2021

School Students Head for a Study Trip with a Forest Education Backpack

At the end of April, ten 5th grade students of Riga Teika Secondary School went for a long walk in Biķernieki Forest to study in nature, using the new methodological tool for schools “Forest Education Backpack” (Meža izziņas mugursoma) prepared by JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” (LVM).

The new methodological tool “Forest Education Backpack” is intended as an assistant for science teachers to organize exploratory hikes in State forests. “Learning in nature promotes competence education and the connection of school with real life. This is proved by the “Forest Education Backpack”, which helps classes to make educational trips in nature in accordance with the “School 2030” science curriculum,” says Uldis Dzērve, a Natural Science Expert at the Interdisciplinary Education Innovation Centre of the University of Latvia.

Students measure, calculate and work as a team in forest

The educational hike lasted for several hours, during which the students got acquainted with logging and nature protection, forest tending, timber harvesting and reforestation. During the hike, the students got acquainted and compared trees in well-tended and wild forest areas, as well as determined the soil acidity in the forest and measured trees.

According to the students themselves, the simplest task was to create a sample plot in a young stand, where trees had to be counted and measured in order to obtain the number of trees per hectare. It was a simple task, because the students of Teika Secondary School have been going to their forest in Vēri Forest District for several years in autumn, where they study and document changes in the forest stand in specially created sample plots. In turn, work with the Bitterlich instrument required the greatest concentration; this tool is used to measure trees in a 20-40-year-old forest stand. The students also found it a challenging task to use mathematical formulas in order to calculate the number of trees in the forest. However, by cooperating with each other and motivating each other, the students coped well with this task, also involving their class teacher remotely.

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School students study in the forest by using the Forest Education Backpack

60 schools are approbating the Forest Education Backpack

The methodological tool “Forest Education Backpack” has been developed by specialists of JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” together with experts of the Interdisciplinary Education Innovation Centre of the University of Latvia to promote students' learning in the forest environment, linking it with real life situations. The material is currently being tested in about 60 schools to be further developed and supplemented by teachers' ideas and suggestions by the autumn.

In cooperation with the National Centre for Education, JSC “Latvia's State Forests” every year encourages schools to study in nature. From pre-school children to university students and teachers, everyone has the opportunity to walk along Latvia’s state forest trails and enhance their school-based knowledge with hands-on nature assignments. Each year, more than 20 000 children, students and teachers explore the forest in the diverse LVM school programmes. For more information, please visit www.lvm.lv/talakizglitiba.