Ask me anything series 1.0 – Science Pool
Science Pool is a non-profit company based in Austria specializing in pre-science education and working with local children and young people to educate them about climate protection and sustainability. Our work with Science Pool is one of the many collaborations we do with education programs internationally in hopes to sustain our brand’s mission to care for our future generation by building a greener tomorrow.
For the first part of our series, we sat down with Gerlinde Heil, CEO of Science Pool, to talk about the Science Pool program and its collaboration with #ItsInOurHands initiative.
Q: Can you share more about the Science Pool program and what are the goals behind it?
Gerlinde: We dedicate ourselves to teaching science to children and young people, where we provide science workshops for schools, after-school and summer programs, and semester long extracurricular science courses. In addition to this, we also offer training and continuing education at the Science Pool Institute for (Pre-) Science Education. We have designed our programs to allow young learners to be more hands on while doing experiments but also training them to learn how to work independently.
Through these programs, we not only hope to support their creative thinking, but also want them to learn that they can influence science through experiments and research.
Q: Why did you choose to partner with #ItsInOurHands initiative?
Gerlinde: Climate protection and sustainability are a multi-generational project that affects all of humanity. Besides relying on the ongoing research to address these issues, it is also important to provide the next generation with the tools and knowledge that will help them to work on these issues and collaborate on solutions.
Our goal in partnering with #ItsInOurHands initiative and the VEOCEL™ brand is to allow the children in reconnecting with nature and immersing themselves in their surrounding environment. With the school kits and materials that #ItsInOurHands provides us, we hope to bring their attention to circular product solutions and biodegradability!
Q: What changes do you think our education programs needs in order to enhance the sustainability messaging?
Gerlinde: It was not always easy to convince the schools of the importance of the program as they cannot give away too much of their own teaching time. However, after helping them understand the value of our program, it became clear that our program, along with the tools that #IIOH provides, is a teaching project that can make a lasting difference in the knowledge and attitudes of the participants.
With that, we hope that education systems can incorporate sustainability messaging into their core school programs and involve all young people in the process of learning about our future.
In our next series, we will continue our chat with Gerlinde Heil, CEO of Science Pool, where she will give us tips and guidance on how to educate our young ones on making eco-friendly decisions. Stay tuned for part 2! In the meantime, let’s continue to care for our future as #ItsInOurHands to build a greener future.
This initiative is presented by
