Your Neighbors the Oaks

Project Contact: Mariana Tarin Toledo Aceves, Ecology Researcher, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Carr. Antigua Xalapa Coatepec, 351. Col. El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. CP 91073

Project Summary: The project will develop educational courses to provide school teachers with training and environmental knowledge to share with their students. These training sessions will be shared with schools in 16 municipalities in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. Teachers and students will have the opportunity to learn about the diversity of oak trees in their region, to understand the importance of oaks and the services they provide in the ecosystem, and to participate in the propagation and planting of oak trees at their school and communities.

Executive Summary: The purpose of “Your neighbors the oaks” is to raise awareness of the importance, ecology, diversity, conservation, and biocultural aspects of oaks in schools of 16 municipalities in Veracruz State, Mexico. The project will enrich the contents of the official educational program and provide training and environmental culture to school teachers during 2023. Teachers working in preschool, primary, secondary and special education levels will participate on a voluntary basis. A training and facilitation process will be initiated with the teachers to learn about the most important aspects of oak trees. The training process will be carried out in semi face-to-face modality (B-learning); that is, some activities will be developed in asynchronous online sessions and others in face-to-face sessions. The "flipped classroom" strategy will be used. During the training sessions, general aspects of oak trees and guidelines for their identification in the localities where the schools are located will be discussed. Teachers will be trained in the cultivation and propagation of oak trees so that they can plant, cultivate and manage them in their schools. When putting into practice the knowledge and skills acquired, teachers will have to plan didactic strategies and design learning situations with their students, aimed at fostering the necessary competencies for sustainable development. The work in the educational community will include, if possible, the planting of oak trees in the school, or in an important place for the locality. In addition, socio-cultural actions will be designed for students to disseminate the knowledge acquired. The evidence of the process will be integrated into a digital portfolio of learning that will be evaluated by experts in education and oak ecology.

Further Reading

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