GUARDIANS OF THE PLANET

In the recent years, the changes in the world scenario have led to greater attention to the global dimension of citizenship education. Our institution, having as its mission to train future citizens, for several years has already proceeded to include in its training programmes some interdisciplinary projects aimed at developing citizenship skills taking into account the European and national documents on the subject. In particular for the promotion of environmental education and sustainable development the “PTOF” includes 6 interdisciplinary projects that develop the environmental theme in the curriculum from kindergarten to fifth primary.
Our educational institution would like to contribute to the achievement of the objectives set out in the "Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030" through the projects "The Mediterranean Sea and microplastics", aimed at 3rd year students, and "Little reporters - The eco-newspaper of the school ", aimed at 5th grade pupils. The aim of the project "The Mediterranean Sea and microplastics" is to raise awareness of the problem of marine pollution from plastic products and the consequences on the biodiversity that characterizes the ecosystem sea and to understand the phenomenon and the effects of microplastic pollution on everyone's health, through the ingestion of the most common foods.
The main purpose is to make children aware of individual responsibility, starting from the search for small concrete and daily solutions to protect and defend the marine environment, and to encourage conscious growth also through the sharing of acquired knowledge within the class-group . The project starts from the reading of the fairy tale The glitterglue mermaids and the plastic ocean, conceived and written by Maria Di Leto, a primary school teacher, to teach children the respect they must have for the environment and in particular for our seas and oceans. The book also contains two interesting appendices: the first lists the damage caused by plastic to the environment, giving some advice on good behavior to not to pollute our planet; the second is a guide, always illustrated by the author, to recycle the plastic used to build puppets that can be entertained or given as gifts to other children.
The aim of the project "Little reporters - The eco journal of the school" is to make children aware of the problems related to soil, air and water pollution through the work of building a school magazine, in paper format or online publication, aimed mainly at children but also at adults. The initial phase requires the pupils to collect and use the information necessary to write the various articles by reading texts of various kinds and watching videos proposed by the 'teacher through the didactic strategy of the “webquest“ which, in addition to expanding knowledge on a given topic, serves to develop the ability to analyze, summarize and evaluate a problem. This is followed by the phase of writing articles and finally the search for possible solutions for safeguarding the planet starting with behaviors that everyone can implement daily. All of the aforementioned activities will mainly help raise awareness of the challenges the Mission Ocean & Waters is facing and, at the same time, let citizens and students know more about this Mission.