Gnistspridare 2022: Naturum Tåkern
From the left: Jenny Carlsson (Naturum Tåkern), Malin Granlund Fält (Naturum Tåkern), Åsa Andersson (Nordic Biomarker), Sofie Hellman (Naturum Tåkern), Jakob Renhorn (Nordic Biomarker)
This year, Naturum Tåkern have celebrated their 10th anniversary and invited hundreds of school children to share experiences close to nature. Today we have announced them as the winner of the first Gnistspridare grant in Östergötland, which gives them 50 000 SEK to keep up the good work.
”The image of a person who is a ’friend of nature’ is often very narrow. We try to broaden that discussion”, says Jenny Carlsson, manager at Naturum Tåkern.
”We have received so many wonderful applications and the grant committee has had a difficult task in sifting out applicants for our final vote. Just like Naturum Tåkern, many applicants take different perspectives on the natural sciences. It is truly wonderful to see!” says Rikard Rodén, CEO at Nordic Biomarker.
The grant of 50 000 SEK is awarded to someone in Östergötland who lights other’s spark for the natural sciences, and lighting sparks is really something that Natrurum Tåkern does in their strive towards broadening the image of the ”friend of nature”. To be fascinated by nature may very well mean to go birdwatching or to look at mosses through a loupe, but it can just as well mean making your own bird muffins, drying your own outdoor food, join a guided stroller tour, or learn how natural pasture raised meat interconnects with outdoor life.
At the core of Naturum Tåkern’s activities is to arouse children’s curiosity about nature. During 2022, hundreds of school children have been getting free bus rides to Naturum Tåkern, where they have experienced a day bursting with the joy of different aspects of nature: catching aquatic critters, discussing the climate and our consumption, and getting the opportunity to write letters to local politicians. These activities can now continue into 2023 as well, thanks to the grant.
”This came at a very opportune time, in the middle of our business planning for next year”, says Jenny. ”Outdoor pedagogy is such a wonderful thing, it creates strong memories that etch themselves into someone. We have had ten-year-olds here, and when they will later speak of for example biodiversity at school, their brains will go ’right, that is like when we were catching critters and filled a whole icebox with different species’. I firmly believe in the method, and research backs that up.”
Rikard is glad that Nordic Biomarker can participate in improving the conditions for Östergötland’s natural science-interested inhabitants.
”We as a company get so many benefits from the area around us, not least the competence created by the natural science educations at the university. We are big enough to give something back, in the form of a grant”, Rikard concludes.
Citation:
With commitment to the world around us, Naturum Tåkern strives to enable every school child in the area, regardless of economy and outdoors experience, to get to know nature. Catching small critters is combined with the big questions such as how our consumption affects the climate – a broad scope that sparks curiosity in a broad group. With a decade’s worth of experience, Naturum Tåkern arranges solid visits where adults and children alike discover nature and their own place in it.
Tåkern is a lake located in the southern parts of Sweden. A ”naturum” is a place where people can learn more about nature and the environment. Naturums are often set close to a national park or a nature reserve. There are currently 32 naturums in Sweden.