Join our inspiring webinar “Outdoor education and sustainability in action” on March 18th at 16:00–18:00 (EET)! Our webinar is aimed at educators, environmental education specialists and all outdoor education enthusiasts!

Are you an educator passionate about innovative teaching methods, outdoor education, and sustainability? Join us for an exciting and interactive webinar showcasing creative ways to inspire students, protect the Baltic Sea, and enhance environmental education!

What’s in it for you?

• Discover hands-on outdoor education methods from experts across the Baltics and Sweden
• Get practical resources for integrating sustainability into your curriculum
• Network with like-minded educators and exchange best practices
• Learn about real-life projects making an impact on students and the environment

REGISTER HERE

Agenda of the Webinar:

• 16:00 – Why Outdoor Learning is a Game-Changer for Sustainability?
  Welcome & Introduction by Gedy Matisen, Tartu Nature House
  Virtual tour in Tartu Nature House: Outdoor activities for environmental education
• 16:15 – Saving the Baltic Sea in Action
  Lessons from the “Save The Baltic Sea” expedition by Dovilė Jadenkutė, NGO For Clean Lithuania
• 16:30 – Nature as a Classroom: Outdoor Learning in Sweden
  Discover Norrtälje Nature Centrum with Lotta Andersson, the executive director
  The Philosophy Behind Outdoor Education by professor Anders Szczepanski, Linköping University
• 17:00 – Science on the Move: Mobile Ecology Classrooms
  Bringing Science Outdoors! Implementing mobile classroom boxes for hands-on ecology investigations in Sweden with Anna Westerlund
• 17:25 – Rocks That Tell Stories: Teaching Geology with Animated Characters
  Enhancing Student Skills & Environmental Awareness through outdoor adventures with animated glacial erratics characters
  Rock Study Programs for 4th–9th Graders by Anna-Grete Joamets, Tartu Nature House
• 17:50 – Open Discussion & Collaboration
  How can we bring outdoor sustainability education to more schools, kindergartens?
  Collecting new ideas and starting potential partnerships
• 18:00 – Closing & Next Steps

Materials will be sent to your e-mail address provided upon registration. The webinar will be recorded and can be re-watched later on.

This event is funded by Nordplus Horizontal project: “Sustainability Education Promotion with Outdoor Learning for a Healthier Baltic Sea” (NPHZ-2024/10120).

All fans of the Nordic countries are welcome to the Norwegian Culture Evening at Tartu Nature House on Tuesday, January 28th from 17:30-19:30.

The cultural evening will introduce the Norwegian nature and its diversity. Participants get to try out Norwegian tongue twisters and get to know more about the local culture. We will warm up our legs with a few folk dances and warm up our fingers by making arts and crafts inspired by the indigenous people of Norway, the Sami. In addition, we will be able to try some typical Norwegian snacks.

The cultural evening will be held in English.

Participation fee 5€ (can be paid on site in cash and by card).

Please register in advance HERE.

Event in Facebook.

The cultural evening will be held by the Tartu Nature House project partners from Norway, the Re Innovasjon center in Bodø. It is part of the Bodø-Tartu Duo Networking Project, financed by the Norway Grants. The project partners are Tartu Nature House,  Tartu Art School and Re Innovasjon.

Additional info:

Gedy Matisen
International cooperation coordinator
gedy.matisen@tartuloodusmaja.ee

Join us to explore innovative tools and methods that enhance the quality of environmental education through the lens of the circular economy.

• Provide an overview of strategies and tools for assessing environmental education quality in Estonia and Finland.
• Share interdisciplinary circular economy study programs available in Estonian, English, and Finnish.
• Offer key insights, tips for effective international collaboration, and open discussions on future project ideas.
• Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with educators across Europe!

FOR INFO AND REGISTRATION in advance for this meeting CLICK HERE

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar on 22nd of November.

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Organised by Tartu Nature House and Helsinki Recycling Centre’s Environmental School Polku, in collaboration with the Estonian Environmental Education Association and the Finnish Association of Nature and Environment Schools (LYKE).

The webinar is part of the European Week for Waste Reduction and celebrates the results of the Erasmus+ project “QualitE: Together Towards Improved Quality of Environmental Education“ (2023-2-EE01-KA210-SCH-000185260)

Tartu Nature House is hosting a canvas bag designing workshop on the 10th of October at 18:00-19:30.

In the workshop, each participant can design a unique shopping bag made of cotton fabric. For the decoration of the bag, we mostly use stencil technique. A range of nature-themed stencils is already available and you can also cut the design element that suits you yourself.

The skills and techniques acquired in the workshop can continue to be used to decorate other textiles. This way, an old and worn cloth can be given a whole new life with simple techniques. The materials and dyes are chosen as environmentally friendly as possible and we use paper scraps as aids. The stencils are cleaned and used repeatedly.

The workshop is in English.

Participation fee: 22€

Number of participants: up to 12

REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/1jPsB43VgN21Kbm99

The registration is confirmed on payment:

SA Tartu Keskkonnahariduse Keskus
Swedbank EE682200221019698363
Explanation: bag workshop 10.10, participants name

Please note that the participation fee can not be refunded if your participation is cancelled after Oct 1st.

Additional information: anna-grete.joamets@tartuloodusmaja.ee

If you are interested in Japanese culture and language then join the Japanese culture evening in Aparaaditehas on the 17th of September at 6pm! We will play traditional games, do origami, learn some simple Japanese phrases and try Japanese food. The culture evening is hosted by students and their sensei from Sophia University, Tokyo.

The event takes place in Aparaaditehas, venue “Elutuba lava taga”, Kastani 46 – door nr 6 from the courtyard.

The event is in english.

Let us know you are coming: https://forms.gle/nMqM3LWvG6Lf8H6N8

Participation fee: 4€ adults / 2€ pupils under 16yo (cash payment only)

Tartu Nature House is a small green oasis in the middle of the city. A beautiful park surrounds the centre, where visitors can familiarise themselves with different educational trails, a beaver dam meant for humans, gardens, a viewing platform and children’s play area.

The innovative and sustainably built house works as environmental education centre, hobby school and a visitors centre. At the heart of the building is the winter garden where you’ll find various exotic plant species, as well as tortoises.

Take a virtual tour: https://www.tartuloodusmaja.ee/vtuur/
Or visit us! We also offer guided tours.

Admission tickets:
September – May  3 eur/2 eur/10 eur
June – August = 5 eur/3 eur/13 eur

Opening hours: Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm

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Our summer exhibitions 2024:

Natural science exhibition “Fathers and Sons“

The focus of the exhibition “Fathers and Sons” are the fathers in the animal and plant kingdom, their association with their descendants, the duration of their generations and the future of the species. The exhibition is divided into several major themes and offers something to visitors of all ages. In addition to the roles of fathers in raising their offspring, the exhibition makes complex topics such as genetics and reproduction more understandable. The cellular level is also under observation – with the help of moulages and games, an otherwise invisible world is opened to the eye to better understand conception and heredity.

Painting exhibition “From Dark to Bright”

Estonian artist’s Kaie Shestakova-Karu beautiful natural paintings bring a blossoming spring and summer to the Nature House. The author himself characterizes his own works as follows: “Colours play an important part in my life and that is precisely why my works are characterized by a great abundance of colour. There was a period where I liked to paint pastosely and there was also a time when my paintings were in mostly dark tones. I have gotten inspiration for creating my paintings from my home garden, pets, poetry, music and theatre.” Kaie Shestakova-Karu has graduated from Tartu Art School and is a member of the Estonian Artists Association.

This summer Tartu Nature House hosts the exhibition “Fathers and Sons“ which concentrates on fathers as caregivers in the animal and plant kingdom!

The exhibition is divided into several major themes and offers something to visitors of all ages. In addition to the roles of fathers in raising their offspring, the exhibition makes complex topics such as genetics and reproduction more understandable. The cellular level is also under observation – with the help of moulages and games, an otherwise invisible world is opened to the eye to better understand conception and heredity.

The focus of the exhibition “Fathers and Sons” are the fathers in the animal and plant kingdom, their association with their descendants, the duration of their generations and the future of the species. “Paternal care in nature has been given very little attention and the importance of fathers is generally rather underestimated, yet it is vital to the continuation of the species,” says Lennart Lennuk, curator of the orginal exhibition.

The visitor will see shining examples of Estonian species that prove that fatherhood occurs in many animal groups, but also colorful examples of males with no paternal care. The exhibition also finds out what kind of fathers are for example wolves, bears and stickleback fish, and what role they play in raising their offspring.

Several exhibits offer playful activities where visitors can test their skills and knowledge. You can find the right nests for different species of birds and lead a grain of pollen on its journey to the right destination, try to build a nest yourself or try your hand at the game of determining the sex of a bird, mammal, insect and plant.

The exhibition is created by the Estonian Museum of Natural History. All texts are in estonian, english and russian.

The exhibition is open until the 28th of August

Mon-Fri 10am-18pm

Ticket: full ticket 5€/discount ticket 3€/family ticket 13€

Why can you felt sheep wool but not dog wool? How does Core-Tex material work? Why does drying laundry outside gives it a special smell? What kind of clothes are made from wood and which from plastic bottles? What do the labels on our clothes tell us? Who invented velcro and how?

This year’s Tartu Nature House’s summer exhibition tells the stories of our clothing. What is the origin, history, properties, uses and production technology of various materials, as well as their environmental effects? The clothes on our backs are one of the most casual everyday things but it is necessary to know what are they made of, where are they produced, what their impact is on the environment and what our choices really are.

At the exhibition, you can look at various fibers, materials and fabric types under magnification, try diffrent handicraft technologies, explore the journey of clothing around the world, get to know the personal life stories of five T-shirts, look for labels on your own clothes and enjoy playful activities like the button sea. The exhibition is intended for the whole family – there are playful activities for both children and environmental information with moments of nostalgia for adults.

The exhibition was largely put together from recycled materials sourced from both home wardrobes and second-hand shops. Many of these exhibits were provided by the people who work at the Nature House or by their friends and family. Some materials even came from the Tallinn zoo 🙂

The exhibition is in Estonian and English.

The exhibition was made possible with the support of the Estonian Research Council.

Open from 26.05 until 14.09 from Mon-Fri at 10am-6pm.

Entrance with house ticket: discount ticket 3€/full ticket 5€/family ticket 13€

If you are interested in Japanese culture and language then join the Japanese cultural evening in Tartu Nature House on the 25th of February at 17:00 o’clock.

We will try some origami and calligraphy, learn some simple Japanese phrases, try Japanese snacks and play traditional games.

The cultural evening is hosted by students and their sensei from Sophia University, Tokyo. The activities take place in english.

The participation fee is 2€.