Another Criar ao Ar Livre is coming to a close! It's been an intense and rewarding few months with students and teachers from the 8th year of the 3rd cycle of basic education from schools in the municipalities covered by the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve: Setúbal, Palmela, Grândola and Alcácer do Sal. 

And it was precisely in the Reserve that the students travelled along trails in the middle of nature with their rucksacks on their backs, their Explorer's Notebook and a map of the territory in hand. Along the way, they used different observation instruments, such as magnifying glasses and binoculars, and explored different materials and techniques for artistic experimentation, such as cyanotype (a photographic printing process), sculpture (with elements collected along the way) and scientific illustration (games of light and shadow).

And as one of the main aims of this mediation project is to encourage students and teachers to adopt practices of preserving and safeguarding the environment, this year we proposed an accredited a training course for teachers of all levels of education and recruitment groups, at Casa da Baía in Setúbal, coordinated and authored by Arte Central. We started with an approach to the Sustainable Development Goals with a view to raising awareness of environmental sustainability, awakening a critical awareness of individual behaviour. We continue with experimentation, using plants and food to make handmade liquid watercolours, promoting contact and a relationship with nature.

In this context, Criar ao Ar Livre project, in 2023/2024 and as in the previous school year, explored important axes such as:

1. Workshop at school: an activity carried out in a school setting. The starting point was the richness of the ecosystem of the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve and its natural (and historical) heritage and the methodology used was games as a pedagogical tool, both for transmitting content in an effective and fun way and for promoting cohesion between peers. To this end, the giant board game "Who eats what?" was created, based on the trophic webs of the Sado estuary. 
2. Outdoor (re)Create Workshop: an activity that combined nature observation, environmental education and a collective art project, using the Explorer's Notebook received at the school workshop and the Curiosity Case as a starting point.
3. "Criar ao Ar Livre" workshop: Multidisciplinary open-air activity in situ, that has as its starting point the Explorer's Notebook (received at the school workshop). Using a map of the area and different observation tools, such as magnifying glasses and binoculars, the students walk along nature trails and explore different materials using artistic experimentation techniques, heritage and environmental education.
4. Teachers' training.

Happy holidays and see you soon!