News source:Ministry of Education Global Information Network>

Since 2014, the Ministry of Education's "Cross-disciplinary Aesthetic Education Excellence Pilot Program" has been committed to cultivating students' aesthetic literacy and cross-disciplinary learning. By integrating art with curriculum design from different disciplines, students can practice the connection between life and beauty through their creations. April 22 is Earth Day. As the world pays more and more attention to environmental issues, the education field has also integrated the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into teaching practices, guiding students to participate in environmental actions with creativity and experience the importance of the natural environment.

The three-stage course "Marine Waste is Not Waste: Please Edit, Please Sit, Please Drink Tea" at Dongju Elementary School in Lianjiang County is inspired by the "Island Plastic Chair" work exhibited at the first Matsu International Art Island in 2014. It focuses on the marine environment and resource recycling. It is a course that uses creativity to connect mathematics, ocean, and comprehensive fields. It is used to arouse students' attention to the issue of marine waste and practice the sustainable spirit of turning waste into beauty.

Starting with the "Beach Cleaning Treasure Hunt", students were led to visit the coast and pick up marine waste by hand. These picked-up objects, such as fishing nets, buoys, broken CDs and cardboards, were cleaned, untangled and sorted to become reusable creative materials. Students personally participate in the process from collection, design to production, allowing them to redefine so-called "useless things" and open up new imaginations for the recycling of resources.

"Please Weave" is a course that combines mathematical concepts about rules and circles while helping students understand the issue of marine waste. It takes weaving activities as the core and guides students to learn basic edge wrapping and interlacing techniques. "Please Sit" leads students to design weaving templates and complete their own cushions and coasters. Through the above creative process of using recycled CDs, cardboards and waste fishing lines, not only did they strengthen their hand-eye coordination and creativity, but they also experienced how to turn "waste" materials into practical daily objects. Finally, a "Tea Party" session was held, where teachers and students shared their creative experiences and environmental observations, as well as how to reduce the generation of marine waste. Through this tea party, which symbolized communication and recycling, students' imagination and practice of sustainable living were further deepened.

After seeing the students’ works, a parent gave feedback: “The works created by the children using sea waste are so bright and colorful. It is hard to imagine that they were made using sea waste.” We hope that through the integration of aesthetic education into marine environment courses, future schoolchildren will be able to continue to maintain the waste-free environment of the Matsu Islands and practice the concept of an ecologically sustainable island.

The Ministry of Education stated that environmental issues are not only the scope of natural sciences, but are also an important focus of the art field and the current generation. Through the promotion of cross-disciplinary aesthetic courses, students are guided to internalize the goals of SDGs, such as responsible consumption and production, and climate action, into actions, so that children can learn to change the world with their own hands while observing and understanding the natural environment of their hometown. For more exciting information on aesthetic education and sustainable courses, please visit the Interdisciplinary Aesthetic Education Program website (https://www.inarts.world/).