ACTION E.1: Environmental education.

Environmental education involves the interactive teaching of school pupils living near the project areas as well as the education of adults and visitors. This action will focus on the values of the MTPs and the reasons why these habitats need to be conserved and protected. The project team has developed an Environmental Education Booklet regarding MTPs (Annex II) that provides necessary background information about the biology, geomorphology and ecology of MTPs and includes an interactive part with questionnaires and field tasks. This practical part will contribute to the active participation of pupils in several field activities such as water sampling, vegetation growth studies, rainwater collection, etc that will allow integration of the theoretical knowledge provided by the book with the practical surveys in order to enhance the MTP's values comprehension. The pupils after their study and practical activities will complete relevant question sheets incorporated in the book, that will be send to the project team to evaluate and grade them. This process will illustrate the best effort that will be awarded in a special ceremony. The content of the question sheets will be also used for the project's leaflet and poster development (e.g. through sections requesting slogans for MTP conservation) and will thereafter, be published in the project's web site. The project team has contacted the Ministry of Education, the local Directorates of Education and many schools from the area of interest (Annex IV) to promote the use of Environmental Education Book and its adoption in the official environmental education program. This has been achieved and the first official meeting between the project team and the teachers participating in the project was conducted in 5/11/2005 in Chania (Annex IV). The meeting's objective was to discuss the applicability of Environmental Education Book developed under the LIFE project in schools and to discuss and improve its results.

Environmental education guide

During the 1st meeting, apart from presentations regarding the project by the Dr. E. Dimitriou and Dr. Th. Koussouris, a 15 minute marionette show was given by Mr. N. Mplazakis, a local artist entiled: "I care and protect temporary ponds". On 6/11/2005, a field guided tour on Omalos site was organised by the scientific staff of HCMR with the participation of the involved teachers. In this field trip the teachers were able to observe the ponds' characteristics and to get informed about the flora and fauna from the project team.

Educational visit of the project team with local teacher in Omalos site (6/11/2005)

In the context of "Green Week", on Monday 11th of June 2007, a series of "experiencing" activities took place at the MTP next to Lake Kourna. Among the participants of this action were:

the School of Primary Education of Fre;
the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - Dr. Elias Dimitriou;
Dr. Artemis Athanassakis - Environmental Education Consultant; and
the Department of Primary Education of Chania Prefecture - Fotis Pontikakis