ECO-BOTs - creative pro-environmental education using AI
The educational project of the MARE Foundation and Dr. Maciej Słomczyński, “ECO-BOTS,” is a fresh and innovative approach to pro-environmental education. Each lesson combines a dose of knowledge about the environment of the Baltic Sea, its inhabitants and environmental challenges, with a variety of artificial intelligence (AI) tools used during classes. Active student engagement makes them, in a way, co-creators of the lessons, thanks to which they not only develop their creativity but also enthusiastically absorb the content presented.
The “ECO-BOTS” project is aimed at primary school students, and its most important goal is to shape pro-environmental attitudes in them. Guided by the principle that we want to protect what we know, each lesson introduces participants to issues related to the Baltic Sea ecosystem. However, in this case, form is just as important as content and responds to the needs and challenges of the education system, such as increasingly shorter attention spans or low student engagement in traditional lessons.
- The classes are conducted using the project-based learning method, within which children create ECO-BOTs – digital AI identities inspired by the fauna and flora of the Baltic Sea. Workshop participants develop personality traits, interests, visualizations, and artistic activities of the bots, such as songs. During the creative process, children learn, among other things, about the impact of plastic waste on life in the seas, ways to reduce CO₂ emissions, and the effects of climate change on the environment and health. Thanks to this, they consciously choose pro-environmental attitudes for the bots, such as the Recycling Artist, Water Guardian, or Eco-Detective – explains project co-author Dr. Maciej Słomczyński.
The ECO-BOTS project is implemented as part of the grant program “E.ON Connecting Energy for the Climate,” which is part of the international grant program E.ON United Energy for Climate, initiated and funded by the E.ON Foundation in Germany (E.ON Stiftung) and carried out in cooperation with the VSE Foundation in Slovakia. The project includes the development of a prototype system for conducting classes, beta testing of the platform, and pilot workshops with children at a selected school in Warsaw.
As part of the project, Dr. Maciej Słomczyński and Patrycja Nowakowska from the MARE Foundation developed online lesson scenarios that can be adapted to the needs of a given group - either by implementing a series of four cross-cutting thematic classes or by focusing on a single issue or tool during one lesson. Students learn about the organisms living in the Baltic Sea and their characteristic features, which can serve as inspiration for the appearance and attributes of the ECO-BOT they create. Moreover, by becoming familiar with the most important environmental problems of the sea, such as climate change, plastic and noise pollution, overfishing, or eutrophication, they can observe how the bot reacts to them. Interaction with the bot enables discussion about attitudes affecting its well-being, which helps illustrate the impact of humans on the marine ecosystem. All activities involve the use of a wide range of AI tools, thanks to which participants remain creatively engaged in the lesson at all times – from writing prompts and creating songs to generating graphics.
The ultimate goal of the project is to create an online platform for educators with substantive materials, methodological guidelines, a database of links to AI tools supporting creative activities, and a gallery of interactive bots designed by lesson participants.
- We treat this project as a pilot and hope that the solutions developed will be disseminated to further schools. We believe that interactive activities will bring children closer to the sea and allow them to better understand its environment and the creatures that inhabiting it, thereby fostering pro-environmental attitudes among children. We deeply believe that the first step toward protecting nature is getting to know it better – we want to protect what we love and know – summarizes Olga Sarna, co-author of the project.
Project implementers:
Dr. Maciej Słomczyński is an education methodology specialist with over 15 years of experience and an interdisciplinary background (PhD in pedagogy from the University of Warsaw, MSc Eng. from the Warsaw University of Technology). Between 2018 and 2023, in cooperation with the University of Warsaw, he implemented the projects Mały Innowator and Młody Projektant (PO WER), within which he conducted over 700 hours of in-person and online classes with primary school children, developed a system supporting teachers’ work, and created an application for a hybrid game using NFC. From 2010 to 2018, he worked at the Faculty of Education of the University of Warsaw. For 15 years, he has been running courses popularizing science at the University of Warsaw’s Open University and, among others, received teaching excellence distinctions in 2023, 2022, and 2021. Recently, he has been developing courses that use AI tools, such as AI as a Creativity Assistant for the development of creativity.
The MARE Foundation was established in 2016 and has held the status of a public benefit organization since 2018. MARE’s main mission is the protection of marine ecosystems by striving for social and political change. MARE is the only public benefit organization in Poland whose activities focus exclusively on the protection of marine ecosystems, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding the ecosystem of our native Baltic Sea. The Foundation’s main areas of activity include marine litter (including plastic and ghost nets), sustainable fisheries (we cooperate with fishing organizations to implement the principles of sustainable fishing), and wreck management (we strive to implement a wreck management plan in Poland). Moreover, our activities place strong emphasis on education in the context of the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis, as well as on raising public awareness of our impact on the Baltic Sea.
The project is co-financed under the grant program “E.ON Connecting Energy for the Climate,” which is part of the international grant program E.ON United Energy for Climate, initiated and funded by the E.ON Foundation in Germany (E.ON Stiftung) and implemented in cooperation with the VSE Foundation in Slovakia.
