The Secretary of State for Climate Change of the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) and vice-president of the Biodiversity Foundation, Teresa Ribera, has presented, on Thursday, June 9, at the Royal Botanical Garden-CSIC in Madrid, the prizes of the Nickological contest.

The Secretary of State for Climate Change of the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) and vice-president of the Biodiversity Foundation, Teresa Ribera, has presented, on Thursday, June 9, at the Royal Botanical Garden-CSIC in Madrid, the prizes of the Nickological contest.

It is an awareness-raising project of the children’s content production company Nickelodeon aimed at students from Spanish schools, which has had the support of the Biodiversity Foundation. Throughout the school year, the issue of reducing the CO2 footprint has been worked on with the little ones.

Students from Trinity College in San Sebastián de los Reyes and CEIP Juan Gris, in Madrid, were invited to the awards ceremony, and were able to enjoy the company of their favourite characters, SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer, with whom they were able to take photos.

The three winning schools of the Nickological contest have been the CEIP Juan Alonso Rivas, in Colomera (Granada); the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción school, in Jumilla (Murcia), and the CEIP San Juan Bautista, in Carbonero el Mayor (Segovia).

During the 2010-2011 school year, a total of 24,250 students from 589 schools participating in the contest have planted more than 3,000 trees with seeds donated by the Guadarrama River School Nursery of the National Parks Autonomous Agency.

In addition, the 976 registered classes, belonging to schools in nine Autonomous Communities, have carried out other didactic activities related to the care and conservation of the environment, which have resulted in the placement of more than 12,000 low-consumption light bulbs or the recycling of 9,000 notebooks.

During the course, four campaigns have been carried out: “Stand up to CO2 with Nickelodeon”, starring SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick; “The three R’s of the Penguins of Madagascar”, dedicated to waste recycling; “Dora the Explorer’s Alternative Solutions”, on energy saving, and “Move Green”, with FanBoy and Chum Chum”, on sustainable transport.

A team of specialists in early childhood education and the environment has been in charge of developing the programme of activities, recommended for the 2nd cycle of early childhood education and the first cycle of Primary, hosted on the www.nickologico.com website. In addition, other professionals from the Río Guadarrama Nursery School in Navalcarnero (Madrid) and the Biodiversity Foundation have supervised the teaching units.

Thanks to the collaboration of the Royal Botanical Garden-CSIC, the work carried out by the schools participating in Nickological has been exhibited during this event in a large photographic mural that has been completed and signed by the children after the awards ceremony. In addition, the little ones have a space in the roundabout of the Swamps of the Royal Botanical Garden, equipped with chairs and tables, to paint masks.

The Nickological contest is part of the project “Let’s reduce CO2, 1,000 trees with the Biodiversity Foundation and Nickelodeon”, with which the FB, in collaboration with the television production company, has carried out an awareness campaign aimed at 1,000 schools, in order to contribute to educating children in the care of the environment through the recommendations and games of their favorite characters.