On May 28-29, the MEdIES team piloted an ESD educational intervention for schools, on the topic of marine litter (especially plastic) and recycling, using virtual tools. To cope with the closed schools, due to the covid-19 pandemic, and the needs of virtual classrooms, the MEdIES team considered how to “flip” an otherwise face-to-face 90 min long intervention.

The activity is part of the project “Plastic waste? Into the blue bin, away from the blue sea!” implemented by MEdIES together with HERRCO, that foresees a series of school interventions and teacher trainings in several coastal areas and islands of Greece.

The intervention was implemented in selected classes of four schools of Athens, in collaboration with the teachers, headmasters and the ESD officers. 

Our aim was to adjust the face-to-face 90 min long intervention, and apply it to a live (synchronous) digital classroom. The e-intervention takes place during two online meetings (~30-40 min each) with one week in between. The attending teachers, headmasters and students are presented with the reality of plastic pollution and how it affects the sea life. They are explained the value of reducing and recycling waste.

The students are then asked to practice waste separation at-source for a week and document the process, by keeping a diary, and answering a questionnaire. In the second online meeting, based on the students’ records, we emphasize on ‘what’ and ‘how’ to recycle and correct the common mistakes we do in our daily recycling practices.

By the end of the school year, eight digital interventions will take place with selected classes from four schools: (three high schools and one primary school) for a total about 100 students and 15 teachers and headmasters. The animators of the pilot are Vassilis Psallidas and Eftihia Korkidi.

The results of the pilot will help MEdIES team fine-tune and mainstream an e-version of the face-to-face intervention that we can apply systematically during the next school year, in case the schools in Greece remain closed.

 #esd #medies #mioecsde #mobileducation #recycling #reducewaste #digitalapplication #flippedclassroom