While children enjoyed their spring holidays, almost 150 teachers from schools of Mārupe, Jelgava, Pļaviņas, Jersika, Meirāni, Sigulda and other schools of Latvia met in further education courses to share their experience and obtain new knowledge in the LVM environmental education programme “Learning about Forest”.
Participants of the courses attended lectures about the condition of forests in Latvia, about further processing of timber, career possibilities in forest sector and about the importance of forest education in general education - all led by forest sector experts: Jurģis Jansons, the director of Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava"; Andrejs Domkins, the director of Wood Products Research and Development Institute (abbreviated as MeKA); Dagnis Dubrovskis, the dean of Forest Faculty of Latvia University of Agriculture; Līga Abizāre, the manager of LVM School Programme.
“The main thing of these courses is to show teachers how the material that they teach children in classrooms using books, can be taught in forest even better – in a direct connection with nature and humans that work in forest every day. Quite often teachers don't know how many possibilities forest can offer and that it is not connected only with nature sciences and biology, but also with mathematics, economics, computer sciences, history and other classes,” explains Līga Abizāre, the manager of LVM School Programme.
During the first days of courses, teachers went on forest expeditions in Zemgale region, where they got to know the educational trails in economic forests made by LVM regional employees, but on 16 March they visited LVM Kalsnava Arboretum, where together with environmental education experts they discovered scientific research forests.
In the LVM Kalsnava Arboretum teachers had a chance to be in students’ shoes by actively doing the tasks prepared by “School of Green Yard”, thus, understanding better the processes that happen in forest, for example, how to protect young stand against insect damages.
At the end of the day, after active practical lessons in forest, participants of the seminar gathered around a fireplace next to a forest and discussed about the new knowledge and what they experienced in the seminar.
Each year JSC “Latvijas valsts meži” together with the Further Education Centre of Wood Products Research and Development Institute and the Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava” offers teachers, who are interested in environmental education and forest, further education courses. All days – 12 hour (A) further education courses “Development of teachers’ professional competence in environmental education about sustainable forest management” takes place on school breaks in collaboration with Mammadaba Embassies. More information www.mammadaba.lv/skolam.