Open Doors Day 2017
at Slovenian Forestry Institute and Slovenia Forest Service
24th May 2017, Vecna pot 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Slovenian Forestry Institute and Slovenia Forest Service are traditionally opening their doors to children from kindergartens, schools and anyone, eager to learn about forests and forest science every end of May in the Week of forests. This year’s Open Doors Day was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Slovenian Forestry Institute with the title “Knowledge for the forest”.
Workshops and experiments were organised outdoors and in the labs, where children could explore the trees, soils, wild animals, water, fungi, meteorology, biomass and even examine real bear tracks. Combination of outdoor activities and more demanding experiments in labs has proven to be very interesting for children. They love to explore and conduct experiments, it makes them feel like real researchers. Apart from that, forests are perfect environment for experimental pedagogy due to endless number of colours, scents, sounds, images and constant changes and surprises.
“Forest of experiments” was initiated by dr. Mirko Medved, a former director of the Slovenian Forestry Institute. It was designed as a transfer of knowledge about forests in urban forest of the City of Ljubljana, which are part of the Landscape park Tivoli, Rožnik and Šišenski hrib. A group of passionate young researchers, working on different research, demonstration or applied projects, upgraded “Forest of experiments” into an innovative environmental education center. Constantly developing fresh ideas and testing innovative knowledge transfer approaches, researchers joined the Slovenian Network of Forest Kindergartens and Schools and cooperate closely with the Forest Pedagogy Institute.
Also, the LIFEGENMON project was presented through activities with experimental learning about forest ecosystems, biotic diversity, trees, their genetic characteristics and even climate change. Project team carried out with children some of the activities, described in the Handbook for learning and play in the forest, using the principles of Flow learning.
Positive feedback from participants of our Open Doors Day give the LIFEGENMON team the inspiration to continue with educational activities and promote their work through innovative knowledge transfer approaches.
* For those who could not participate at our activities -> DNA smoothie can be prepared also at home:
The contents of this blog are authored by dr. Urša Vilhar and edited by Laura Žižek Kulovec. Both are researchers at the Slovenian Forestry Institute, responsible for the communication and dissemination activities of the LIFEGENMON project.
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