The Territorial Environment Agency strives to be present as much as possible in the school curriculum of the island's young people, from early childhood to secondary school, with more advanced projects in certain classes on request.
The Agence Territoriale de l'Environnement offers a joint program of activities for the island's three elementary school, usually accompanied by a field trip afterwards. This is an opportunity for everyone to discover the island's different ecosystems and the species that live there, and to learn how to preserve and protect our biodiversity. In this way, the island's youngsters learn more about insects, sea turtles, seabirds, reptiles, mangroves, the beach system, cetaceans, fishing and invasive alien species.
Thanks to this program, we are able to raise the awareness of all local schoolchildren to the issues and challenges of biodiversity conservation.
EPI (Interdisciplinary Practical Teaching) is a number of hours per week devoted to the 5th year of secondary school, during the hours dedicated to Life and Earth Sciences. Through outings to the island's various ecosystems, students learn more about the species that surround them, and how to protect them in their daily lives. Involving at least two disciplines, they deepen the knowledge acquired through cross-disciplinary learning and develop their analytical skills.
Students study fishing and fishing regulations on Saint-Barthélemy, the dry forest ecosystem, invasive exotic species on the island (the problems they cause and what to do to limit their proliferation), sea grass and the coral reef.
What is an educational area?
Students and their teachers take an interest in a small natural area on the island to acquire knowledge, monitor the health of one or more species, and implement measures to protect, preserve or raise awareness of the site. This is done in conjunction with the Agence Territoriale de l'Environnement, which contributes knowledge and implements protection and preservation measures.
There are currently two educational areas on the island:
Les Petits Saints marine area was chosen based on criteria selected by the children (site proximity, ecosystem and cultural interests) in 2017.
Prevention poster on the impact of sunscreen on the marine environment - CM1/CM2 class from Gustavia 2023-24.
The Fort Carl site has been selected, in particular for its proximity to the Petits Saints site and the need to restore the dry forest ecosystem at its summit.
In addition to these fixed educational programs and projects, one-off projects have been developed to meet specific needs.
As part of educational projects run jointly by the Agence Territoriale de l'Environnement (ATE), two educational establishments (Collège Mireille Choisy and Colombier elementary school), the Mon École Ma Baleine (MEMB) association and the AGOA Sanctuary, the pupils of a 6th grade class (2015/2016) and then a CM2 class (2020/2021) successively worked with their teachers on the creation of awareness panels dedicated to the humpback whale.
