Environmental education in Chemnitz
Why do we need environmental education?
Environmental education is one of the key components in the fight against climate change. Only those who are provided with sufficient information and educate themselves on the subject can form their own well-founded opinion. Among other things, environmental education promotes awareness of our city, current developments such as climate change and the need for a sustainable way of life. A lifestyle is sustainable if it satisfies the needs of the present generation without jeopardising the satisfaction of the needs of future generations. Accordingly, the lifestyle of future generations must not be jeopardised.
The City of Chemnitz also offers its own environmental education programmes, which are described below. All programmes can be requested free of charge. The implementation depends on the capacity of the respective supervising staff or the availability of materials.
Super cool rattle for children
Age group 5 to 7 years
Together with Kurt the common spadefoot toad, children experience puzzle adventures in Chemnitz and learn how best to behave on hot days and what our city has to offer to get through the heat. With the spadefoot toad Kurt as the central puzzle figure, the booklet also aims to draw attention to the sensitive group of amphibians, whose population numbers are in sharp decline in Chemnitz. They are highly endangered due to climate change and the associated increase in heatwaves.
The booklet is particularly suitable for children between the ages of 5 and 7 and can be downloaded free of charge below. The download file is designed so that the booklet can be printed out independently in A4 colour and then folded to A5 format as a booklet. This makes it particularly practical for small hands.
We would like to invite kindergartens in particular to try out the booklet with their children and to pass on the information about the booklet to parents. You are welcome to use the poster for the puzzle booklet (link soon available here) to display in your centre.
The booklet was produced by Heed Kreativbüro GmbH on behalf of the Environmental Agency in coordination with the Office for Health and Prevention.
Minecraft for nature-based solutions
Age group 8 to 12 years
With the help of the video game Minecraft, children and young people discover the importance of nature-based solutions for cities. The aim of the project is to encourage young people's creativity and imagination while teaching them how nature can be used to solve challenges such as climate change in the places where they live.
Solar flower making
Age group 4 to 10 years
Young people from Chemnitz can experience the power of green energy and how it works by making their own solar flower. The kit consists of a petal, a shoot leaf, a shoot axis, a motor and the solar cell.
The children can colour the petals themselves and help assemble the kit. However, the adults are responsible for soldering the contacts together and gluing the motor. The offer is particularly popular at after-school and day-care centre parties.
Climate rally
Age group 11 to 14 years
What measures can reduce the heat on the station forecourt, provide more shade on Düsseldorfer Platz and make Chemnitz more resilient?
You can find out this and much more at the Climate Rally for Chemnitz. The rally comprises six stations where players learn more about the consequences of climate change and possible adaptation measures - through quiz questions, explanations and small tasks. The climate rally is intended as an introduction to the topic of nature-based solutions (NbS) in sustainable urban planning. It can be organised by the participants themselves.
Lego simulation game
Age group 15 to 99 years
In the Lego simulation game, participants take on different roles that take part in real-life urban planning processes. Together, they have to make urban planning decisions based on various scenarios in a fictitious city. These are realised using Lego building blocks.
The decisions in the respective planning game scenario should contribute to a climate-adapted urban development of the fictitious city and thus to a city worth living in in the long term. Nature-based solutions and water-sensitive urban development are fundamental to this.
Daycare centre water bag
Age group 4 to 7 years
With the daycare centre water bag, children discover that tap water is a great drinking option. By choosing tap water, you can promote their health and protect our environment. Bye bye bottled water and sugary disposable drinks like Capri Sun and squeezies.
With the daycare centre water bag, daycare children from the age of 4 actively and with lots of fun discover
- what a central role water plays in their everyday lives,
- that tap water is a healthy and fair drink,
- the natural water cycle and the tap water cycle and
- that clean water is a valuable resource that is unequally distributed around the world.
The daycare centre water bag contains a landscape cloth with 32 picture cards to explore our water cycle, movement games, experiments, stimulating handicraft tasks, a sensory journey and the popular hand puppet "Tropfi", who can actively and enjoyably accompany the children during all educational units. Together they find out how drinking water gets into our taps and what a great and versatile drink it is.
The daycare centre water bag was developed by the a tip: tap e. V. association.