1) "Eveil en Environnement Urbain" ("An Eye for the Urban Environment"): a mix of school-projects and work at the scale of the neighbourhood in the framework of two urban renewal programs of the city of Brussels from 1998 to 2002 (Decision of he City council of Brussels). Children of 5th & 6th primary schools (10 schools) have been sensitized for environmental themes: to live in a healthy house (health & energy themes), to respect public spaces (heritage) etc. Educators of the Centre Urbain gave throughout the year pedagogical animations about urban development themes and organized with the participating schools local events at the end of the year: school- or neighbourhood-feasts, where parents and neighbours were confronted with what children had learned throughout the year.
2) The "Week of Energy", subsidized by the Brussels Region and I.B.G.E. an yearly event taking place in the Halles Saint-Géry from 2000 till 2003 (October), where ABEA gave information and advice to the Brussels public about energy-matters. In that framework a kind of "pedagogical fair" was organized to make children aware of environmental themes. On an interactive and pedagogical way they could attend to games and experiments and got practical tips to save energy and collaborate to a healthier environment thanks to a more responsible behaviour.
3) The "FEE-project": The Centre Urbain (ABEA) was the coordinator of a European project for energy education with the objective to sensitize children of 10 to 14 year for energy (RES and REU). This project made it possible to create pedagogical instruments and pedagogical animations. And finally a first international exhibition was set up to show the "European" creations of the 8 Energy Agencies who participated to the FEE-project. This project has been considered as one of the 2 examples in "Active energy-education.
APERe asbl
1) SOLTHERM Jeune Public 2001-2002 (Belgium) Project description
Type: regional pilot campaign. Activity modules dispensed by specialized associations. Project developed in the framework of a general action plan to promote solar domestic hot water systems in the Walloon region (“SOLTHERM”).
Target group: 10-18
Duration: 2 years
Financing: Ministry of Walloon Region, directorate for Technology, Research and Energy
Project management: APERe asbl
Other partners: BonJour Sourire, CRIE de Mariemont, COREN
Aim
To increase public awareness of energy, solar energy and solar thermal energy use
To transform the society in depth by targeting young people not in the labour market yet
To heighten pupils, students and public awareness of energy efficiency through education or association
Objectives (we will here only focus on the action targeted to primary schools)
To increase pupils awareness of solar domestic hot water systems in the framework of energy challenges
To stimulate an interest from school in energy activities
To make energy activities attractive through solar energy and accessible for schools
To create links between energy education actors and to promote their activities within education and association sectors
Success indicators
Quantitative:
number of modules dispensed
number of pupils and classes involved
number of schools involved
Qualitative:
Pupils information (energy production), understanding (impacts of energy consumption on environment), awareness (EE behaviours), message transmission
Methodology used: the modules have been integrated into existing initiatives
Outcomes
Quantitative
45 presentations in primary and secondary schools
1000 pupils involved
60 schools involved by hosting presentation or training session
Qualitative
* From teachers and directors feed-back
The presentation is generally used by the teacher to set up courses on energy issues.
* From the results of a ex-post evaluation realised one year after with regards to the objectives of KIDS4ENERGY (quite different from the objectives of SOLTHERM)
The target group (children) was not aware at all before the programme and more aware at the end (20% to 50% deviation from the witness group). Awareness of solar energy and the energy challenges in general.
65% of the sample have been speaking about the solar energy presentations at home
Success factors
The implication of directors: it is highly important for school access and hierarchical support
The EE knowledge of teachers: it is vital for the accuracy of the message and for the credibility of the presentations (see lessons learned)
The motivation of teachers: it plays a major role in delivering a strong and redundant message
NGO support: it was necessary to keep teachers motivated and to provide them with learning tools
Networking: it is needed to guarantee a coherent message and a good coordination among schools and ngos
Lessons learned
programme
This pilot campaign not only met the quantitative targets but also aroused interest from the school community. The directors were more interested by the supply of activities directly targeted to pupils than training of the teachers.
The call for application was sent by mail to directors. Interested teachers sometimes did not receive the information if the director was not interested in it. The building of a teachers’ network should help overcome this obstacle
Teachers are a key actor. They have a crucial role in reinforcing the messages and to guarantee their repetition. The repetition is necessary to assimilate the long term knowledge. For children of 10-12 y, teachers are the knowledge. So this knowledge may be difficult to question by foreign presentators (e.g. if the sun is a star which was born one day and which will die one day, the sun is not a renewable energy!). A good way to achieve the goal seems to develop energy educational projects towards schools or pupils classes with the support of specialised associations because Teachers need continuous educational support to conduct projects and there is an important demand for presentations from outside
From one hand, it would have probably been more advisable to put this programme within a larger framework than the promotion of a specific energy technology product but from the other hand the general action plan helped arousing schools interest in renewable energy sources
There is a need to realise concerted energy education efforts in Belgium
Activities targeted to pupils
3 associations were brought together with 3 specific methodologies:
Main specificity of Bon Jour Sourire: experiments in the classrooms and do-it-yourself exercise realized by children
Main specificity of the CRIE: conference and models presentation (human being replaced in relation with environment)
Main specificity of APERe: conference (energy-environment-society) - with educational tool (big model of solar domestic hot water system)
It is highly recommended to integrate all three of them in one single approach because of their good complementarity. Experiments allow children to get a grasp on scientific principles. Then they better understand both technology and climate change. When associated with interactive presentations this pedagogical approach helps giving sense to learning while conveying messages about energy challenges and EE behaviours
Evaluation
There is a need to evaluate the EE and environmental programmes in general
There is a lack of background in the field of in-depth evaluation of these programmes
There is a lack of knowledge of the target group: child’s ability to apprehend some specific concepts
Children general awareness of energy challenge, science and technologies is very poor.
The basic premise “energy is a complex matter, uneasy to understand, uneasy to teach” has been confirmed
There are differences between boys and girls with regards to the ability to understand technical aspects
Some concepts are difficult to materialize by children : child is still self-centred at this age and cannot really imagine what fuel poverty is, what a limited source is because he never experienced himself that concept
