Environmental education community outreach and official education targets combined with top of the world educational methods in Second-Hand store environment.
Circular economy has become part of the official curriculum for students including large concepts, which are difficult to comprehend and realise. At the same time, unofficial education and community outreach on waste reductions, zero waste and recycling are still responsibilities of the waste authorities. Combining these two is not easy as they have very different targets but with educational gamification it can be successful and rewarding to students.
In both cases, it is of utmost importance Circular economy as the way of the future society is taught with methods that are inspiring, comprehensible and easy to connect to student’s own life for long lasting effect. Real-life relevance with hands-on approach ignites sparks in kids of all ages to learn and gain understanding about sustainable lifestyle, zero waste and Circular Economy.
Environmental pedagogical specialists at the Reuse Center developed curriculum related educational program for circular economy which takes place in Reuse Stores. The pupils and students learn among the customers through gamification and educational stories where they create games and movies and become subjects rather than objects of teaching. As a community outreach programme, it is very successful.
The objective of the Environmental Teaching Programmes is to reach the educational and community outreach targets of the waste management authorities and cultural authorities.
Resources needed
The teaching programmes are quite easy to run after they are designed first. The financial resources required come from the payment of the teachers who design the learning programmes and conduct the teaching. In addition, there are classroom cost savings.
Evidence of success
The Educational Programmes are ongoing and in practice sold out every year. For example during autumn 2019, just one Educational outreach programme reached about 1650 students and more than 80 teachers. There is a clear demand from the teachers for this kind of hands on gamified teaching that takes place outside the classroom.
The customer feedback has been only positive from teachers (96% find it was what they expected) and students (grade 90% out of 100%).
Difficulties encountered
For sometimes it is difficult for the patrons of the stores to understand why there are so many children running around with their iPads. However, some are also interested on the topics which are taught and welcome the unorthodox shopping experience.
Potential for learning or transfer
There is a huge potential for transfer in environmental education and pedagogical gamification knowledge as well as the implementation of the community outreach programmes of different policies. Combination of educational targets elevates the quality of the outreach programme also and vice versa. The issues that are taught to students are global, and we all need to give our future generations good tools to Circular Economy in the future. The teaching platforms are portable, iPads are available everywhere and different store environments are part of our daily lives. We teach in Reuse Centres but it is quite possible to teach in any Store or shopping mall or even at home schools.
The content is not culturally bound as the items and materials are global also. The only local issue is the Educational Curriculum of the Country. The Finnish curriculum is Pisa winner but certainly necessary adjustments should be made to local teaching requirements. It was the key success factor.
