have jointly designed and carried out a number activities around the exhibition entitled “Know, feel, act to stop marine litter together”, that was displayed in Nikaia, including:
- Two seminars for 50 educators (26-27/09/2018) informed on the topic of marine litter and got ideas about what they could do to sensitize their students on the topic.
- One seminar for non Greek educators: 24 teachers and adult trainers have visited the exhibition, observed a class-visit and critically reflected on its educational potential.
- Daily school visits: In total 1,815 students of primary and secondary level visited the exhibition and were engaged in activities about marine litter and recycling. Many thanks to the officers: Nikos Kouvatsos, Athina Fragouli, Vaso Papacharalamous, who organized and run the daily interventions for students and became themselves marine litter experts, and to the Dep.Major Michalis Lagoumitzis for his support.
- One public awareness raising event in the afternoon of 7 /11/2018 gathering 35 citizens.
- Public visits: On certain weekday afternoons MEdIES collaborator, Ms. Efi Touli, has kindly welcomed and guided the visitors. During the 2.5 months the exhibition has been visited by 800 people.
2. Material & ICTs
A. The new online educational app on Non Conventional Water Resources soon to be ‘on air’
MEdIES is working closely with a team of web developers and designers to develop a new web APP on Non-Conventional Water Resources (NCWR) that capitalizes on the 10-yr education interventions of the NCWR Programme in Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. The application will be an interactive online learning tool inviting learners (10+ yrs) to discover various aspects of NCWRs through games and quizzes. The APP is expected to be online early in 2019. It will be in English language.
B. A new MOOC on odor pollution is underway!
In the framework of the European Project D-NOSES, MIO-ECSDE (through MEdIES) will undertake the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the not-so-known issue of odour pollution (in English). The MOOC is expected to be online in September 2019 and will include three modules addressing: (a) the wider public (b) school students (c) university students. The content is developed by MIO-ECSDE in cooperation with D-NOSES partners.
3. Other News
A. MEdIES @ the closing ceremony of AFKAR II, Zahle, Lebanon, 9 November 2018
In the presence of Mr Fouad Makhzoumi, the Founder and Mrs May Makhzoumi, the President of Makhzoumi Foundation, representatives from the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR), representatives from municipalities, NGOs, public and private schools, the media and other stakeholders, the closing ceremony of the project "Civil Society in Action for Sustainable Development" was held in Zahle (Lebanon) on 9th of November 2018. The results of the Project were presented and all the involved actors affirmed their commitment to work for the promotion of sustainable development in Lebanon and in the Mediterranean in general. MEdIES designed and applied a survey targeted to young people on their on perceptions about issues related to sustainable development in their region. Read more http://medies.net/articles.asp?cID=7&aID=1229
B. Upcoming MEdIES targeted trainings on ESD
Do you know about our new courses on ESD?
MEdIES plans to run several week-long training courses on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for formal and non-formal educators from European countries and beyond. The courses combine short theory sessions and a lot of workshops, field visits, hands-on, and co-creative group-work sessions. They all start from a common “core” instruction on the principles of ‘Education for Sustainable Development’, in light of the SDG agenda, followed by a different focus-theme: for 2019-2020 the specialization sessions we offer are on:
- Marine litter: Sun 6 October - Sat 12 October 2019
- Animation in Education: Sun 10 November 2019 - Sat 16 November 2019
- Non Conventional Water Resources: Sun 15 March - Sat 21 March 2020
As organisers we accept pre-registrations up to one month before the course starts. But be aware, if you intend to apply for Erasmus KA1 to support your participation the deadline is 5 February 2019 (find here the ERASMUS Call 2019). Find out about more information here: http://www.medies.net/articles.asp?cID=8&aID=1110
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