2019

Pigman’s Detectives among the World's Best Forest Education Programmes

The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) has nominated JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) eco-programme “Pigman’s Detectives” (Cūkmena detektīvi) as one of the best forest education programmes in 2019.

With over 70 programmes in 23 countries around the world, Pigman’s Detectives ranked among the Top 10 forest education programmes for its pedagogical quality, innovative approach, and efficiency in practice.

Within the five years since the curriculum was created, it has been appreciated by many educators and children in pre-school education. Almost a quarter of all kindergartens in Latvia are involved in the activities of “Pigman’s Detectives”, bringing together more than 20 000 children. The programme also serves as a source of inspiration and educational material in teachers' creative work. For example, preschool educators at Liezēre Elementary School in Madona have developed a new methodological material to help children acquire new knowledge using environmentally friendly and recyclable materials.

“It is important for children in the learning process to get the idea that nature has to be preserved. Therefore, it is much more valuable and responsible to make new functional things from different materials than to simply throw them away. In this case, a visual material was created on how to make children more familiar with geometric shapes and understand their representations, at the same time, developing all senses - touch, sight, hearing, smell, taste,” tell the preschool educators of Liezēre Elementary School.

In the school year 2019/2020, about 4 000 children from all over Latvia have committed to become detectives. The programme's ambassador Pigman is a true advocate of clean forests; he has already visited the pre-school establishments and provided children with secret bags containing all the necessary educational materials to uncover the dirty secrets of forest. In order to promote children's sense of responsibility for the environment and to help them gain a deeper understanding of the processes taking place in nature, programme participants have several tasks to perform during the year. The children themselves and their educators must be active. Their previous performance can be found on www.cukmens.lv and on social networks. The methodological material is also available for educators on the Internet.

“Every year, in order to improve the programme, we collect feedback from educators. It is gratifying that preschool teachers see the Pigman’s Detectives programme as an excellent tool for learning about the forest, which has improved children's understanding of nature, as well as increased children's motivation to learn and take active classes,” says Līga Abizāre, the creator of the LVM school programme.

The eco-programme is based on practical activities during which children learn about forests and forest products. It is based on 4 themes: “The Dirty Secrets of Forest”, “Following Pigman's Footsteps”, “Forest in a Toy Box” and “Let's Grow Oxygen!”. Through specially designed on-line and board games, dances, songs, fairy tales and visualizations, children perform a variety of detective tasks, thus learning about the good and the bad processes taking place in forest. The tasks for each theme include the principle: “See, Hear, Listen, Do”, which keeps children actively engaged in fun activities. In the second year of the programme, children are encouraged to spend time outdoors and go into forest to discover it in all four seasons of the year. The programme is implemented as part of a long-term national campaign “Do not Litter the Forest!” that is financially supported by the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund.