Berlin Cosmopolitan School works to protect sustainable habitats / February 2nd is International Wetlands Day

Today is International Wetlands Day also known as the Ramsar Convention which was first held in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran. What was originally created to protect waterfowl and waders has changed in recent decades to provide holistic protection for sustainable habitats. And the Berlin Cosmopolitan School also contributes to educating schoolchildren about the protection of sustainable living spaces through numerous projects.

Protect nature through the forest school

One area in which the Berlin Cosmopolitan School is involved is climate and environmental protection based on primary experiences in nature. If children are allowed to learn from nature at an early age, this has a fundamental influence on their relationship with nature. They will begin to develop solutions to protect the environment because they understand that nature is where we all live together.

To pursue this goal, the Berlin Cosmopolitan School introduced the Forest School for the sixth grades in 2019. The sixth graders go to the forest for a whole day and are taught there. The curriculum was transferred to the forest for the nature day. Yvonne Wende, founder and managing director of the Berlin Cosmopolitan School, Kindergarten & Preschool, explains the advantages of the forest classroom: “The nature day differs from the normal classroom only in terms of the environment and the methodology of the daily routine. The children collect primary experiences with nature in the forest and this creates emotional connections, for example to environmental protection. The experience anchors itself emotionally, which leads to the development of a deep relationship with the environment.” The relationship with nature also strengthens the children’s willingness to learn and sharpens their interest in the planet.

Carbon neutral school

The Berlin Cosmopolitan School is now working intensively on the topic of corporate CO2 footprints together with the company Planetly, which specializes in CO2 management. The Berlin Cosmopolitan School would like to create transparency about its own CO2 emissions, then reduce them and compensate where necessary in order to finally make a contribution to climate protection as a climate-neutral company.

Holistic habitat sea

The book “Mathilda the Sea Turtle” by Felix Hess with illustrations by Oxana Polk has been published by Berlin Cosmication Content Verlag. The book is about the sea turtle Mathilda and her sometimes very dangerous life in the sea. On the one hand, it describes the natural dangers of a sea turtle. On the other hand, it compassionately shows what dangers it is exposed to that have been caused by humans.

For one thing, underwater plastic bags look like jellyfish to sea turtles, which in turn are part of the diet of these sea creatures. Mathilda’s sister eats one of these bags by mistake and dies. Another danger is modern fishing. Mathilda’s brother, along with dolphins, sharks and other unwanted by-catch, is caught in a huge net. Like many other creatures, it dies in the net of modern fishing.

The book clearly shows the dangers humans are responsible for in the sea. This is intended to show the reader their own responsibility. The book also provides ideas on how everyone can contribute to the holistic protection of the sustainable habitat of the sea.
Click here for the book Mathilda the Sea Turtle and for a conversation with the author Felix Hess.