2018

School Students Explore Forest Energy Sources

On 22 November, experts of JSC "Latvia's State Forests" (LVM) participated in the education day organised by SIA "ZAAO" intended for school students. During this event, schoolchildren from Smiltene and Valmiera regions together with representatives of different fields met in the Nature and Technology Park "URDA" to explore the energy sector and its career opportunities.

The students together with Līga Abizāre, LVM School Programme Manager, familiarised themselves with various sources of energy gained from forest, investigating what energy is acquired from wood, how we deal with it every day and how to promote its future development. They learnt about where we can find wood in our everyday activities, and what the lifecycle of different wood products is.

Since many of the students present see their future to be related to forest, the scholarship competition of LVM Bio-economy School attracted great student interest. In three rounds, students learn, study in nature and address issues concerning innovative bio-economy.

During the education day, students participated in four workshops, including combustion experiments organised by a chemistry teacher, an educational lecture on where fire and heat lie in the subterranean depths, as well as a demonstration of how SIA "ZAAO" collects gas from waste to convert it into electricity in its own cogeneration station.

LVM takes active part and supports education of children and young people by promoting awareness and responsibility towards the environment and forests as the largest renewable natural resource in Latvia. Within the LVM curriculum, people of all ages are offered the opportunity to work in nature, to explore and discover it, to study and to analyse. There is a special programme "Pigman's Detectives" (Cūkmena detektīvi) developed for pre-school-age children, to teach them already from an early age how important it is to take care of the environment. Identify the natural values and discover processes taking place in nature, learn traditional subjects outside of the usual school rooms - it all can be done in the Mother Nature Master Class intended for elementary school students. In turn, all sixth-grade students in Latvia have the opportunity to acquire natural sciences in the forest in the form of a joint adventure - in Latvia's State Forest Expeditions. Strengthening knowledge in nature, school students from grades 7 to 9 compete in LVM Forest Game. Winners of this competition go on an exciting natural expedition abroad. In turn, secondary school students together with experienced industry experts explore the role of forest resources in solving environmental problems in LVM Bio-economy School. This competition includes studying, researching and solving issues affecting the field of bio-economy. LVM Forest Scholarship Competition is highly valued by students of higher education institutions, since it helps gaining an understanding of sustainable forest management practices in state forests.