Play Fair for the Environment” is a manual containing 15 games, which use the sport activity to teach environmentally friendly behaviours and knowledge. It has been designed by the Play Handball organization, based in Cape Town, South Africa, to promote environmental education through sports (mainly handball).
Objectives:
- Understanding separation of waste and recycling
- Learning about soil, water or air pollution
- Understanding what role trees and the oceans play for clean air
- Other
Description of the Practice:
The team sport of handball and the training of its basic technical-tactical elements provide the methodical basis for the learning experience on four environmental topics: Waste and Recycling, Fresh Air, Healthy Soil, and Clean Water (Scholl & Fasold 2022). Games are used to train specific sport skills and abilities, but also to promote social skills and impart environmental knowledge to the participants.
The sporting experience becomes a learning experience. It creates the basis for reflection and transfer to specific environmental competencies.
In each game, the focus is on an environment-specific key competence. In contrast to conventional teaching of sports games, where the sport goal and the acquisition of motor skills are at the centre of the exercise/game form, environmental competence is the focus of these games.
In different game forms, such as running and catching games or passing, throwing or group tactics games, environmental topics are integrated into the sport activity. Different methods are used to achieve the transfer from the sporting action to the environmental learning objective. There are games where making the right decisions is the learning objective.
In other games, analogies serve to support the learning and transfer process. The ball or action is linked to positive environmental abilities or characteristics. For example, the ball may represent oxygen or clean water, or a failed pass may represent littering.
Impact and Results:
The Play Fair for the Environment manual contributes greatly to providing education on environmental matters, especially in a youth friendly way, through non formal sporting activities.
Conclusions and Recommendations for Youth Workers:
It’s a wonderful collection of activities that can be used to stimulate the talk about environmental issues and environmental education using sport. It can be adapted to other team sports.
Play Fair for the Environment is a registered trademark and the manual can be ordered from the organization Play Handball.
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