Students whose awareness of environment enhances through the Eco-Schools Project look for ways to protect the environment.

Enhancing environmental consciousness through nature-friendly ‘green’ schools

Lara Pelin Tamer

Needless to say, nature has always been significant and will remain so in the future, as well. Just as we try to take balanced and useful steps for our future at a personal level, we have to also do the same for nature, which is the very source that enables our existence. It’s now been acknowledged that consciousness on this topic needs to be obtained at a young age. And, Eco-Schools Project has been launched with such acknowledgement and spread all throughout Turkey.

For the past six years, as the Private Alev High School, we have been taking part in the Umwelt baut Brücken (Bridges Built through Environmentalism) project which is run by the German Environment Ministry. And, this year is the last year.

The purpose of this project is to build friendly ties between Turkish and German students through programs related to environmental objectives. Some high schools in Turkey providing education in German and some high schools in Germany are the participants of this project, and, each participating school and their partner schools are asked to write an article where they would share their observations and research results regarding the topics they had chosen. As Private Alev High School, in collaboration with our partner school Gymnasium Bad Iburg, we addressed two topics this year. One of them was the Eco-School Project, so, we wanted to talk about this project in our article.

>> What is the Eco-School Project?

As students of the Private Alev High School, we visited our school’s elementary and middle levels and held an interview with the executive of the Eco-School Projects within Alev Schools, Evren Demiray.

Ms. Demiray tells us that Eco-Schools Project is not a supposed to be applied only as an elective course but should rather be infused in each lesson through different methods. As we are informed, the topics consist of issues that are widely-known but occasionally addressed, such as water, environmental pollution, healthy eating, GMO, etc. And, the chosen topics are changed every two years.

The determined topics are covered in different lessons through different activities and exercises. For example, while t-shirts are dyed with the related messages on them in English lessons, debates about the topics are held in Turkish lessons. In Math lessons, on the other hand, weekend homework involves exercises relevant to the topic, as well.

There are also other activities: an ‘environment hour’ activity held every Thursday, fields trips, competitions, and more. An Eco-Team formed for further study is also one of such activities. Students from all grade levels from 1st to 8th can join this team, if they desire, in order to carry out additional activities and workshops for being able to look at environmental issues more in depth.

Eco-Schools Project is a world-wide project, which receive great support. There is also a strict emphasis on ‘enhancing environmental consciousnesses rather than mere activity. There are also several schools willing to join the project. However, because of the limited capacity, most of the applications cannot be accepted for the time being.

Schools are presented with a ‘green Eco-School flag’ depending on their performances with regards to their reports, Eco-School pin board that is supposed to be placed at a visible spot in schools, and evaluation results given by other schools. Alev Schools in Turkey currently have five of these green flags, meaning their impact in broadening environmental awareness is quite significant.

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‘We need to correct our mistakes’

During our visit to Alev schools, we also had a chance to talk to Emrah Ataş, a member of Alev schools’ Parent-Teacher Association and one of the coordinators of the permaculture activities.

>> What is permaculture?

In short, it is the designing of the ecosystem in nature by the hands of people.

>> How long have you been involved in permaculture?

I’ve had an interest for the past 15 years. I’ve had a special interest in environmental subjects since college years. However, I gained my first real understanding of permaculture through people whom I met during a trip I took in Kaz Mountains (Mount Ida).

>> Why do you think we need it?

As people, unfortunately, we have destroyed the system, which nature has developed throughout hundreds of thousands of years, within the past 20 years. I’ll give an example: as the level of Co2 increases in our atmosphere, the air warms up and causes the glaciers in the poles to melt. Then, the coal gas under the surface of the poles come out and leads the air to get even warmer. In brief, global warming rises. These happen because of us. We need to take certain actions to correct our wrongdoings.

>> What is the reason for having a permaculture project at school?

If I come across students like you, I would like to carry this kind of a project anywhere. Since our school area has an advantage in terms of quality of soil, we are able to carry out permaculture activities in small scales and enable our students to be knowledgeable about it. There are two different types of tasks we carry out simultaneously: theoretical and practical. First, we inform our students about the theoretical part of the subject. Then, we go out to the field in order to apply what they learn. Our aim is to show everyone that agriculture can be done without pesticides and synthetic manure.

We’ve planted the trees and bushes in our garden in a way where they would support each other. For example, if we have a tree needing nitrogen, instead of giving it manure with nitrogen component, we plant next to it a bush that gets nitrogen from the air.

>> Who are you in collaboration with in this project?

We’ve started our ‘nutrient forest’ project this year. We expect to get our products from it within the next 5 years. We launched this project with our prep-year students. They will be spending five years in this school, so, they will be able to benefit from the products that they planted before their graduation. For this reason, we preferred the prep-year students to work with.

>> Lastly, do you have a message for us?

It is possible to end this bad drift; we just need to learn the ways to deal with it. At a personal level, we need to try to live our lives without giving further harm to nature. If we can do this personally, we can also raise our voice collectively. You are valuable! You are the ones who will be carrying this knowledge to the next generations.