One of the goals of the LIFE Estepárias Project is to raise awareness and improve the dissemination of information about best management practices for the conservation of the Great Bustard, Little Bustard and Lesser Kestrel, as well as of their habitats.

Most of the awareness efforts are directly meant for the school population on different levels of education. Our focus is on the training and education of children and young people as vehicles of information and awareness for other young people and adults, which we consider to be a medium/long term measure of protection and respect for Nature.

Competences

After conducting the Environmental Education actions we intend the students to acquire the following competences:
• Identify potential environmental problems, namely their causes and effects.
• Design projects, going over all its stages, from the definition of a problem to the planning, execution and intervention on the field, if that is the case.
• Research, select, analyse and organize information, using several sources (newspapers, books, internet, region inhabitants, council officials, etc.).
• Communicate results of researches and projects, exposing their ideas and the ideas of the group, using several resources, namely the new technologies of information and communication.
• Outline strategies for the monitoring and evaluation of the project stages, and of the project as a whole.
• Conduct cooperative work in the development of a project, being individually responsible for the tasks that they were given.
• Use critical thinking and initiative capacity, as well as autonomy in the making of decisions essential for the exercise of citizenship.
Action Plan

What we propose the students and teachers of the 3rd Cycle of Basic Education and Secondary Education is for them to integrate the theme of this project as central or partial theme of their Project Area (PA) or Technological Project (TP) to develop throughout the 2010/2011 school year and to participate by raising awareness among other students and/or general community for the conservation of the Great Bustard, Little Bustard and Lesser Kestrel, as well as of other endangered species and their habitats, taking an active role by spreading a message of respect for Nature. This proposal is presented with the objective of increasing the range and effectiveness of the Education and Environmental Awareness of the LIFE Project, giving the participating classes the possibility of cooperating with an Environment Non Governmental Organization in the development of a concrete conservation project.

Both the PA and the TP have an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary nature, with the purpose of having students conduct concrete projects in order for them to develop an integrated approach towards knowledge, promoting their academic and professional orientation and their approach to the world of work. The PA and the PT are also an independent curricular space to allow teachers and students to create opportunities for bringing the school closer to the community and the society in which it is inserted, contributing in a unequivocally and positively way for the personal and social development of the students through an education for citizenship that can and must be lived, shared and reflected in real and diversified contexts. (Ministry of Education, 2006).

Following the guidelines of the Ministry of Education, we intend the conservation of populations of these three birds to be a theme continuously developed throughout the school year, giving students the possibility of planning and executing a project, simultaneously, in an autonomous way and guided by their teachers, but in strict cooperation with LPN.