In a bright classroom tucked into one of Istanbul’s busiest districts, a group of children cheer as a solar-powered car, designed and assembled with their own hands, zips across the floor.

Not long before, these same students were testing the pH of water samples using self-made kits, or experimenting with hydroponic systems to learn how to grow lettuce without soil. Around them, their creative inventions made out of upcycled materials hang beside the VR headsets that allow them to explore different ecosystems. This isn’t just an ordinary education center – it is the outcome of a new approach to environmental education.

The project Empowering Children for Environmental Sustainability through E-STEM - ecosySTEM is changing the way environmental education is imagined across the Black Sea Basin. This initiative invites children aged 8 to 15 to engage in interactive, hands-on ecological learning. “We’re not just teaching facts about the environment,” says Evrim Aykan, project director from the Lead Partner. “We’re equipping children to become eco-leaders of their generation - critical thinkers, makers, and protectors of their own communities.”

A shared region, a shared responsibility

The Black Sea Basin is home to rich biodiversity and interlinked environmental challenges. Deforestation, soil degradation, and water pollution affect communities across borders. Here, restoring these shared resources requires collaborative solutions.

Spanning four countries along the Black Sea Basin, the ecosystem project brings together diverse partners with a common vision: restoring our environment by starting with education. Though the pilot phase was implemented in Türkiye, the model is being adapted and applied in Bulgaria, Greece, and Ukraine, supported by cross-border collaboration and shared learning materials.

“Environmental challenges don’t stop at the border,” says Aykan. “And neither should the solutions. By working together, we’re empowering a new generation of young people who see their region, and its future, as a common project.”

From ecosystems to energy: six paths to environmental literacy

At the heart of the program are six learning modules, each one designed to connect children with a vital environmental theme through science, technology, and creativity:

• Ecosystems and Biodiversity Students explore the living systems around them, identifying plants, animals, and their interdependencies, often using virtual reality headsets to experience habitats beyond their immediate surroundings.
• Environment and Water Children design and build water testing kits, using them to analyze local sources. The activity sparks critical thinking about access to clean water and of course, the effects of pollution.
• Environment and Air Students investigate air pollution and climate patterns, using basic measurement tools to understand environmental changes, as well as how human action can influence them.
• Environment and Soil Through hydroponic experiments, soil testing, and erosion demonstrations, children explore the importance of healthy soil for ecosystems, the impact of human activity on land and how soil plays a critical role in climate regulation and biodiversity.
• Environment and Renewable Energy They bring engineering into the mix, designing and racing solar-powered toy vehicles, while learning about sustainable energy systems that can power the future.
• Environment and Waste Management Through upcycling activities, students learn the value of resources and the importance of rethinking waste as a design problem, not just a cleanup issue.

“We wanted the modules to reflect both scientific rigor and the imaginative spirit of children,” says Aykan. “That’s why we combined real-world data collection with creativity, whether that meant designing a solar invention or exploring a forest altogether”.

Small scientists, big ideas

One of the project’s most powerful outcomes has been the shift in how students see themselves. Children who started the program asking simple questions — Why is our water cloudy? What happens to trash? — are now designing filtration systems, experimenting with renewable energy, leading awareness campaigns in their communities.

Educators involved in the project note a marked increase in student confidence and curiosity. Many children began taking their projects home, teaching siblings and neighbors what they learned, and proposing improvements to their school environments. “They’re not just learning about nature,” Aykan reflects. “They’re learning that they can shape it — and protect it.”

A generation in motion

In a region facing deforestation, drought, biodiversity loss, and rapid urbanization, the ecosySTEM project offers more than education. It offers direction. By bringing together science, creativity, and environmental leadership, it is helping to grow a generation that sees problems not with fear, but with invention.

And if the laughter, curiosity, and confidence spilling from the classrooms in Kadıköy are any sign, that generation is already taking root — and reaching for the light.

From pilot to policy

EcosySTEM project is more than a one-time pilot. The long-term aim of the project is not only to educate, but to inspire structural change in how environmental education is conceived and delivered. Discussions are already underway with local education authorities in all four countries to integrate parts of the E-STEM model into formal curricula.

“If we treat children only as future citizens, we delay the solutions we urgently need,” says Evrim Aykan. “They are citizens now, of their schools, of their neighborhoods. And they’re proving every day that they’re ready to lead.”

The aim, say project leaders, is not just improved scientific literacy, but agency. “We talk a lot about youth being the future,” says Aykan, “but through this project, we’re helping them shape the now. They are not waiting for permission – they are testing, building, learning, and leading.”