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BSP and GLOBE scientific students conference in Lithuania

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This weekend, the GLOBE and Baltic Sea Project conference took place in Vilnius. This year, after learning the lessons of the quarantine, the conference was held in a hybrid way for the first time. When such an opportunity arose, for the first time we were happy with conference participants and guests representing six countries. Valdas Jankauskas, the newly appointed director of LMNŠC, and Andrea J. K. Lindgren, representative of the US Embassy, opened the event with a solemn welcome speech. After that, event participants soon began to amaze by their creativity and hard work. A total of 17 works were presented during the weekend, among which were not only participants from Lithuania but also teams from Estonia and Poland who joined us remotely. After finishing the official part, the students and teachers who came from all over Lithuania continued the evening of the first day of the event at the VU Geology Museum. Here, with the help of prof. Eugenija Rudnickaitė, they got acqua...
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Estonian ja Finnish students celebrated the Baltic Sea day together on Rosala Island

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Estonian and Finnish BSP schools’ students and teachers met on the Rosala island in the Baltic Sea to celebrate Baltic Sea Day. The Estonian students were on a 4-day sailing trip with the Estonian Youth Sailing Learning Society to learn about the sailing, team work and of course the state of the Baltic Sea. There were also specialists from the Estonian Marine Institute on one of the four boats. For some of the participants it was a prize for the Baltic Sea Webquiz 2022 and BSP Bird Quiz. All the participants were from 15-19 years old and from 14 different Estonian schools. From Finland there were 25 students and teachers from Alppila, Orivesi, Vaasa and Martinlaakso upper secondary school and also from Helsinki´s language Upper secondary school and Finnis Russian school. During sailing the Estonian students got to know the basic knowledge of navigation, watchkeeping, terminology, sails, ropework, anchoring and tying some knots. On the Rosala island the participants made observations wi...
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We grew as global citizens at the sustainable development camp in Seili

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  Teachers and students from Helsinki, Vantaa, Tuusula, Oulu, Orivesi, and Vaasa took part in Seili camp and Platons academy as part of the Unesco's ASPNET Baltic Sea Project. The event took place in the Turku archipelago and it was a part of the Yhteinen Itämeri-project. One of the central themes was to encourage the students to take global responsibility for the world.  The participants arrived first in Turku by train after which they headed off to the historical Turku castle. A guide told the participants about the history of Turku castle as an eastern part of Sweden. They got even a chance to ask questions about the castle and its surroundings. After the visit, the journey continued to Hanka and Seili.  During the three-day camp, the students discussed Agenda 2030-goals and what kinds of actions are to be taken to reach them. Additionally, they were challenged to question their own consumption habits and they participated in workshops organized by the teacher students...
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Nature trip to Harakka Island in Helsinki

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Students from Finnish UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project´s schools took part in the nature trip of the Our Baltic Sea -course on April 26 in Helsinki. The day started with acquaintances and speeches at Cafe Ursula in Kaivopuisto. After lunch, the connecting boat took people to Harakka Island where we started to explore the island on a guided tour oby Harakka’s environmental educators. The tour covered the history and cultural heritage of the island and its current use as a learning environment for the Finnsh Environment Center. At the same time, photos of plants and animals were taken during the tour and observational entries were made in the iNaturalist application . Water research in pactice In the first workshop water surveys were carried out in two smaller groups. The first group studied different water values from a given depth and the second the temperature in different layers of water as well as turbidity. In this workshop, in particular, you learned to know the basics and how v...
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UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project schools celebrated UN World Water Day and Week and did deeds of a global citizen

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UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project schools celebrated UN World Water Day and Week and did the deeds of a global citizen This week, the Finnish UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project schools celebrated the UN World Water Day and Week (21-25 March 2022). The aim of this international day and week is to draw attention to the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda2030 target 6, which aims to ensure water and sanitation for all people in the world by 2030. The theme of this year's World Water Day was to make the invisible groundwater visible. In the UN World Water Week workshops for the UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project schools, groundwater and its adequacy were also addressed during World Water Week from the perspectives of corporate and consumer responsibility. In addition to groundwater, the Water Week workshops addressed the microplastics problem in the Baltic Sea and biosphere life below and above the surface. The workshops involved teachers and students from UNESCO ASPnet schools and ...
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Citizen science activities 25.02-25.04.2022

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  UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project invites teachers and students to engage with UN sustainable development goals by completing one or more citizen science activities during the given two-month period. Citizen science is a possibility for citizens to contribute to science and learn about their living environment. To finish off the event all participants will be invited to a mini web-conference taking place on April 25th, where they will be able to share experiences and results with their peers and hear a talk on the topic. Everyone signed up for one of the activities will receive an invitation in the weeks to come! How to get involved? Choose one or more activities and sign up for it by March 4th! This way we can have an overview of the participants and keep in touch. Activities can be either done in group or individually. 1. Air quality inside/outside Make measurements of CO2 inside or outside of your school or explore air quality measuring points in your area. Activity si...
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Finland: Yhteinen Itämeri (Our Baltic Sea) project boosts the activities of the UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project school network

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Finland has sought a boost to the activities of the UNESCO ASPnet schools’ Baltic Sea Project from the national  Yhteinen Itämeri (Our Baltic Sea)  project.  Yhteinen Itämeri  project received funding from the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) from government grants allocated to the internationalisation of education. The project started in August 2021, and will end at the end of December 2022. The aim of Yhteinen Itämeri is to activate, strengthen and expand Finland's national Baltic Sea Project school network of UNESCO ASPnet schools, but also to cooperate at international level with schools in the Baltic Sea region. The aim is to raise awareness of the environmental problems in the Baltic Sea region, and to help understand the different scientific, social, cultural, political and economic aspects of human-to-nature dependence. In addition, the aim of the project is to strengthen the sustainable lifestyle of pupils and students and to encourage climat...
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The Baltic Sea WebQuiz 2021 results are out!

  The UNESCO Baltic Sea Project's WebQuiz 2021 has ended and the results are out!  A total of 3,790 students (wihich is 42 students more than last year) from 8 countries around the Baltic Sea participated in the quiz, in addition also 23 sea enthusiasts and teachers tested their knowledge. The largest number of participants was from Estonian schools - 3213 students and teachers. The second largest participant was Lithuania (230 participants), followed by Latvia (220 participants), Finland (66), Poland(55), Germany (16), Denmark (7) and Russia (6). Only one Baltic Sea Project country was left out this time - Sweden.  The WebQuiz was held in three age groups and was the most popular among 14-16 year olds (1650 students), then the 17-19 year old age group (1118 students) and finally among 10-13 year olds (964 students). Due to GDPR restrictions we are not announcing the students names, which will be sent to national coordinators. Excel table with all anonymous results is ava...
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Annual GLOBE and Baltic Sea Project students scientific conference took place!

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November 26 the remote Baltic Sea Project and GLOBE annual students scientific conference took place! This year conference was held remotely The conference was opened by specially invited guests -  Almantas Kulbis, Head of the Nature and Ecological Education Department of the LMNŠC, Andrea K.S. Lindgren, Representative of the US Embassy in Vilnius. Eglė Butkevičienė, one of the founders of the Citizen Science Association in Lithuania. And Justina Kazlauskienė, a specialist of the Meteorological and Aviation Observations Division of the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service under the Ministry of Environment. And the last guest Justina Kazlauskienė was not invited by accident - as we began working with the Hydrometeorological Service this spring, we are increasingly approaching the common goal of expanding the network of phenological observers as well as making greater use of the data collected by students. This acquaintance with the participants is one of the first fruits of o...
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