Closer to Nature: annual ČSOP competitions again attract more than 5,000 students

As the new school year has started, so have the annual competitions in the natural sciences organized by the Czech Union for Nature Conservation (ČSOP). The Environmental Olympics (going into its 24th year) will put the skills of more than five hundred high school students to the test. The Golden Leaf (now in its 47th year), which is dedicated to primary school students, takes it one further, welcoming no fewer than four and a half thousand children. Both competitions are held in every region of the Czech Republic, and children with the best results in the regional round will advance to the national round, at the conclusion of which the winners for the given year are chosen.

"The Golden Leaf competition and the Environmental Olympics are setting themselves much more ambitious goals than to simply pick the best or smartest child,” says the director of the Youth Division (SMOP) of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation (ČSOP), Lenka Žaitliková, adding: "We are mainly interested into motivating children to educate themselves about nature, maybe to the point that they decide to attend university and major in the natural sciences. We want to create opportunities for them to meet with other nature enthusiasts, and to make them want to learn about nature in context.” Even though the competition on the national level is coordinated by the SMOP ČSOP employees, the bulk of the work rests on the shoulders of volunteers - several hundred of them are doing their part in the individual regions every year.

Given the many years for which these competitions have been running, the organisers are well within their right to speak of traditional, well-established events, but both competitions are at the same time very much in the vanguard of current educational trends. Academic knowledge is not as important; instead, the emphasis is placed on the way in which students apply their knowledge to real-life situations (in the case of high school students), or at least on understanding the context (in the case of primary school students). Teamwork is also very much prioritized by both competitions. There are three members to a team in the Environmental Olympics, and six in the case of Golden Leaf.

The competition is open, and there is nothing easier than joining. The only limitation is the capacity of each round. A list of the coordinators of the regional rounds can be found on the contests’ websites www.ekolympiada.cz and www.zlatylist.cz. It is possible to advance to some of the regional rounds directly, but in others passing the primary rounds is mandatory. Teams can be put together by the school, or by any other organization working with children (DDM youth centres, divisions of youth organizations, etc.)

The co-sponsor of the contest is the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, which also supports the whole event financially. The ČSOP competitions are inextricably linked to their general partner: NET4GAS, s. r. o. No less important is the support from Lesy České republiky, s. p.

Contact:
Petra Seifertová
tel: 775 724 545
e-mail: petra.seifertova@csop.cz

For more information, go to www.ekolympiada.cz and www.zlatylist.cz.