National Youth Ecoforum in Bulgaria

The first National Youth Ecoforum in Bulgaria was held under the motto "For a clean environment and sustainable development" and organized by the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria and the Sofia Vocational High School of Electronics "John Atanasov”, with the support of the foundation “Evrika”. It was held on the 2nd and 3rd of June this year. The forum was dedicated to World Environment Day, June 5th, and was part of the national program to mark the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.

Taking part in the forum were teams of teachers and students from a total of 15 schools from Sofia and the rest of the country:

• 5 vocational high schools (3 from Sofia, 1 from Sevlievo, and 1 from Pernik)
• 4 High schools on Natural Sciences and  Mathematics (2 from Sofia, 1 from Sliven and 1 from Botevgrad)
• 2 foreign languages high schools from Burgas, one primary school (Konstantin Kostenechki Elementary School, Kostenets village)
• 2 secondary schools (SU "Hristo Botev", Vratsa; 125 SU "Boyan Penev", the town of Sofia)
• 1 united children's complex from Kyustendil.

The two days of the forum were filled with dynamics and content. It started with a presentation by Vasilena Moneva, a student at the Faculty of Geology and Geography at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski" about the idea, concept, and theory of sustainable development.

Next, all the school teams presented their schools and interesting projects, made demonstrations with solar panels and their application for environmental protection using Arduino. Some of the titles of the projects that were presented by the students were: "Second life of water", "Effective extraction of green energy and its storage", "Clovers in action", "Nature is a gift - to love and protect it", "Composting - useful, natural, pleasant", "Clean environment", "Ecotourism in the Sliven region", "Friends of nature" "Green entrepreneurs for sustainable development", "Green Germany", and many others.

The Association "Possibilities Without Borders" showed students how to learn, talk and rethink the idea of environmental protection by organizing an interesting game for them – a detective adventure in the schoolyard. The results of this game helped the organizers to form 3 groups of students:

• In the first one the pupils were randomly divided into teams and played "Climate Fresco", an educational game. A lot can be learned with only 42 cards, like everything about the climate and its changes, about the causes, about the consequences of the careless attitude towards nature, about the possible actions that can be taken for its protection. The game was the object of the teams' attention within almost 3 hours, in which the students, playing, discovered cause-and-effect relationships, exchanged ideas and looked for solutions. All teams presented their frescoes, conclusions and messages to their leaders and participants in the forum.
• The second group of students worked in a POSTER workshop - "Solve and visualize the case study!". They had to demonstrate their knowledge of natural sciences and ecology and, for a certain time, solve and visualize case studies on the topic. Students from different schools worked as a team to solve the case and presented their solutions on a poster. They showed very good presentation skills when they presented their work and talked about the working process of the group and how they came together to the final result.
• In the third station, named “the JOURNALISTS’ station”, the first students’ team had to prepare and conduct an interview on the topic: "Young people, ecology and sustainable development" with the participants of the forum during the two days. The task of the second team was to write a report/article about the event in which they participated with the title: "Youth for sustainable development, Sofia-2023". The "journalists" had the right to get help from a teacher/s in the work process, and at the end of the event they summarized all the messages that the participants left after the Forum.

On the second day, teachers worked separately from students, shared experiences and good practices, and discussed possibilities for future joint activities.

• Prof. Ana Georgieva presented the European and national platform of teachers for teachers "Science on Stage" and advertised the 9th National  Festival (20 – 22.10. 2023 in High school “Vasil Levski”), as a selection of the best projects from Bulgaria for the  13th European Science on Stage festival (12-15.08.2024 in Turku, Finland, clarified the regulations, the application process and deadlines for submitting the Applications  (2.10.2023). Then she invited teams of teachers and pupils to apply for the Future League with their projects, that fulfill one or more of the 17 Sustainable Developments Goals.
• Milena Gosheva shared the experience with the students' competition of SPGE "Young Naturalist" and invited colleagues to further develop and collaborate on the next edition.
• Tatyana Dimitrova introduced the many activities that are carried out at the First Private Mathematical High School, Sofia, the project-based learning in classroom and extracurricular activities that the school conducts outdoors during green schools and other organized initiatives in nature.
• The Safe Playgrounds Association told us how together we can take the lessons outside the closed space of the classroom by making our own outdoor learning environment.
• Tsetsa Tsolova from PPMG "Acad. Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov", the city of Botevgrad showed us the presentation "Let's save the planet for our children's children" and shared many activities and achievements in the field of natural sciences from his many years of experience with students and colleagues. She also shared a rich toolkit for planning and evaluating project activities.

 At the end of the forum, each school received a plaque for active participation in the FIRST NATIONAL YOUTH ECOFORUM "FOR A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT", and all participants, teachers, and students, were awarded certificates for successful performance. For those interested, the organizers offered a visit to the polytechnic museum, which ended the two-day Eco-forum, with the active participation of many young, enthusiastic, and inquisitive advocates for environmental protection and the sustainable development of Bulgaria.

The messages around which the Forum participants united were: “We did not inherit the Earth from our grandfathers, we borrowed it from our children!" as well as "We have to learn and think green in order to have our TOMORROW!" and "Let's take care of our GREEN SHELTER together!"

Overall, the participants in the forum showed their empathy for the protection of our planet and gave useful ideas on how we can invest in activities and show a responsible attitude to the protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. Guests at the event were the Corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Draishu, Chairman of the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miglena Molhova from the University of National and World Economy and Expert on STEM projects at "Zinev Art Technologies", Monika Kovachka-Dimitrova – Program Director and Vice President of SAP Labs, Bulgaria. Organizers were Prof. Ana Georgieva, head of the Steering committee of “Science on Scene- Bulgaria” and responsible secretary of UPB, Milka Djijova, member of SFB, Greta Rajkovska, English language teacher and STEM trainer and Milena Gosheva - physics and mathematics teacher at SPGE "John Atanasov". They all greeted the participants and the headmaster of the school engineer Polina Kostova welcomed them to the newly opened STEM center.  

Report: Ana Georgieva