The winners of the photo contest “Growing with Your Food”, which is part of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 activities, have been announced. More than 1,100 photos were received for the international competition, primarily from Estonia, but also from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Georgia, Montenegro and Wales.

The competition invited people to capture moments in the garden, to show others the magic and the pain of growing food. Individual photos and photo essays from educational and community gardens, as well as home gardens, were welcome. The works were evaluated by a jury consisting of photographers Heikki Leis and Urmas Tartes, Triin Pikk, Tartu with Earth Programme Line Manager, and Karin Pai, the initiator of the “Growing with Your Food” project.

“There are several nature photography contests, but with you to the garden you’ll take a bucket and a spade rather than a camera. That’s why it was even nicer to see that in addition to the gorgeous harvests, hardworking moments were also captured in the pictures, as well as beautiful garden patterns and enchanting close-ups”, said Eeva Kirsipuu-Vadi, coordinator of the EcoSchools Estonia and the photo competition.

The photos were evaluated in the categories of children, youth and adults.

The main prize in the children’s category went to Georgia, where the photo essay, made by 11-year-old Mariam Meiparian, tells about the experience of growing an ancient wheat variety in the school garden. The winner of the youth category was 16-year-old Zala Debelak from Slovenia, who captured a moment on camera with the playful and multi-meaning title “Bee Happy!”. In the adult class, the main prize went to Estonia and it was awarded to Viktor Panasenko for his work “Spectacular chicken”.

 

II place

Children: Valeria Morgun, Estonia, “The Last Breath Before Winter”

Youth: Oskar Olle Laur, Estonia, “Green, red, black”. Photo was also awarded the title of Foundation for Environmental Education’s (FEE) favorite.

Adults: Jaana Süld, Estonia, “Kids hunting for prey”

 

III place

Children: Rico Sarapik, Estonia,“Pesto material”

Young people: Henri Steinberg, Estonia, “Fysal and slug”

Adults: Sten-Erik Remmel, Estonia, “Making the apple juice”. Photo was also awarded the title of FEE’s favorite.

 

Special awards

Talu Toidab OÜ: “Little rhubarb” Raigo Tõnisalu

Estonian Organic Farming Platform: “Youth in the Youth Center” Mona Reitel

Research Centre of Organic Farming of Estonian University of Life Sciences: photo essay “My carrot” Tatjana Aksenova

Audience favorite and FEE’s favorite in the children’s category: “Restoring endemic species of wheat” Mariam Meiparian

Audience favorite in the youth category: “Bee Happy!” Zala Debelak

The audience’s favorite in the adult category: “Quilt” Evar Ring

 

The photo contest was organized by the EcoSchools program in Estonia in cooperation with the project “Growing with Your Food”, which is part of European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 activities. The goal of the EcoSchools program is to support children and youth to develop into sustainably thinking, environmentally aware adults. The goal of the “Growing with Your Food” project is to raise awareness and skills about growing organic food among children, youth, families and teachers.

The partner of the photo contest was the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024, the supporters were Environmental Investments Center, Tartu Nature House, Research Centre of Organic Farming of Estonian University of Life Sciences, Talu Toidab OÜ, Estonian Organic Farming Platform and Biomarket OÜ.

 

The gallery of the winning photos can be found HERE.

 

Additional information:

Eeva Kirsipuu-Vadi

EcoSchools Estonia coordinator

eeva.kirsipuu-vadi@tartuloodusmaja.ee

tel. 521 3881

Tartu Nature House
PRESS RELEASE
15.10.2020

The International Baltic Sea Web Quiz guides students to explore their home numbers online

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The Baltic Sea Online Quiz is taking place for the eighth time and is attended by almost 1,200 schoolchildren from nine countries bordering the Baltic Sea. All students of Estonian general education and hobby schools aged 10-19 are also invited to participate. The aim of the quiz is to draw attention to the biota and ecological problem areas of the Baltic Sea and to develop students’ environmentally conscious way of thinking.

The Baltic Sea Project of the UNESCO Joint Schools Network invites teachers and students to take part in an annual Baltic Sea online quiz. The quiz is a method that can be easily integrated into the science syllabus and can also be used in distance learning.

In addition to new knowledge, the online quiz allows students to develop their independent information retrieval skills, because the quiz is not a memory game – you don’t have to know the answers by heart, but you can search and analyze the web yourself. Intra-class collaboration to reach quiz solutions is also not excluded. “The aim is to improve students’ critical thinking skills, which helps them to distinguish the important from the less important in the abundance of information – this skill is becoming more and more necessary today,” comments Gedy Matisen, who coordinates the UNESCO Baltic School Project in Tartu Nature House. As the quiz is international and in English, the student can also expand their foreign language vocabulary.

The online quiz is supported by the Ministry of Education and Research, and questions have been collected from teachers, coordinators, research institutions and partners in the network from the nine countries that have joined the network. For example, this year the Estonian Environmental Agency and MTÜ Mondo also formulated questions.

To participate in the quiz, you definitely need an internet connection and well-functioning computer equipment, it takes 30-60 minutes, depending on the age group. The quiz is open to all schools from 4-12. students, but only member schools of the UNESCO Joint Schools Network will participate in the prize draw. The quiz can be taken, for example, in a school computer class in an English, geography or biology class. It is important to know that the questions must be answered in a certain order and you cannot change your answer.

web quiz

The quiz is open from October 15 to December 15, 2020.

The Baltic Sea WebQuiz of 2020 is ready for students all over Baltic Sea region to participate!

Download the A3 poster for dissemination from here.

This year the questions are in three age groups:

  • 10-13 years: 30 minutes, 5 questions
  • 13-16 years: 45 minutes, 8 questions
  • 16-19 years: 60 minutes, 10 questions

The Baltic Sea WebQuiz 2020 can be found HERE

 

Additional information:

Gedy Matisen
Coordinator of the Estonian activities of the Baltic Sea Project
gedy.matisen@tartuloodusmaja.ee
56466887