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Is forest increasing more that it is being harvested? Can lady tights be made out of wood? Which are pine and which are spruce seeds? The finalists of the LVM Forest Olympics answered these and many other questions, and also demonstrated colourful creative performances where the connection with soap bubbles and forest was revealed. The ten most active Latvian schoolchildren teams met on 27 April in the LVM Nature Park in Tērvete.

This year, teams of the final of Forest Olympics had to show their strength in two rounds – in the active and educational orienteering competition and in the presentation of creative performance. To participants’ minds the most memorable tasks from the 30 in the orienteering competition were the riddles in the Witch's Forest of the Nature Park, sawing the birch disc to precise 400 grams, and also recognising products that contain wood, which surprised not only children but also teachers with the wide possibilities of wood use.

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However, in the continuation of the competition, the judges – Māra Mīkule, the senior desk officer of Forest Department of Ministry of Agriculture; Līga Abizāre, the communication project manager of LVM; Anda Sproģe, the communication expert of LVM; Dagnija Lazdiņa, the senior researcher of Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava"; Inese Liepiņa, the senior desk officer of the National Centre for Education; the Mother Forest of the LVM Nature Park in Tērvete – had to evaluate their creative performances, which had to be prepared as a homework. Judges gave points to teams for their ability to reveal the connection between soap bubbles and forest, for the involvement of team members and for their creativity in presenting their performance. The contestants of the LVM Forest Olympics presented this task in colourful clothes, with singing, and showing that this theme can be explained not only by reading school books.

This year’s winners is the team “S!guldieši” from 8th grade of Sigulda Primary School No. 1 – they have won a week long nature expedition in Austria.

The 2nd place, and only few points behind the first place, went to the team from Aizpute Secondary School, but the 3rd place went to the team “Zīļotāji” from Krāslava Primary School – they received a prize to go to an educational LVM Forest expedition with all their classmates.

The biology teacher of Aizpute Seconary School, Vika Vasiļevska, shares her experience in the Forest Olympics competition: “It is nice that the event took place in nature, questions were educational. We also had to prepare. And this is the added value, that children are learning while preparing, and exactly this knowledge stays in their heads better than sitting by the desk in a classroom. We follow the activities of LVM year by year. This year we have also participated in the LVM contest of Bioeconomy School. Basically, if the contest is organised by the “Latvijas valsts meži”, then I know that everything will be thought through and everyone will be satisfied.”

Those teams who did not make it to the top 3, but nevertheless showed immense activity in the competition, also received diplomas – 4th place to the team “Domājošie ķekatnieki” from 7th and 9th grade of Nīkrāce Primary School, 5th place to the team “Meža skudras” from 7th and 8th grade of Irlava Secondary School of Tukums district, 6th place to the team of Carnikava Primary School’s 7th grade, 7th place to the team “Meža gudrinieki” from Nīkrāce Primary School, 8th place to the team “Mežinieki” from 8th grade of Jelgava Primary School No. 2, 9th place to the team “Mežači” from Sloka Primary School and the 10th place to the team “Cietie rieksti” from Aizkraukle Regional Secondary School.

The team from Aizkraukle Regional Secondary School participated in the LVM Forest Olympics for the first time and successfully got into the top ten. Teacher of the team, Žanna Murahina, tells that she heard about the LVM Forest Olympics the year before, but she was not able to get children interested to participate in this project.

“This is a good experience for children to learn to work in team, to see the creative works of others and to see the attitude. We will take that into account next year. And also, the event took place in such a wonderful place (LVM Nature Park in Tērvete), which was reintroduced to us from a different perspective,” says the teacher.

While judges went to count the results of LVM Forest Olympics to determine this year’s winner, the participants had an exciting surprise from the curiosity centre “Zili brīnumi”, who, with impressive experiments, revealed the exciting part of science and allowed children to see in real life what they have learned in classrooms.

The LVM Forest Olympics is an annual event, which is organised by the JSC “Latvijas valsts meži” in collaboration with the National Centre for Education. The aim of it is to promote creative and healthy studying outside the Latvian school premises – in nature, and also to teach children an understanding about Latvia’s largest renewable resource – forest.

This year children were invited to create a new outdoor educational game about forest and to demonstrate it outdoors together with their classmates using materials of nature. Team had to describe the rules of game and have to create a 1 minute long video tutorial where the process of game can be seen. Ten teams, whose games received the most sympathies from judges and Likes from Facebook users, were put through to the final competition of Forest Olympics in the LVM Nature Park in Tērvete.

More information available on www.mammadaba.lv/skolam section “Forest Olympics”.