Contest:

Rural Biodiversity Map

The Rural Biodiversity Map is a series of extra-class activities that allow students to develop
nature observations.
The activities of our school's students were recognized in a nationwide project run by the Earth
and People Foundation.

Aims:
o Using out-of-class activities for field observations of nature
o Getting to know and presenting the richness of biodiversity in your local area, especially rural
areas and unknown protected areas of the agricultural landscape
o Shaping students' pro-ecological attitudes
o Building a sense of agency in managing the natural resources of your surroundings

The competition uses a modern, increasingly popular and extremely effective digital mapping tool.
Digital mapping allows you to place a selected category of information on the map along with a
photo and text description. This tool is increasingly used to create maps of nature's richness.
Mapping is also used in citizen participation techniques to identify problems and threats.

93 teams from all over Poland took part in the competition, and thanks to the competition, nearly
2,700 new observations appeared on the Map.

The result of the competition is a knowledge base about the natural wealth of the local area
located on the "Map of the biodiversity wealth of the countryside" on the www.bogacwsi.pl website.
The map and the results of field observations, photos and descriptions contained therein will
constitute a unique guide thanks to which every resident and tourist will be able to learn about the
natural values of their voivodeship. Involving students in the process that will result in the creation
of a map of biodiversity wealth, which is one of the sources for creating guides available to a wide
audience, will give participants a sense of agency and the possibility of personal involvement in
the promotion and protection of local natural resources.

The tasks of the teams were:

o Taking photos of nature, descriptions along with locations on the biodiversity map (species of
plants, animals, mushrooms, interesting natural phenomena, objects of inanimate nature,
registered phenological changes, etc.),
o Posting short reports with photos from field observations,
o Commenting on materials posted on the website by other participants.

All materials are posted on the "Rural Biodiversity Rich Map" posted on the project portal by
participants who have an individual account within each mapping team.
As many as 13 teams from our school entered the competition, with a total of 40 students from
grades 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b.

They created 13 teams consisting of 40 students.

They made nearly 100 observations and took their own photos, which, along with descriptions,
were published on a multimedia map on the project website (link above).

The school was distinguished for the large number of engaged youth, and the geography teacher,
Mrs. Agnieszka Myszkowska - project supervisor, received the distinction.