This paper outlines the development and the analysis of an educational programme for children in early childhood education regarding the environmental issues like the saving of energy, natural resources and bioclimatic planning that attempt to introduce and link the principles of sustainability with society. The aim was the pupils to be aware of environmental issues and to promote the applications of sustainability in their real and social environment. The project took place in a kindergarten school in Thessaloniki, during the school year 2014-2015 with the participation of 15 students and was carried out through three phases: 1) the exploration of the subject, 2) the implementation of educational activities, and 3) the evaluation of the project. Children were introduced to all energy sources and be encouraged to think for and about the energy. The kindergarten teachers worked with the children, creating a proactive teaching environment with many appropriate stimuli, in order to motivate and facilitate their learning through play. At the same time, by keeping in pace with every single child’s learning rhythm, the aim was to give them equal learning opportunities. This educational program was beneficial to all children as they learned new concepts and acquired new experiences.
Barth, R. S. (2002). The culture builder. Educational leadership, 59 (8), pp. 6-11.
Cassel, P., & Giddens A. (1993). The Giddens reader. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Department of Education and Skills-DFES. (2005). Sustainable schools for pupils, communities and the environment: Securing the future delivering UK sustainable development strategy. Nottingham: DFES.
Deri, A. (2005). Learning for sustainability based on the community. In A. D. Georgopoulos (Ed.), Environmental Education, a new culture that emerges (pp. 719-752). Athens: Gutenberg.
Ferreira, J., Ryan, L., & Tilbury, D. (2006). Whole-school approaches to sustainability: A review of models for professional development in pre-service teacher education. Sydney: Australian Research Institute of Education for Sustainability for the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage. Available at: http://aries.mq.edu.au/projects/ preservice/files/TeacherEduDec06.pdf
Flogaiti, E., & Liarakou, G. (2009). Education for Sustainable Development. Athens: CCI Archanes.
Henderson, K., & Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-School Approaches to Sustainability: An International Review of Sustainable School Programs. Report Prepared by the Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES) for the Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Government. Available at:
http://daten.schule.at/dl/international_review2.pdf
Iliopoulos, E. (2010). The curious thunderbolt that solve the energy problem. Athens: Patakis.
Katsenou, C. (2012). The concept of participation in the context of sustainable school. An action research in primary school. Doctoral thesis. Athens: University of Athens.
Ministry of Education. (2003). Cross Curriculum Framework and Curricula of Compulsory Education (FEK 304B/13-03). Athens: Ministry of Education.
Mogensen, F., & Schnack, K. (2010). The action competence approach and the ‘new’ discourses of education for sustainable development, competence and quality criteria. Environmental Education Research, 16 (1), 59-74.
Ntoliopoulou, E. (2005). Implementing the Project method in Greek kindergartens. Athens: Tipothito.
Pramling-Samuelsson, I., & Kaga, Y. (2008) (Eds.). The contribution of early childhood education to a sustainable society. Paris: Unesco.
Rasmy, M. (2010). Design criteria of sustainable school. Available at: http://www.cpas-egypt.com/pdf/Mohamed_Rasmy/Master/Mohammad%20Rasmy2-3-.pdf
Shallcross, T., & Robinson, J. (2008). Sustainability Education, whole school approaches and communities of action. In A. Reid, B.B. Jensen, J. Nikel and Simovska (Eds.) Participation and Learning. Perspectives on Education and the Environment, Health and Sustainability. Denmark: Springer.
Shallcross, ?., John, R., Pace, P., & Arjen, W. (2009). Creating sustainable school environments. Edited by K. Tamoutseli. Thessaloniki: Epikentro.
Tamoutseli, K., Mitakidou, S. (2006). Environmental education for sustainability and holistic school. Proceedings of the 2nd Congress of School Education Programs. Athens: December 15-17, 2006.
Thanou, A. (2001). Experiments in Kindergarten. Athens: Kastaniotis.
Unesco. (2005). United Nations decade of education for sustainable development 2005-2011. Draft International Implementation Scheme, Paris: Unesco.
In-Text Citation: (Pliogou et al., 2017)
To Cite this Article: Pliogou, V., Kountouroudi, A., Kamperidou, I., Coumpa, A.-I., & Coumpa, M.-L. (2017). Children’s Curiosity Finds Solutions for Energy: A Project for Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Sources for Early Childhood Children. Multilingual Academic Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 5(1), 227–237.
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
