Eight students of the Degree in Environmental Sciences and the Double Degree in Biology and Environmental Sciences of the University of Navarra, in partnership with the farm school Basabere (Lezáun), have implemented a project of Education environmental in the high school Santísimo Sacramento of Pamplona, in order to raise awareness among students of 1st and 2nd Primary School of the importance of caring for the natural environment.

"The goal of our project is that children understand, through an experiential teaching , the great responsibility we have in caring for the environment, and that they understand that we are a very important and by no means independent part of everything that surrounds us," says Juan Vicente de Miguel, a student at the University of Navarra.  

The university students, in coordination with teachers from high school Santísimo Sacramento, have developed a project where the students have deepened in the diversity of living beings that can be found in the region of Navarra, as well as in their habitats (urban, prairie, forest and aquatic). They have also learned the main differences between domestic and wild animals, and the responsibility that comes with having an animal at home.

An outstanding component of the activity has been to show the children some live animals -such as an owl, a meerkat, a rabbit and a snake- on loan from the farm school Basabere, which they have been able to touch, see up close, and learn some of their main characteristics. These animals -mainly pets that have been abandoned or run over in accidents- have been rescued by Basabere and live at the farm school, and have been the main attraction of the activity.

"Educating children about the importance of environmental care and biodiversity, through close examples such as animals, financial aid to foster a generation committed to nature. The idea is for them to get to know it, to discover its beauty, and from there to respect it", says Leire García Ezpeleta, a student of Degree in Environmental Sciences and employee of the Basabere farm school.

This project of Education environmental is part of the subject "Environmental education and communication" of the Degree in Environmental Sciences that is taught in the academic institution and that follows the methodology of "service-learning", that is, to enhance the learning of the contents and skills of a subject through the implementation in internship of activities aimed at solving the real needs of the environment.