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Pupils confirm: in “LVM Forest expedition”, measuring trees and constructing bridges are the most interesting activities

In order to familiarize sixth-grade pupils with the forest restoration cycle in nature, JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” (LVM) every autumn invites the sixth-grade students to participate in “LVM Forest expeditions”. This year, almost 7,000 students and teachers from 315 classes participated in the first exploration events in eight regions of LVM. The broadest number of participants - 941 students - found out more about a sustainable forestry cycle in the LVM Vidusdaugava region expedition in Tome.

LVM environment education manager Līga Abizāre shares: “Even though LVM-organized forest expeditions in the regions are done for the year, the sixth grades have the opportunity to visit the three permanent LVM tourism objects throughout the study year - LVM nature park in Tērvete, LVM Kalsnava arboretum, and LVM Vijciems cone dryer, where, by prior arrangement, one can go in “LVM Forest expedition” with a forest expert. In addition, when going on the educational forest expedition, the participants can use the reference material “Forest exploration backpack”, which includes the tasks that have to be done during the expeditions. This material is available free of charge on the LVM website section “Study materials”.”

The participants of “LVM Forest expeditions” highly value the content of the expeditions and LVM experts’ engagement in forest management. When the expedition is over, the teachers agree that the expeditions are so popular mainly thanks to the LVM employees’ professionalism, positive attitude, and creativity. It is crucial that the pupils meet people for whom the forest is a career and workplace, providing the opportunity to spend time outside and nurture Latvia’s largest renewable resource - the forest. Moreover, the teachers value that during the expeditions, the students in a relatively short time can get acquainted with the forest, and perform practical activities in one of 10 forest discovery stops according to the pupil’s age.

According to school reviews, this year, similarly to the previous ones, the favorite activity for pupils was building a wooden bridge without nails. The students were also excited about having a meal in the forest and the possibility of proactively helping in forest tasks - measuring trees, orientating in the forest, and getting acquainted with the people working at LVM. When the pupils were asked how they would improve the experience, they would encourage organizing even more practical stations that would, for example, allow them to try tree sawing.

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Ever since 2016, LVM invites sixth graders of comprehensive schools to learn natural sciences in the forest by joining an exciting adventure of the “LVM Forest expedition”. The main cooperation partners are the National Centre for Education Republic of Latvia, the University of Latvia Interdisciplinary Education Innovation center, JSC “Latvijas Finieris”, and LVMI “Silava”. In accordance with the natural sciences’ standards, over the course of the forest expedition, the pupils learn to practically use knowledge of natural sciences, understand the human impact on the forest ecosystem by performing practical and creative activities, and gain additional knowledge on how to preserve the forests for the future generations.