During the first phase, the project is targeted at primary and infant schools, and it will then be expanded to lower secondary schools in September 2005. It therefore affects all pupils doing science, whether in primary, infant or lower secondary school.

At the beginning, the Conseil Général de Meurthe-et-Moselle (council authority for the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle) wanted to introduce a measure to raise awareness about the environment, ecology and sustainable development. To promote respect for the environment, the Conseil Général set up a programme to raise awareness about the issues. The Maison départementale de l’environment (the department’s environment centre) is an integral part of the public spaces and environmental management service. Since 1999, when it was integrated into the Meurthe-et-Moselle council authority services, it has been organising a series of awareness-raising activities among the general public, particularly for schoolchildren. There are two projects: - Practical ecology: this concerns projects run by children on the centre’s premises: natural resources management (energy, water, etc), compost-making, planting of an orchard, design and creation of an educational pond, planting of an organic flower bed, an insects’ garden, etc. - Raising awareness about environmentally sensitive natural areas, which entails: - a local approach: the aim is to have children work on natural areas near to schools; - an approach based on civic responsibility and sustainable development: the aim it to have children participate in drawing up inventories (currently of amphibians, insects and reptiles) and keeping a check on them, to encourage them to reflect about the site’s management; - a desire for debate: to encourage discussions between classes working on the same topic in the department’s environmentally sensitive natural areas or between classes working on different topics in the same area. Lower secondary school classes can occasionally enrol to participate in general initiation to an environmentally sensitive natural area. Classes from the third cycle either enrol: - on a so-called long project with four activities over the year (three for the reptiles project); - or occasionally to participate in drawing up inventories during field trips, or in initiation trips. Classes from the second cycle can enrol occasionally to participate in drawing up springtime inventories during field trips, or in initiation trips. An educational kit (slideshow, information sheets, etc) is made available to ensure that these trips are prepared thoroughly. The idea is to generate project ideas in schools and then to encourage them to become independent and continue the activity without having to go through council channels. Children must be at the centre of the project and the main protagonists. To obtain good results and develop serious knowledge and civic behaviour, long programmes for in-depth activities seem to be required. Practical ecology represents the point of departure. This approach makes it possible to draw early general conclusions and establish rules. It concerns any space or species, and can directly or indirectly concern energy savings, etc. Environmentally sensitive natural areas continue to be the department’s only area of responsibility in the environmental field. There are also activities for the general public, but they are restricted to a specific area. Site visits can be organised and, if requested, more far-reaching projects can be developed.

This project is run across the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. It is not part of a wider project, and is an isolated initiative which, to the council’s knowledge, only affects this department. However, government guidelines on the environment and sustainable development encourage the development of this type of initiative. It comes solely under the department’s responsibility, but for certain projects there are wider initiatives developed via a website. The Conseil Général tries to communicate with other departments. It finds various contacts, notably cross-border ones, to be of great interest, especially concerning amphibians.

No

No

No

The Conseil Général runs the project and ensures overall dissemination. Among other things, this includes: - an annual meeting for presenting the results, to which representatives from each school are invited, including pupils, teachers, etc.; - a flyer; - a website (www.cg54.fr/maisonenvironment), which will be improved and made more interactive, so that it can be worked upon.

The Conseil Général sends the flyer to all schools as soon as the school year has ended. Some but not many teachers attend training courses at the environment centre and find out about it there. This is enough for the practical ecology project. Most schools respond. Aside from that, word of mouth, the local meetings for reporting on results, and the duration of activities also help ensure that the project is disseminated on a fairly large scale.

The results are posted on the schools’ websites if they have one. Otherwise this ranges from simply posting information on noticeboards to meetings with parents, children, etc. There is an information meeting when classes enrol on the project.

Fieldwork and practical activities offer an interesting starting point for scientific study, and the whole class becomes interested. For pupils to be motivated, they must be able to ask questions. This approach also enables teachers who are shy or unsure of science to practice regularly and initiate activities other than those proposed. There is a real impact in terms of the importance attached to science teaching.

There is no collaboration with either public or private laboratories. There are sometimes some isolated examples of activities with university laboratories. The activities sometimes join up with work carried out by the council or private companies, although this is rare. For example, classes can watch electrofishing, which is very instructive for studying river’s aquatic fauna. It would be desirable for many more such initiatives to take place, but there is a lack of resources. There are no links with hunters. Contacts exist with the water agency, which co-finances some young people’s job contracts at the Maison de l’environnement. To sum up, it is more a case of occasional partnerships than collaboration.

The approach is experimental and encourages questioning. There is a systematic desire to work in real-life situations. Certain projects are monitored over several years to analyse how they develop. The pupils are thus aware of the continuity and common thread in what they are doing. The pupils can simultaneously reflect about management. There is an overall view and a systemic vision.

The Conseil Général organises general training for teachers through the department’s in-service training plans (PDFC – Plans Départementaux de Formation Continue) and through the local teacher training college for primary and secondary school teachers.

There seems to be a firm acquisition of theoretical knowledge. The children are keen to go further. They act as inventory managers, which makes the activity important and the work rewarding. During the meetings for presenting results, the children often show excellent work and are proud to present their project. The classes are generally very knowledgeable about their work. However, the teacher’s influence can sometimes be discerned. Each activity is organised with sufficient time for everybody to complete it. Shy children can start to shine during this type of activity.

All of them, because they are in primary and lower secondary schools.

In past projects, the obstacles were principally concerned with the availability of partners and support staff (all of the department’s environmental services). In pedagogical terms, these activities require significant numbers of staff: field trips need to be strictly supervised and it is often necessary to make use of specific external expertise. Project content is determined in accordance with policy recommendations, which can change each year.

It is highly cross-disciplinary for primary schools. It is not necessary to explain why, because a broad systemic approach is required. It is not yet possible to answer for lower secondary schools, because trials will start at the beginning of the next school year and the teaching teams are going to have to work together. The environment concerns almost all disciplines.

Yes, of course. The pedagogical model is “the project”. The long-term objective is announced as soon as contact is established. However, it is still being developed for lower secondary schools. They firstly have to come and visit in order to identify needs, and then the Maison de l’environnement will propose the most suitable activities. Transfer of the model from primary to lower secondary schools is likely to be difficult, especially regarding the cross-disciplinary vision essential for this type of approach to a subject such as the environment. Lower secondary schools have a subject-oriented approach with several teachers who will have to work together. Secondary school teachers are not necessarily used to doing this.

ICT has been used in the production of a CD-Rom for each subject, for example, with a technician from the IT department providing help. Discussion forums have also been set up on the Maison de l’environnement’s website. There are also study projects for collecting data, which is analysed using IT tools in order to compare them for different sites (in the ecological sense of the term) and for each topic. This may be of interest to scientists.

The initiative has been developed by the Conseil Général. A project on fish is planned in collaboration with the Nancy aquarium museum. However, this cooperation is being called into question, because the young person employed to organise it is coming to the end of her contract and has not been appointed permanently.

The Maison départementale de l’environnement was built as a cultural centre, but the facilities have been reorganised and the place continues to be relatively functional. The direct contact with nature evidently attracts much interest among the children. Many people are needed to run the initiative.

Following a request by councillors and policy guidelines among other things, the Conseil Général set this project up to raise awareness about ecology among children at infant schools, primary schools, lower secondary schools and establishments run by the Office d'Hygiène Sociale (for people with disabilities or social problems, etc.). The project is targeted at all schools and colleges in Meurthe-et-Moselle which want to undertake specific activities in the environmental field to promote sustainable development.

For the projects in general: - The person who coordinates all environmental activities at the Conseil Général offices in Nancy acts puts political decisions into practice. - At the Maison de l’environment, the following people have a greater or lesser degree of involvement in these projects: - the manager of the Maison de l’environment, - the person in charge of educational programmes, - the person in charge of educational aids, - the person in charge of practical ecology and the centre’s activities for the public, - the person who adapts projects for the general public, - a secretary, - the person in charge of green spaces, etc. In total, there are the equivalent of four full-time people for the two projects. Everyone is employed.

Resources are as follows: - a large resources centre with 2,000 reference materials and ready-to-use educational kits. - IT rooms - classrooms - premises which can cater for classes. The centre is not freely accessible, but it is open to the public for events on specific topics.

All means of collaboration, internal team meetings, etc. Day-to-day management within the centre is based on truly collaborative teamwork. The office in Nancy coordinates activities and is represented at the main meetings. There is a shared messaging system with Nancy and collaborative tools are used (shared applications, etc.).

If the school principal is interested, s/he includes it in the school’s development plan. Teachers have more of a problem in having it included. Local authority powers make it easier to involve secondary school principals. For primary schools, on the other hand, links exists between the Conseil Général and the national education inspectorate for the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. Schools keep the national schools inspector for their area informed. The results of the work accomplished are not necessarily exploited.

Innovation lies at the heart of the environment topic. There is not any particular discussion about this because it is an almost necessary practice. The project will be broader for lower secondary schools so that there is a wider discussion. For example, “what can we do to save energy at all levels in the school?” At a more philosophical level, an attempt should be made to have a more in-depth debate about the future in the concours des écoles fleuris (school gardens competition) by giving more emphasis to the overall vision than the results, for example.

Work is organised jointly between the Conseil Général, district authorities, the national education ministry, parents, etc. An information bulletin reporting on all events is sent to all participants. The Maison de l’environnement centralises information and asks everyone to contribute to publication costs. The Conseil Général is a member of the IDEAL network, a local authority association set up in 1985 to promote knowledge-sharing between authorities. It passes on information about existing and emerging practices in all of their areas of responsibility. It involves council officials and supports joint work on local government powers. Within the Meurthe-et-Moselle department, a policy group is working on strategy for environmentally sensitive natural areas and examining what needs to be done. The manager of the Maison de l’environment represents the initiative for any necessary external contacts.