Italy

                                         ITALY: ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO “ALBERTO BURRI”

“FROM THE SCREEN INTO THE GREEN”: A SERVICE-LEARNING EXPERIENCE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC (2020-2022)

Due to the pandemic emergency started at the beginning of the year 2020, the Service Learning activities we had planned in 2019 had to be reconsidered and re-moduled. The years 2020-22 saw, with particular regard to Italy, frequent and breaks from ordinary, physical school life, with sudden closures and online teaching over several months. Even if it was possible to realise physical Service Learning activities only in the spring and early autumn of the year 2021, pupils had the possibility to learn and acquire theoretical knowledge on environmental issues – more specifically on waste disposal, recycling and plastic – during the entire two-year span, so as to gain a solid basis on which physical activities could be later constructed. For reasons of clearness, here follows a more specific description of the activities realised in the two project years.

                                                                       2020-2021

September 2020: pupils’ work started at school at curricular level in the subjects Geography, Science, Technology and Citizenship with the study of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the features of plastic materials, environmental sustainability and plastic issues. The study was always followed by formal tests, in order to assess pupils’ level of knowledge and skills.

Furthermore, these topics were presented not only by teachers at curricular level, but also by branch experts from the territory of Città di Castello, who supported the project during its entire lifecycle with workshops and contributions of different kinds.

Online Workshop PLASTIC OCEAN with Dr. Biologist Debora Nucci from “Malakos Museum” (February 2021): the workshop was originally to take place in presence, but had to be postponed online to February 2021 due to the sudden school closure in autumn/winter 2020/2021. Pupils had the possibility to know more about the history of plastic, its chemical properties, its different varieties and current alternatives, plastic-related marine pollution.

Online Workshop GARBAGE PATHS with Dr. Engineer Mauro Silvestrini from Città di Castello’s Waste Company So.Ge.Pu (March 2021) : the online workshop took the form of a preparatory meeting to the on-the-spot Service Learning activities scheduled for spring 2021. Facts, figures and features of our Municipality waste system were interactively presented to pupils. There followed a brainstorming session on pupils' expectations of the Service Learning Activity to be realised after the period of online teaching.

On-the-spot Service Learning Activity (June 2021): four classes of pupils of secondary school, in collaboration with Dr.Engineer Mauro Silvestrini and So.Ge.Pu – which provided necessary equipment – cleaned the banks of the river Tiber in the southern area of Città di Castello. The river banks have been equipped with a 20 km long green path, where people can walk, run, ride their bikes or simply enjoy the surrounding nature. Many people go there fishing, too. The path is usually well-kept, but there were some points which needed to be cleaned up. Accompanied and guided by the expert, pupils proudly collected and analyzed a lot of different waste materials, contributing to the cleanness of the green spot, where citizens often spend their time strolling or doing sports. Since it was not allowed to gather pupils in a big, plenary group, it was decided to assess the activity providing participants with an online survey, in order to gather their feedback about the activity  itself,  suggestions about improvements or further ideas.

2021-2022

September 2021: pupils’ work continued at curricular level in the subjects Geography, Science and Technology. Also Citizenship lessons in English were dedicated to environmental issues, in particular to the Great Garbage Patch and Boyan Slat’s Clean Up Company and his ocean cleaning System 001 (this was also a topic tested during the final examination of lower-secondary classes of pupils in June 2022).

October 2021: a further workshop on waste features and materials was conducted by Dr. Engineer Mauro Silvestrini with four new classes of older students from secondary school. The workshop also had a preparatory function to the second-year Service Learning activities.

There followed a briefing session before the scheduled Service Learning Activity which took the form, once again, of an online survey.