A greener future also begins in the classroom. With an innovative educational toolkit, the European Union is reaching out to young people aged 13 to 16, aiming to foster a new ecological awareness and strengthen efforts to protect nature.
Designed for educators and environmental facilitators, the toolkit can be used not only in schools, but also in informal settings such as museums, environmental education centers, and educational workshops.
The goal? To engage young people and help them understand key topics such as biodiversity, ecosystems, and EU environmental policies. And just as importantly, to encourage active involvement in the conservation of Europe’s natural heritage.
The toolkit is structured into four thematic modules, each featuring hands-on activities, digital tools, and educational resources.
The first module invites students to reflect on their personal relationship with nature, exploring values, emotions, and behavior. The second encourages them to explore Europe’s biodiversity, learning to identify species, habitats, and ecological interactions. The third module focuses on EU environmental protection policies, highlighting the Natura 2000 network, the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world. Finally, the fourth module promotes active engagement, encouraging students to take part in awareness campaigns, volunteer work, and citizen science projects.
At the heart of the project are key concepts such as biodiversity, habitats, ecosystems, and sustainability, along with the EU directives that regulate the protection of flora and fauna across Europe.
But this is more than just learning. The toolkit offers a dynamic, participatory educational approach: nature walks, role-playing games, mock interviews, interactive map explorations, and the use of species identification apps, as well as access to scientific platforms like EUNIS and BISE.
It’s an approach that blends environmental education, active citizenship, and digital innovation, with the aim of equipping young people not only with knowledge, but with practical skills and a strong sense of responsibility.