The main goal of the project was to enhance the quality of early years environmental education in order to develop children’s interest in and connection to nature and to achieve high quality learning outcomes that support basic core curriculum and lifelong learning skills. Teaching about nature is an excellent opportunity to develop a set of children's skills and competences important for achieving better effects of learning in different fields of education and then for the wellbeing of individuals and more sustainable future of communities. And yet nature education is often under appreciated and its potential ignored in national curricula at primary and early year levels. Many educators suffer from a lack of dedicated materials and examples of engaging activities for such children. This project was based on experiences of the already operating international educational project Spring Alive that also involves the 6 BirdLife Partners (ornithological ngos) engaged in this project. The transnational dimension of the project is very important, bringing the best examples of how nature based education can deliver profound and lasting learning outcomes to countries and regions where the potential has not been realized. The international cooperation also provides a basis for future international networking. The practical knowledge and competence of pre-school and primary school teachers was enhanced by providing them with training and resources. Resources are also available to educators running informal education through making the supporting materials widely accessible. The training provided an opportunity for exchanging teachers' experiences from their work at a transnational level. Academic educationalists and trainers were engaged to ensure the highest quality of the created resources.The project was addressed to teachers from rural areas and small towns to develop theirs skills and to enable them to access the most current knowledge, teaching practices and resources. 60 teachers from preschools and primary schools participated in the training. Over 342 teachers took part in national training events. At least 2360 teachers from primary schools and pre-schools as well informal educators from European countries will download the materials after the delivery of the demonstration lessons and free access to the uploaded resources online this and upcoming year. Main activities undertaken during the project's duration:The activities of 1st half of the project timeline were focussed on: research on the most important obstacles and challenges in area of environmental education in primary and pre-school education; determining the innovative teaching methods and content of resources to overcome these obstacles; developing a set of engaging and effective teaching materials (O2, O3). During the 2nd half of the project, activities were focused on: continuing and finalizing the work on the teaching resources; adapting them to the partners national requirements (=language / curricula); organizing international workshop for teachers; disseminating the materials during multiplier events together with, mostly online, promotion. Teaching materials (O2, O3, O4), including the mobile application helping children to learn issues related to nature in an interactive way, were ready to use and presented at the workshop for teachers in July 2018 Ireland/Maynooth University. As a result of the project we delivered the following intellectual outputs: materials for pre- and primary schools, mobile app and a video tutorial. The project provided teachers of preschools and primary schools across six countries with innovative, relevant teaching resources. Moreover supported and trained them to deliver an effective nature themed programme of learning.The project also grealty improved the communication and cooperation of the project partners from Poland, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, Czechia and Macedonia as well as their interaction with the educational systems in their countries. All the intellectual project outputs are available for teachers and educators not only on the partners' website but also on the Spring Alive national websites. They will continue to be used by teachers from countries where Spring Alive operates as each year they will be encouraged to use them. They will also continue to be available on the BL Partnership extranet for use of the BL Partners and teachers they work with. Project partners continue to maintain contact with interested teachers to further develop their teaching curricula. The results and impact are greater than expected. We have successfully shared the information through all our channels. The greatest impact are groups of teachers who have became advocates for our materials. A long-term benefit was achieved by creating a network of teachers at European level and at national level. Thus the project effects will be multiplied during next years after the lifetime of the project long term results.

<< Objectives >>Developing the knowledge and competences of the organizations participating in the project on the protection of wetlands and the exchange of experiences, good practices and establishing cooperation in the development of effective methods of protecting water-dependent ecosystems. Increasing climate awareness and educating the local community of the Carpathians about wetlands and the benefits of their protection. Popularizing digital tools related to ecology.<< Implementation >>Actions:- 4 three-day seminars (2 in Poland and 2 in Slovakia) for organizations participating in the project on effective methods of protection of wetlands and their valuable habitats, plant and animal species,- 4 one-day workshops on wetlands and the benefits of their protection (2 in Poland and 2 in Slovakia) for the local community of the Carpathians,- building a trilingual internet platform - knowledge base on water-dependent ecosystems.<< Results >>Increasing the knowledge and competences of organizations participating in the project in the field of wetland protection, development of a common catalog of effective methods of protecting wet ecosystems available on the internet platform, ongoing cooperation of organizations for nature protection in the Polish-Slovak border. Increasing climate awareness and knowledge of the local community of the Carpathians about wetlands. Creating an internet platform - a knowledge base on wetlands.

Birds are fascinating animals, numbering over 10,000 species worldwide. They are of great ecological significance. Already some years ago, British scientists have warned that Europe's bird population has declined by 421 million birds over the past thirty years, which is approximately one fifth of the total.According to Jan Gugh, SOS/Birdlife SK, what could also help decreasing this decline, is to “closely monitor birds and cultivate children's relationship with nature”. At the same time, to establish a bird garden that will offer the bird a year-round source of food, nesting possibilities, water source, shelters. People generally have poor biodiversity-identification skills. Misconceptions about species, including birds, are common amongst children and, if not addressed, can persist into adulthood.Another problem is, that children nowadays, esp. in urban areas, are more disconnected from nature than ever before, leading to “extinction of experience” with the natural world. Yet there are many benefits from children interacting with nature first-hand, including via outdoor learning. Environmental education programmes typically aim to increase awareness and knowledge of local biodiversity and to promote positive attitudes and behaviour towards it. However, limited research has been conducted evaluating to what extent these interventions achieve their goals. The evidence suggests childhood nature experiences can positively affect adult environmental attitudes and behaviour. Possessing basic animal and plant identification skills is often emphasised as a prerequisite for understanding and appreciating biodiversity. Programmes incorporating action-based outdoor learning are believed to be particularly beneficial. There are multiple benefits of outdoor learning within school grounds.Also, there is increasing support for the idea that human attitudes to animals may be indicative of human–human empathy and also that knowledge and attitudes are related.In some countries, positive attitudes of children are formed not only through knowledge, but also through emotional education and development of emotional competences. Feelings are needed also for the development of relation of us as human beings to animal species and nature. In our project we´ll believe that EQ and social & emotional competences can also influence children attitudes and knowledge and positively enhance them. Therefore, in the project, we set up a hypothsesis, that if schools develop programmes, combining the aspects of social & emotional education, with the use of the outdoors, running small environmental projects - bringing nature back to schools, the children knowledge, attitudes and emotional intelligence can increase at the same time. In the project, 4 countries will join and form a partnership with the aim to carry out the research, and develop and test new methodology of working with children aged 4 - 6, focused on learning about biodiversity - nature and bird species, social & emotional learning supporting empathy with other beings (humans and the animals/birds) with the use of the outdoors even more enhancing learning process, so called „3 in 1“ concept. School activities, running paralelly in SK, ES, MT & UK will be coordinated by 16 early years teachers, who will be trained in the project through 2 teacher trainings. 4 project outputs, related to development and pilot testing of new methodology, will include Research study on the impact of new methodology on children knowledge, attitudes & competences, Teachers´ guide and Training programme related to it, and Compendium of good – practices as a result of pilot testing of activities at school level, based on „3 in 1“ concept, in practice. We expect the new methodology to help increasing children knowledge of nature/bird species, form pro – environmental attitudes & develop their social and emotional competences. Project should be carried out transnationaly due to the know – how that will be brought by each partner organisation and the common values, that we, as a partnership, share.