"Nature and Us" ESD Center
Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development
International projects
Back in late 1990s we adapted some ESD ideas for education at early age. They've been included into educational programs for kindergartens, for pedagogical universities and for teacher training. Since that time the program has been enriched by international experience and new findings in the area.
For the last decade we've organized many teacher training seminars and wrote programs for teachers. The ideas and practices are widely shared through international conferences and early education projects in which we take active part. Most of these are OMEP and UNESCO projects and events.
OMEP Education for Sustainable Development Project
The OMEP World ESD Project has been launched in 2010. Each year a new phase of the project is started, focusing on a new aspect of ESD.
Natalya Ryzhova was the National Project Leader in Russia, where the project was very successful. Here you can find some results of the Project: report summary, videos and pictures and some cases from kindergartens.
Part 1. Child Interviews
Short summary
The aim of the project is to collect information about young children’s thoughts, comments on relationships between humanity and nature on a global scale.
Children around the world (2-8 years old) were offered the logo of the project:
Examples of answers given by children
“The globe has rolled away and become dirty. The children have caught it and want to wash it.” (Alex, a 4 year-old-boy)
“The sphere is our Earth. Children from different countries decided to clean our planet cheerfully and friendly, nobody made them do that. They, like their mothers, decided to clean the planet themselves.” ( Timophey, 6 year-old-boy)
“We produce carbon dioxide and leaves take it away with the help of their holes” (Yana, a 5 year-old-girl)
“I always wash myself to be clean” (Polly, a 6 year-old-girl)
“Our planet is huge that is why it is difficult to clean it, so it is better not to make it dirty” ( Danil, a 6 year-old-boy)
Their ideas of what the picture represents were recorded and analyzed. Interviewers had a guide that included the following questions:
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Please look at this picture. Tell me about this picture. What is going on? Tell me more. What can you see in the picture?
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Follow up question: Why are they doing this?
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Anything more you want to tell me about the picture?
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Anything else that has to do with the things we have talked about?
Around 200 kindergartens took part in the child interviews in Russia. Not only kindergarten teachers, but also university students and parents conducted the interviews.
This video shows children's answers and discussion of the picture (kindergarten in Zlatoust, Russia)
 The logo for discussion |
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 "This boy could be me" |
 Children come up with new ideas |
 The Green Cross ConferenceNatalya Ryzhova makes a report |
 We support our planetAfter the discussion teachers helped children to visualize their ideas. |
 Presenting the resultsStudents of pedagogical university learn about the projects |
The analysis of answers shows that they are much more aware of environmental problems, than adults usually assume. On the other hand, children's answers reflect the accents of educational programs in kindergartens and translate opinions and stereotypes of their teachers and parents.
Many teachers asked us why we organize these interviews. That's why the National Leader (Natalya Ryzhova) created methodological recommendations, based on the analysis of children's answers.
Part 2. ESD in Practice
Short summary
Within the OMEP ESD Project over 200 projects were implemented in Russian regions. Characteristically they included all the 3 SD dimensions: environmental, economical and social.
The projects were oriented towards studying nature and environmental problems of one's own region (town, city), developing design of one's kindergarten or primary school, taking part in environmental events in one's town or village, studying rational use of water, energy and other resourses, dealing with the problem of waste, supporting biodiversity, studying traditions of different countries and their connection to SD, and many other issues.
Presentation about Part 1 and Part 2 of ESD Project
The report was presented at the Hong Cong World OMEP Conference in 2012
Specific to the projects were active involvement of children themselves, their families and teachers in support for sustainable development of their immediate environment. Most of the pedagogues used the ideas of the program "Nature is Our Home" as foundation for their projects.
The results of the Project were presented in Natalia Ryzhova's report at the OMEP World conference in Hong Kong.
The joint international project of UNESCO and the City of Moscow
The project was implemented as part of UNESCO program dedicated to the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It was also a part of the project "Moscow education from infancy to school". The project has been implemented through 2008-2012 in Moscow kindergartens with Natalia Ryzhova as the research supervisor. Age of children from 2 to 6.
Short summary
The project was based on the principles of developmental teaching. It aimed at teaching children to compare and generalize their own observations and perceive the beauty of the world as well as to improve speech, thinking and creativity of preschoolers. The priority was given not to just remembering and mechanically recalling subjects of study but to understanding and evaluating events while practically interacting with teachers. Children acquired their initial skills allowing them to as much they can practically preserve the environment.
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This video shows how different parts of the projects were organized. It also tells about the resource centers.
Children's tasks included spending time in laboratories experimenting, observing, having fun, studying plants, soil and rocks and, at other times, taking part in stage shows, taking care of flowers and animals, listening to music and writing poetry. A lot of attention was paid to children and grownups, including parents, doing things together. The project provided for a close association of children with nature and their getting to know its laws. It also fostered cooperation between preschool establishments with state agencies, public organizations and families. The project was based on the ideas of sustainable development and its purpose was to make a contribution to the preservation of the humanity and its environment.