In pursuit of outdoor learning, ecological awareness, and sustainability, the Outdoor School İstanbul (OSİ) team recently joined two important conferences. We took part in the ENKA Outdoor and Experiential Learning Conference (OELC) and the Sustainability for Education Conference (SEZ), hosted by Hisar Okulları.
These experiences gave us the chance to share our own practices. They also allowed us to learn from educators and professionals working in similar fields.
At OELC, we presented our Worm Compost Project to teachers. Our aim was to share how children can build and care for a compost system. We also showed how worms can become part of the curriculum.
We underlined that composting is not a one-time activity. Children can take part in every stage. During the process, they observe worms, feed the compost, care for the soil, ask questions, and build a closer relationship with nature.
One special part of the project was preparing decorated bottles with the OSİ children. These bottles helped us send OSİ worms to teachers from different schools and cities. With the worms, they could start their own compost systems with their students.
In this way, the worms became tiny ambassadors of sustainability. They carried children’s curiosity, care, and learning to new communities.
Through the presentation, workshops, conversations, and new connections, OSİ shared its experience. At the same time, we returned with many new ideas to think about and try.
Sustainability in Daily Life
At SEZ, we joined different panels and workshops on sustainability. There, we met people from different backgrounds and reflected on one important idea: sustainability is not an extra topic. It is part of daily life.
We see sustainability in how we eat, play, build, care, listen, and make decisions.
The panels also helped us think about sustainability in early childhood. For young children, sustainability should not stay as an abstract word. They need to live it, touch it, observe it, and experience it.
Children begin to understand sustainability when they care for worms, notice the soil, protect plants, save seeds, or think about the living beings around them.
Thinking Beyond Ourselves
Another valuable topic was regenerative design. In one discussion, we explored how we can design a playground with more than children in mind.
A playground also belongs to the soil, the trees, the cats, the insects, the groundkeeper, and many other living beings. This idea reminds us to design learning spaces with care, responsibility, and imagination.
Carrying the OSİ Philosophy Forward
Both conferences reminded us that outdoor learning grows through shared experience. During these days, we presented, listened, joined workshops, took part in panels, and connected with others.
These experiences helped OSİ carry its philosophy forward. Children learn best when they take part in the living world around them. Sustainability becomes real when children practice it with their hands, hearts, and minds.
Tuğçe Kasap Bilaloğlu