July 5th, 2024
The Multiplier Event (ME) conducted by the School of Agriculture of the University of Lisbon occurred on July 5th 2024, at its iconic Noble Room (photo below).
The ME had multiple audiences, ranging from environmental educators to researchers, government employees, and, ultimately, teachers. To attract and encourage school teachers’ attendance, the ME was designed as a “Training Action” to account for their career progression.
The session was four hours long and included 11 presentations on five main topics (see the program on the left). The event was moderated by Iryna Skulska from the EduFire Portuguese team, who made sure everyone kept to their time and the presentations ran smoothly.
First, there was a welcome and an introduction to the project, followed by the theoretical basis that guided educational content creation. Next, the content of the Educational Toolkit was presented, followed by debate and questions. After a brief break, the results of two pilot tests of the Toolkit material conducted in Portugal were presented. Finally, other Portuguese wildfires and forest education initiatives were presented, followed by an interactive session about the multiple dimensions of fire in our lives.
The next sections will provide more details on the topics covered by the presentations.
Welcome, and the EduFire Toolkit Project
We were lucky that the entire EduFire team was in Lisbon for our last transnational meeting. They joined our ME, welcoming the participants and also delivering two presentations. In the photo on the right, you can see Helena Ballart EduFire’s coordinator from Pau Costa Foundation and Conceição Colaço, the Portuguese coordinator (ISA/ULisboa), opening the ME and welcoming the participants.
Next on the Agenda was a brief presentation about The EduFire Toolkit project. Its goals, partners, and resources were briefly explained, setting the stage for the day’s interventions. An interactive activity was also conducted, aiming to identify the participants’ interests regarding wildfire education.
Following up on the Agenda, it was time to present the theoretical basis of the EduFire content. We were happy to welcome Míriam Arenas Conejo, UOC’s representative in the project, to talk about the Project Based Learning (PBL) approach applied in the Toolkit (photos below).
Míriam presented the benefits of this approach that are mostly linked to the level of engagement and proactivity of students, who are not mere listeners but are called to search for their own answers to real challenges under the guidance of the teachers. She also shared some PBL experiences and a very interesting example of a soup-making contest where the approach could be employed.
Speaking of engagement, next up on the agenda was community engagement, another key concern and resource being created within the scope of the EduFire Project. Conceição and Míriam shared the stage for this topic (photos below).
Conceição provided theoretical background on concepts such as “community” and “community engagement’, as well as some of the benefits and possible drawbacks of implementing such initiatives in the context of wildfire risk management and wildfire education. She also talked about a community engagement initiative that took place after a wildfire in the Santa Comba Dão municipality in Portugal. Míriam followed her and detailed a community engagement initiative that took place at the Castelldefels locality in Catalonia, Spain. The activities conducted there focused on citizen engagement in wildfire management, and the roadmap they used to conduct the process was presented.
The EduFire Toolkit – the resources available
Once EduFire’s objectives and its theoretical foundations were presented, it was time to show the audience what this multidisciplinary team has developed so far. For this, Renata Martins Pacheco, a member of the Portuguese team, took the stage to detail what educational resources have been created so far and what is still to come.
She started by reminding the audience of their preferences regarding the topics they would like to work on with their students. She promised to show how the resources available could help them address their “burning questions”.
She then explained that there are resources still being developed, namely the Teacher’s Guide for the use of the Toolkit material and the Community Engagement Guidelines to better interact with the local population and improve wildfire risk management.
However, the core of the presentation was about the resources that are already available, specifically Units, Challenges, and an interactive Platform.
The Units are meant for teachers; they provide context and supporting information so they can be prepared to conduct the Challenges with their students. The Challenges target students from two age groups, 12-14 and 14-16. They start with a driving question, provide a brief context and a series of tasks to guide the students through their search for answers, actively engaging them in the learning process. Last but certainly not least, there is the interactive platform. This resource is meant for students, and it is divided into the same two age groups. In both cases, it briefly introduces the main topics covered in each Unit. A few quizzes and other interactive activities are also presented so the students can test their knowledge. Teachers may also use this resource as a means to introduce the topic in class.
After this, a discussion took place. Some explanations regarding the content were asked, and the presenters clarified the doubts raised by the audience.
EduFire Toolkit pilot tests in Portugal
Following the coffee break, it was now time to hear about two pilot tests of the material conducted in Portugal. First up was Miguel Alves, from the Miraflores School Group in Lisbon. He piloted the content related to Wildfire Preparedness (Unit 5).
Using the guidelines provided in the Challenges and the background in the Units, he was able to conduct the students through the research process that ultimately led to the construction of a model of a “safe village”, that is, a village that is wildfire resilient, as defined by current Portuguese policies (photos below).
After Miguel’s explanation, Mónica Maia-Mendes shared her experience working with material at the D. António Ferreira Gomes School in Ermesinde municipality. She focused on the links between the environment, climate change and wildfires (Unit 1).
As she had less classroom time available, she could not fully complete the Challenge. She stated that she liked the content, but more classroom time was needed to properly guide the process with the students.
These presentations were followed by another round of questions, in which the audience asked for clarifications regarding their experience working with the EduFire Toolkit (photo below).
Other Portuguese forest and wildfire education initiatives
To broaden the horizon of possibilities even further, other Portuguese initiatives related to forest and wildfire education were presented. Speaking on behalf of environmental NGO Nature Protection League (LPN), Ana Sofia Ribeiro shared their “Forest Literacy” initiative, which aims to increase awareness about the importance of forests (photo below, on the left).
Next, speaking for the Integrated Fire Management Agency (AGIF), Mário Matos talked about their wildfire education initiative targeting kids called “Raposa Chama”. The name is a play on words in Portuguese as “chama” means both “flame” and “calls”. So the Raposa (the mascot is a fox) calls kids to take action to prevent wildfires (photo below, in the middle).
Lastly, Tânia Oliveira spoke for the “florestas.pt” platform and presented all the main resources freely available on their website related to forests in Portugal, from conservation to production. The website also includes a vast variety of educational content (photo below, on the right).
The dimensions of fire
To wrap up the ME, a final interactive session was conducted by Conceição Colaço. As it is easy to take for granted the multiple roles fire has in our lives, and lately it has been receiving a “bad press”, this final intervention was meant to remind people of its many dimensions.
The first intervention was from a linguistic/cultural perspective. Through digital interactive tools, the audience was asked to share the words they know in Portuguese related to fire. Around 30 words were cited (photos below).
Next, it was time to test their knowledge and perception regarding wildfire safety. Four pictures of Portuguese houses inserted in a rural landscape were shown to the audience, and they were asked to vote on the safest one regarding wildfires.
The final score indicated that the audience already had good instincts regarding wildfire safety; this was an interesting opportunity for Conceição to offer further information on the matter (photo on the right).
Lastly, we wanted to discuss which of the three common types of landscapes in Portugal are more wildfire resilient: Continuous forests, Agroforestry systems, or Mosaics. The general feeling was that Mosaics are the most resilient, followed by Agroforestry systems and Continuous forests. Conceição made some remarks about each type of landscape and presented some nuances, which sometimes makes classifying them as resilient or not more challenging.
Following this last intervention, it was time to close the ME. A few last words were said. The overall feeling was that the event had succeeded in raising awareness about wildfires in Portugal and showcasing the possible uses and benefits of The EduFire Toolkit in this challenging context.
Further feedback was asked of the participants after the ME through an online form. The responses collected confirmed that most of the participants enjoyed the event and could see themselves using the EduFire Toolkit and would recommend it to their colleagues. Hopefully, after reading this, you too will feel encouraged to explore its resources!
