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E4: MULTIPLIER EVENT

REPORT UM

MARIBOR, 6TH

JUNE 2018

Project Information

Project name Teaching agro-ecology in the transitory period and its consequences for the Agricultural Knowledge Systems

Project acronym Euro-EducATES

Project number 2015-1-FR01-KA202-015100

Project web site http://www.euroeducates.eu/en/

Document Identification

Document title E4: Multiplier event – educational seminar: ‘’New opportunities in research and education in Agroecology’’ - Learning modules for fieldwork and innovative learning Maribor, 6

th June 2018

Report U

Prepared by Janja Lužnik and prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže, UM Slovenia

Date 4

th July 2018

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Contents

1 Introduction

2 Methodology of the educational seminar

3 Project presentations

4 Practical workshop for understanding the learning modules

5 Evaluation of the event and teaching kit

6 Photo gallery

Appendices

I Invitation

II Agenda

III Signed attendance list

V Certificate of attendance

VI PowerPoint Presentations

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Present at the meeting: The event’s leaders: prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže in Janja Lužnik

Participants:

• Teachers of secondary vocational schools

• Teachers of university programs

• Representatives of the tourism sector

• Representatives of the public institutions

• The representatives of the economic sector

• Foreign representatives of public institutions and faculties (Croatia)

The event was attended by representatives from the local environment and abroad (Croatia).

1 Introduction

This report outlines the multiplier event organised by the University of Maribor as a part of the Euro-EducATES project.

The event was held on 6th June 2018 at the University of Maribor.

The report outlines the purpose of the programme, the nature of the event, the programme content and the outcome of evaluative discussions with the participants.

The specific objectives for the multiplier event were to:

1. Raise awareness of the Euro-EducATES project; 2. Promote the intellectual outputs; 3. Implement the practical workshop in the surroundings of Faculty of Arts to demonstrate the transfer of the learning modules into the local environment; 4. Implement the evaluation of the event and usefulness of the teaching kit by the method of open discussion and face to face questionnaires.

A welcome to the participants was given by prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže (leader of International Centre for Ecoremediation, FF UM) and by dr. Tomaž Onič, representative of Faculty of Arts leadership.

The purpose of the implementation of the educational seminar with practical workshop was to present the project aims and teaching kit to interested target groups, who work with young people and motivate them to use the learning material in their work, to increase the interest of young people for implementation of sustainable approaches at their workplace and in everyday life.

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2 Methodology of the educational seminar

Programme of the educational seminar

The introductory part of the seminar:

- A welcome from the leaders of the event and the leadership of the Faculty (prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže, prof. dr. Tomaž Onič and Janja Lužnik).

- Presentation of the issues, objectives and programme of the event (prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže).

- Presentation of the project Euro-EducATES and the materials for the participants (Janja Lužnik).

The main part of the seminar:

- Presentation of O3 output: Handbook of modules for study course Agroecology (Janja Lužnik, ERM center)

- Presentation of O4 output: Movie about the various approaches of agroecology along the different countries (Janja Lužnik, ERM center)

- Presentation of O5 output: E-quiz – Agroecology and sustainable farming (Janja Lužnik, ERM center). Quiz testing with open disscusion (prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže)

- Invited lecture: Experience on agroecology in Croatia (dr. Silvija Zeman, Međimursko veleučilište, Čakovec)

- Practical workshop for testing the selected learning modules on the field – group work (prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže)

The final part of the seminar:

- Invited lecture: Possibility of using agroecology in secondary schools (Marija Kolmanič Bučar, Secondary Biotechnical School Maribor)

- Evaluation of the usefulness of the teaching kit with open discussion (prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže)

Before the event the workshop programme and a script for the educational seminar were prepared, with the aim of motivating the target group for the use of the project results and to transmit the results to as widest group of users as possible.

All participants have received a folder of the event with: a Handbook translated in Slovenian language, an evaluation questionnaire, Application of learning modules in practice (prepared in a form of working sheets for practical implementation of learning modules), project’s promotional flyer, quiz printed copy - Sustainable farming and Agroecology and Instructions for using the film.

The key target group were the teachers of secondary biotechnical schools and faculties, who are interested to include new learning topic linked with agroecology in their existing curricula, as well as the representatives of interested local actors were

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presented. The main aim was to motivate and encourage the participants to use the developed material and link it to the local context.

The first part of the event was devoted to the presentation of the event programme, basic project data, meaning of agroecology and teachers training event in France.

The main part of the event was devoted to the presentation of the projects intellectual outputs, with witch the participants deepened their understanding of concept of agroecology and teaching kit. For a better understanding of learning modules the practical workshop was carried out at the University educational garden in te sourounding of Faculty of Arts and the participants were actively involved in the activities. The main idea was to show to the participants the various possibilities how to connect the modules for learning agroecology with everyday local context.

The last part was devoted to the presentation of best practices, linked with agroecology through invited lecturers and evaluation of the event and teaching kit, to obtain feedback on the usefulness of teaching materials.

The seminar with a practical workshop was attended by 19 participants (7 foreign participants and 12 local participants). After the completion of the E4 event the materials were forwarded to all participants with presentations of the event and access to the web site of the published material. The news about the successful completion of the event, were published in the social network (https://www.facebook.com/Mednarodni-center-za-ERM-213538409072451/) of the International Centre for Ecoremediation from Faculty of Arts, University in Maribor. We notified all participants of the event about the published news, with the aim of disseminating of the results to a broader group of users of the real stories.

The whole E4 event was carried out in accordance with the application and project directions.

Each participant of the event has received a certificate of attendance that has been signed and approved by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, prof. dr. Božidar Kante. The invited lecturers, Mrs. Marija Kolmanič Bučar from Biotechnical School Maribor and Mrs. Silvija Zeman from Polytechnic of Međimurje (Croatia) received as well a certificate on the completion of the invited lecture.

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Figure 1: The event was held in the multimedia classroom of Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, Slovenia. During the event the participants had the opportunity to explore the project website Euro-EducATES and published materials. The E4 event activities was also recorded. The participants and event leaders made the statements about the project topic. In order to spread the project results to the widest range of interested public the contribution was also published on a local TV.

Figure 2: In order to spread the project results to different interested target groups we also recorded the E4 event. Some of participants and invited guests made the statements about the project topic in connection with local context.

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3 Project presentations

Before the multiplier event implementation the participants received the teaching material in review. During the event Janja Lužnik presented to the participants a general concept and the main idea of the each developed teaching material. O3 – Teaching tools and materials; Handbook of modules for study course agroecology The participants have experienced the basic starting points, concept and main goals of developed handbook. The general handbook and particular learning module structure was presented. The main idea was to highlight the various possibilities how to include the topics linked with agroecology in existing curricula, to link them with different subjects and how to integrate the local actors, who are already implementing this kind of approaches and contents. Through practical workshop the participants experienced simple activities for practical training, which could be linked with agroecology related. On the basis of open discussion with the participants we can conclude, that in general the teachers already implement the learning activities linked with agroecology but not under this term, therefore the participants were interested in developed educational material. 04 - An audio-visual support for teaching agroecology; Various approaches of agroecology in Europe Participants become familiar with the basic starting points, concept and main idea of developed movie, which is to highlight the various approaches of agroecology in different project countries. After viewing the movie section on agroecology in Slovenia, we promoted and discussed the possibilities of use of the movie in the practice. The participants agreed that the movie is a very suitable tool for presenting the topics related to agroecology to the students of secondary school as well as University. O5 – E- learning tool As the last teaching material the participants explored the E-learning tool on the basis of PowerPoint presentation and testing in groups. Each group tested particular quiz topic/question and through an open discussion leaded by prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže they introduced their feedback on usability of educational material.

Below are summarized some of participant’s opinions and suggestions on the usability of the E-tool:

- students should first read the text, after that they can continue with answering - correct results should not be displayed too quickly - questions are reasonable and understandable explained - the raised questions are clear and intelligible

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- students needs prior knowledge in the execution of the quiz (soil erosion, soil,

nitrogen circulation etc.) - good structure of the quiz but it would make sense to consider the order of

learning activities - comprehensive text – short sentences - the quiz it is a good starting point for the discussion - good structure but it would make sense to consider the order of learning

activities - a lot of prior knowledge is required - it is important to ask the question correctly - very precise information – harder to memorise - some of questions and answers are illogical - it would make sense to include more meaningful graphs, images, schemes

Figure 3: Participants tested the E-tool in groups and presented their feedback through open discussion. Teachers highlighted the advantages, disadvantages of the e-tool and possibilities of using the tool at work.

4 Practical workshop for understanding the learning modules

The usefulness of the learning modules was demonstrated with a practical workshop in the surrounding of Faculty of Arts, more precisely in the University educational garden, which was designed according to the principles of permaculture, under mentoring of ddr. Ana Vovk Korže.

Figure 4: University educational garden was designed according to the principles of permaculture by prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže.

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In the introductory part of practical workshop ddr. Ana Vovk Korže emphasized the importance of educating people in the field of agroecology to enrich agricultural approaches and highlighted that by imitating nature and deliberate planning the costs of erosion, floods, disappearances of rare plant and animal species can be successfully reduced. Since there are still too few such approaches in education and because experiential learning is needed the permaculture arrangements and approaches could be promoted in educational gardens. Prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže

presented new possibilities for research and learning on agro-ecology to the participants and underlined the importance of educating people in the field of agroecology to enrich agricultural approaches. Further on mag. Darja Kukovičič, who is the representative of leadership of UM Students dormitory, presented the importance of permaculture gardens for the students in their everyday life. Prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže presented to the teachers the importance of the concept of such school gardens and the benefits of experiential education in real life circumstances. Through own first hand experiences the students can easier develop and upgrade their prior knowledge and develop their own approach toward agroecology. In such educational gardens the teachers have many opportunities to use a wide range of learning topics from garden planning, food production and processing as well to marketing. For better understanding of Euro-EducATES learning modules prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže prepared a supporting material for practical implementation of teaching modules for field work and innovative learning in the field of agroecology. The use of modules was demonstrated at the micro level with the main aim to highlight how to adapt to the natural conditions in order to increase the biodiversity, polyculture, to use the principles of circular economy and in addition to environmental elements also important aspects as social (cooperation with nature, observation, socializing) and economic (to produce our own food to be more independent, and self-sufficient) are included. Through different simple and practical activities ddr. Vovk Korže wanted to increase the understanding of the learning modules and show various possibilities for the innovative practical implementation.

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Figure 5: Practical field work and innovative learning in agroecology led by Vovk Korže.

Through the first module (Food self-sufficiency in breeding systems at a territory scale) participants explored how the concept of autonomy can be understood from local point of view in order to provide self-sufficiency and independence of each individual. They were considering the possibility of increasing self-sufficiency, taking into account climate constraints. Prof. Vovk Korže introduced local seeds of resistant and useful perennials, which are indispensable in our gardens and the participants planted them in the educational garden.

Figure 6: To ensure greater self-sufficiency and independence from large commercial corporations, it is important to know the purpose of plants and to use the indigenous local seeds.

Through the second module (Community gardens), the educational aspect of the gardens was exposed, where the users can acquire important useful knowledge about the usefulness of plants, how to care for plants and animals, living in our gardens, how to produce food on natural way without chemicals etc. For this purpose the participants identified and marked the plants in the garden.

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Figure 7: Labelling of the plants enables better memorising.

In the third module (Ecovillage) prof. ddr. Ana Vovk Korže presented the concern for natural resources with rainwater retainers around the trees and shrubs, which increases the retention capacity on the slopes.

Figure 8: Making a collecting water dich around the tree is an effective measure to adapt to climate change.

Through the fourth module (Biodiversity) the participants explored the importance of biodiversity and how to increase it with simple measures in our gardens. By attracting useful organisms and by increasing the diversity of plants, we can establish stabile production ecosystems. The groups of participants has arranged the dwelling for hedgehog, made of natural materials.

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Figure 9: The beneficial organism in our garden as for example hedgehog will contribute to pest control, as well as to the conservation of biodiversity.

In the fifth module (Secret of the soil), the emphasis was on understanding the important properties of the soil. The participant tested the soil ability to retain moisture by using the simple method with a measuring vessel. They determined the proportion of clay, sand and silt in the soil sample.

Figure 10: By understanding the essential properties of the soil and by using simple methods we can easily find out how to improve the fertility of the soil. In the final part of the workshop ddr. Vovk Korže emphasized the importance of such practical activities, where young people are actively involved in the learning process. One of these approaches are educational gardens, where young people can develop a positive attitude towards nature at the early stages as well toward entire sustainable food production system. This could be achieved through new possibilities of research and learning in agroecology based on permaculture approaches.

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Figure 11: High bed is the main permaculture arrangement in the University educational garden. Crops can be regularly used by students who live in student dormitories. Therefore many students are motivated and take care of the garden on voluntary basis.

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5 Evaluation of the event and the teaching kit In the last part of the event the evaluation through an open discussion and face to face questionnaires was realised. Unfortunately we only received 10 completed questionnaires of 17 participants.

Figure 12: The questionnaire includes 7 main components (questions of closed and open type, demographic characteristics) for evaluating the event and the usefulness of the learning material.

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In the first question of a closed type the participants agreed that during the educational seminar current, useful and interesting educational material was presented, that based on understandable methodological approach.

In general the participants attended the event because of their interest in exchanging the experiences and networking, as well as acquire new knowledge for learning agroecology.

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Completely disagree Completely agree

1. Evaluation of content and methodological approach of the

educational seminar:

1.1 At the seminar presented examples of teaching material

and learning approaches are current, useful and interesting.

Agreement level"

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2. Motive for participation in the program

Level of agreement

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In evaluating the usefulness of teaching material, they generally agreed that the material is useful in their work. Therefore most of them are convinced that they will use at least two materials in the future. The educational seminar gave them also a positive motivation for the integration of agroecological content and methods of practical research and learning. Through the seminar they recognised new possibilities how to apply new content in their everyday work.

The participants believe that the learning tools can be easily adapted and used at their work. Thanks to teaching tools users can better understand the concept of agroecology.

Therefore most of participants are convinced that they will use the introduced teaching tools with theirs users/learners.

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Completely disagree Completely agree

3. Usefulness of teaching materials in practice:

3.1. Presented learning materials and educational

approaches are useful for my work.

Level of agreement

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Completely disagree Completely agree

3. Usefulness of teaching materials in practice:

3.7. By using teaching materials, users will enhance the

understanding of agro-ecology.

Level of agreement

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The five main reasons why the participants will use the Euro-EducATES learning material are:

• To encourage active participation of users;

• To easier link the content of agroecology with other objects / themes;

• To strengthen lasting knowledge through practical learning;

• To present the diversity of approaches;

• To enhance understanding of the system approach.

According to the participants' judgment Euro-EducATES e-tool generates curiosity, encourages the users to think from a different point of view and critical thinking. It is also suitable for secondary vocational education and training.

Handbook can create link between theory and practice and therefore enables integration and participation of users. It is also based on experimentation or real-life situations.

The participants believe that the movie about the diversity of agroecological approaches is understandable designed and easy to use. It supports link among the theory and practice and is suitable for students of secondary schools.

In the last open question some of participants presented their opinion about the usefulness and gave some suggestions about the teaching kit:

- more meaningful related graphs, pictures, schemes - integration of digital technology (cell phones, tablets) - exposing the personal side

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4. Reasons for using the presented teaching tools at work

Level of agreement

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- interesting experience due to the actual execution of the quiz and the mod - to highlight the content according to the principle ''less is more'' for better

understanding - the material could be used as an example of general and professional education,

repetition, research etc. - material is useful for students of agriculture and environmental protection, as well

as landscaping and landscape management in the subjects (higher education): sustainable development, professional subjects, organic farming. For the subject environmental protection (secondary school): environmental protection, ecological analysis, sustainable development, environmental technologies, waste management.

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6 Photo gallery

Figures 13 and 14: Prepared promotional and learning material for the participants.

Figures 15 - 19: Event speakers: dr. Tomaž Onič, representative of Faculty of Arts leadership; ddr. Ana Vovk Korže the head of International Centre for Ecoremediation of Faculty of Arts, UM; Janja Lužnik, International Centre for Ecoremediation of Faculty of Arts, UM; dr. Silvija Zeman, invited lecture from Croatia; Marija Kolmanič Bučar, invited lecture from Biotechnical School Maribor.

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Figure 20 - 23: Practical workshop with participants in the University educational garden. Ddr. Ana Vovk Korže demonstrated how to link the contents of the modules to a local context. Participants discovered some principles of agroecology and permaculture.

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Appendices

I Invitation

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II Agenda

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IV Signed attendance list

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V Certificate of attendance

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VI PowerPoint presentations

Project and Intellectual output O3 presentation

Intellectual output O4 and O5 presentation

Invited lectures: Dr. Silvija Zeman (Polytechnik Čakovec, Croatia) and Marija Kolmanič Bučar (BTŠ Maribor)