SiiT is a three-year project aimed at enhancing the knowledge of biodiversity in the programme area and gathering the rich linguistic and cultural heritage originated from centuries of interaction between nature and local communities. The use of innovative interactive tools for the identification of organisms developed by the pan-European project KeyToNature will be implemented, creating new multilingual guides usable on-line and in the field via mobile media, and developing e-learning tools for teaching biodiversity. Guides for blind people and to organisms indicators of environmental quality will be developed as well. "From below" - involving the schools – we’ll organise the collection of ethnobiological information.
Demonstrations, training seminars, educational and experimental activities with schools will be organised, plus a portal, a search engine and a repository of educational resources for teaching modules on biodiversity, from primary school to universities. A competition for schools and a science fair are also envisaged.
The project has 9 workpackage and involves 10 partners from 4 regions, including universities, educational institutions, museums of natural science, parks and agencies of local development and environmental monitoring, covering the entire value chain of knowledge on biodiversity and education.
SiiT aims at the generation of innovative interactive tools for the identification of the main components of biodiversity in the project area (animals, plants and fungi), adapting them and making them available for educational purposes in schools of all levels, for the promotion of eco-tourism, and for applicative purposes (bio-monitoring of air and water quality).
The operational objectives are:
1) To consistently improve the knowledge of the rich heritage of biodiversity of the program area by pupils and citizens,
2) To gather and organise in a database - with the involvement of schools - the linguistic and cultural heritage originated from centuries of interaction between nature and local communities .
3) To facilitate accessibility and usability – especially for educational purposes – of the available information on the biodiversity of the program area.
4) To create new tools for the interactive identification of organisms suitable for schools of all levels, from primary schools to universities, also usable by citizens and tourists with no specific expertise
5) To study, generate and test special identification tools aimed at the disabled (especially blind people), based on tactile, olfactory or acoustic characters.
6) To create and expand a cross-border network of schools, educational agencies, reserach centers, parks, reserves, natural heritage centers, associations, local authorities interested in the use and re-use of guides and e-learning tools created by the project for the individual and collective discovery of biodiversity.
7) To involve teachers and students through innovative tools in the collection and organization of linguistic (local names) and etnobiological data concerning the biodiversity of their territories.
8) To provide updated and novel teaching materials to support teachers and educators in designing autonomoous project based on the use of the interactive guides created by the project and the tools of e-learning related to them.
9) To develop joint activities aimed at biodiversity education, and awareness-raising campaigns through experiments and hands-on activities, proposing innovative methodologies for environmental education.
10) To organize visits and educational experiences among schools, extended to the learning centers of parks and protected areas, where the new interactive tools for the discovery of biodiversity can be used.
11) To generate identification tools for bio-indicator organisms, that can be used directly in the field via pocket PCs or smartphones by technicians responsible for monitoring the biological environment.
12) to create a community of stakeholders with clear plans and sustainable strategies to facilitate the use, re-use and full exploitation of the materials produced by the project for educational and applicative purposes and for the promotion of eco-tourism.
There are 2 further horizontal technical-scientific objectives that the project must address:
1) Survey and digitalization of metadata concerning databases on biodiversity previosly created by various centers in the program area.
2) Create a unified information system and a web portal dedicated to the biodiversity of the program area, giving easy access to all e-tools generated by the project and to the linguistic and cultural aspects associated with them.
Primary target groups are:
1) teachers, pupils and schools, incl. Universities in the program area.
2) authorities and regional and national educational agencies responsible for education,
3) protected areas, parks and reserves,
4) environmental protection associations and oher institutions dealing with nature conservarion or eco-tourism,
5) Agencies working in the field of bio-monitoring of environmental quality.
The main tangible results generated by the project are:
- Survey of biological databases in the program area, which can be used as resources to create new identification tools.
- New mini-guides and interactive guides in multiple languages (Slovenian, Italian, English, German, Friulian, other dialects-local languages) for the identification of plants, fungi and animals for stand-alone applications, web-based and/or mobile applictions.
- Creation of guides for the disabled (especially blind people) based on tactile, olfactory and acoustic characters.
- Creation of guides to the identification of organisms used as bioindicators in environmental bio-monitoring programs.
- Development and maintenance of a editing tool for creating and customizing interactive guides based on the needs and resources (local names, ethnobotany notes, pictures, descriptions) generated directly by end users.
- Creation of a database that would collect the linguistic (local names of organisms) and ethnobiological (local uses, legends, etc..) information collected by schools using the editing tool
- New e-learning, modules preparatory to the use of interactive guides.
- A multilingual portal offering access to biodiversity-relted resources for teachers, rangers, and local authorities
- A campaign for training and re-training teachers, rangers and environmental technicians in the use of the new technologies and teaching methods through training seminars, workshops and field activities.
- Educational activities with schools that will test the interactive guides developing specific educational projects with the cooperation of teachers.
- A cross-border social network of schools and teachers involved in scientific education to biodiversity and sustainability.
- A cross-border competition of ideas and projects for schools, rewarding the creative use of our tools in education
- Creation and expansion of a network of Associate Members interested in collaborating with SiiT in the construction or use of the new interactive guides.
- Organization of workshops, an educational exhibition on biodiversity and culture. Participation in events where the project will be promoted.
- Strategies, plans, tools and products for the dissemination and implementation of project results, transfer of best practices and teaching methodologies.
Homepage Url: http://www.siit.eu
Project data begin: October 2011Project data end: September 2014Approved costs: 1.192.011,13Region / Statistical region: Gorizia, Trieste, Udine, Pordenone, Treviso, Venezia, Padova, Rovigo, Ferrara, Ravenna, Obalno-Kraška, Goriška, Primorsko-notranjska, Osrednjeslovenska, GorenjskaTypology: Public call for standard projects no. 02/2009
List of beneficiaries of the CBC Programme Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013 (last update: February 2017
