[00:00:10] Dominique: ​Hello, welcome to another episode of Green Champions.

[00:00:13] Adam: Thanks for joining us in a conversation with real people, making real environmental change in the work that they do. I'm here with Dominique, our sustainability expert.

[00:00:21] Dominique: And I'm so glad to be here alongside Adam, our social enterprise extraordinaire. We bring you guests who saw the potential for impact in their job or community and did something about it.

[00:00:30] Adam: Green Champions is a platform to share sustainability success stories, and plant new ideas.

[00:00:35] Dominique: This is our mini series in Val Bruna, Italy, highlighting an event called NanoValbruna.

[00:00:40] Adam: NanoValbruna is an international forum that brings scientists, entrepreneurs, professors, professionals, journalists, science communicators, and especially young people, to the heart of the Julian Alps, to talk about innovation, environment, and regeneration. Dominique had the chance to attend NanoValbruna and capture the stories of their accomplishments, and so as you're listening, I'm also here equally excited to hear this episode.

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[00:01:05] Dominique: Today I am joined by Tania Vanzolini. She is the coordinator of the programming segment of NanoValbruna, that's called NanoPiçule. She's a part of the organizing team, which is ReGeneration Hub Friuli, and she'll be talking about what this aspect of the programming is.

Here's a hint, it's about engaging even younger people and talking about education and making it really fun for little kids to engage with sustainability. So thanks for joining me today.

[00:01:33] Tania: Thank you to you. And hello to everyone. I'm Tania and it's a pleasure to be here with you. 

[00:01:39] Dominique: I'm so glad to have you. So what is the purpose of NanoPiçule? Can you share why it is an important part of the programming?

[00:01:47] Tania: Okay. Actually, NanoPiçule was born with NanoValbruna. So it was the first project, or I call it the first soul of NanoValbruna because the main object at the beginning was to take difficult topics and make them easier to understand, especially for little kids. Our aim is actually the will to make them learn different and difficult things in an easy way and to make them like intrinsic. So for example, we have different topics about sustainability about recycling, circular economy. There are so difficult topics, also for adults. 

[00:02:34] Dominique: Yeah. A lot of adults do not understand all aspects of sustainability.

[00:02:39] Tania: So I consider that it's also difficult for us to make them enough understandable for little kids, but we try using like easy example. 

Learning by Doing: Hands-on Education Approach

[00:02:50] Tania: And also with a particular matter that we use here that is the learning by doing. It means like we use laboratories, we use experiments to make them understand difficult topics and be sure that they can maintain the knowledge that they got here also for years. And it is quite difficult, especially because when you consider that they had to learn a lot of things in schools actually, yet they learn something. But as they learn, often they also forgot. So our aim is also to make them understand first and maintain this knowledge for years.

[00:03:37] Dominique: Yeah, you're talking about things they learned, things they remember. Does that mean a lot of the children who participate in the programming return?

[00:03:44] Tania: Yeah, a lot. And this is a great satisfaction for me because it is a kind of gratification, not for me, because, well, I'm just the coordinator of a really, really great team. Yeah. Just the coordinator.

[00:04:00] Dominique: You deserve some credit. But definitely I've seen all the volunteers out helping so many kids. Give us a sense for the listeners of how many kids? So how many kids and how many volunteers for one session? 

[00:04:10] Tania: Yeah. 

Program Scale and Structure

[00:04:14] Tania: Consider that we have like this year we had around 120 kids. Yeah. There are a lot, really.

[00:04:19] Dominique: And the age range?

[00:04:20] Tania: The age range is from 6 to 14 years old. So from elementary to middle school. And about volunteers, actually they started doing volunteering from like, high school and some of them comes from university as well. In a different way because now I started as university student, but now I'm a researcher and lecturer at university, so...

[00:04:46] Dominique: Very cool. What are you teaching?

[00:04:48] Tania: Biological Drugs and at University of Urbino.

[00:04:52] Dominique: Did any part of teaching young kids in this programming help you see that you wanted to be a lecturer?

[00:04:56] Tania: Yes. And it helped me a lot. Especially because even if my students at university are even older than me, more or less, I use the same, let's say, strategies that I use with kids in a sense that I want that they pay attention to me And I think that it is useful to do experiments, to do things manually and in a concrete way. Also not just for kids, but also for adults or for older students. So I use the same tactics.

[00:05:31] Dominique: So you see experiments as like a really strong tool for engagement?

[00:05:35] Tania: Yeah. And you had to consider that actually, I use a lot of the things that I do my research here with experiments, for example, one of the laboratories is like, seeing different things at the microscope. 

[00:05:50] Dominique: Okay, so you bring a bunch of microscopes for 120 children?

[00:05:53] Tania: Yeah. And you know, it's so beautiful because, as I said before, actually there are a lot of children that come again here. So this is my like fifth year. So I was here from the beginning, but sometimes I recognize different children that come again and say, "Ah, yeah, I was here the last year." It happened to me that, also the last year I used microscope and I taught them how to make the images clear. The proper way is to focus, you know? Focus the image.

And, this year, few of them told me, "Please, can you focus me the image?" It was like, "Oh my God. You remember the proper word to say, to use when you look at the microscopes." 

[00:06:40] Dominique: I remember when I first learned that students return, I asked someone this question, I dunno if I asked you, but, I had asked if the programming differs every year. And I learned that it's entirely different every year. That's true?

[00:06:52] Tania: Yeah, absolutely. Because they have to learn always something different. And we try to, like, be in line. We did topic of the panels.

[00:07:05] Dominique: I see. 

Regeneration Through Young Minds

[00:07:10] Dominique: So how this year, the theme is regeneration. You linked education this year to regeneration. Can you share how you did that?

[00:07:12] Tania: Yeah. For example, we talk about fibers from nature. So that you can regenerate and use for something difference. For example, cork, that is from the wood, like a can of wood, kind of from the tree, how can you use it and so on. Or for example, other natural fibers like cotton or the silk worm. So we explore the way from its birth to the butterfly phase. And we try to use them and use the word generate to make understand in how and in which sense you can regenerate something or nature can do it. 

[00:07:56] Dominique: That's so cool. And I mean so many adults don't understand the difference between regeneration and sustainability, and we talk about that a lot this week. But the fact that you're really embedding that in such a young population 

[00:08:08] Tania: yeah. 

[00:08:08] Dominique: is impressive and it's just really important and cool that you're doing that.

[00:08:13] Tania: Yeah. Especially because actually my idea of sustainability and regeneration as for what concern, regeneration, I think that you had to like regenerate also your mind. I mean, sometimes, adult have a particular way of thinking that can be regenerate, first of all. And it's easier when you talk to children.

[00:08:38] Dominique: Oh, there's no like bad habits with children and no preconceived notion. 

[00:08:42] Tania: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:08:43] Dominique: So you find it easier. That's a really cool and a really positive way to think about young people in the next generation 'cause I think sometimes there's negative rhetoric around young people being difficult to deal with or maybe hard to educate or, you know, people like to say that young people in their phones all the time or whatever, and they're not.

But I think that's a really great positive take on how easy it is to share things with the next generation.

[00:09:06] Tania: Yeah. Especially because, you know, when in general when we speak about sustainability, we think about our common future. And actually when I look at this sentence that often we hear about sustainability, I try to think about what is my future? In what and in who I see future?

And my answer always come here because actually children are the future. alsothey pass also to their parents and also to the community so we can share by everyone in an easy way. 

[00:09:47] Dominique: Yeah. The power of education and like influence from a child is really, really cool. 

Community Impact and Parent Feedback

[00:09:53] Dominique: I think it was today, I was just looking at, this is just a coincidence, but I was looking at a statistic from Project Drawdown that just shared that I think the number one driver of interest in sustainability for Americans is like hearing stories or thinking about the impact in their grandchildren and their children. So like that speaks so much of what you're saying of like, if can get the children to share what they're looking for their families to do, and if we can show that this matters to them, we know that adults would do it for them. And that's a driving thing and that's just great when we're talking a lot about like how hard these topics are to understand or the big changes we need.

[00:10:28] Tania: And I wanna also bring up a different example 'cause I know a lot of the speakers last year and guests that I was chatting with, it stood out to them the milking activity.

Yeah. It was last year. 

[00:10:40] Dominique: Can you tell our listeners what that was and like explain just even the visual. For context, what I remember was little kids like learn how to milk a cow, but with a contraption and you can explain what that is.

[00:10:53] Tania: Okay. Every year we organize a final game. There's a kind of competition between different groups. Some volunteers have made these cow structures with others and we have put some water with a collar that had to remember the milk. So this group of children with different age, but they are mixed up really that they were in competition to milk this kind of cows. So it was like, kind of rush too.

[00:11:28] Dominique: So you're not only having them milk a fake utter, but you're having them do it fast. I think that's a great understanding of kids.

[00:11:35] Tania: Yeah. And consider that it's quite unusual. I mean, for kids of this age in general, some of the kids have never seen a real cow. 

[00:11:46] Dominique: I've seen a million cows, but also I've never milked a cow. you've given 'em such a tangible, real life example of a component of our system. 

[00:11:55] Tania: They had to milk like at least two, three liters of milk to win.

[00:12:02] Dominique: So the kids, were they like on teams or how'd how did you get them to compete?

[00:12:07] Tania: So they had to rush towards this cow. they were like two together that they had to help each other. And at the end of the game, a judge, there is a fake judge, had to say which was the best group that actually every group did do their best every time. So they're always winners. 

[00:12:29] Dominique: That's good working with kids. That's awesome. I mean, I can tell how much you care about this. What kind of feelings do you get when you do this work?

[00:12:36] Tania: Well, I think that I'm extremely satisfied and the best thing is gratification. I mean, gratification, not because I did a good work. Gratification because those people come back again the next year. And I've read also, I saw some feedbacks by parents that told us, "Oh yeah, it was a beautiful experience for my kids. Please do it again." Or for example, there was another one that told me like, " He started doing like this," "My daughter started doing like this."' I don't remember exactly what, but this mom was impressed by the fact that her daughter not just understood what she did here, but also explain to their parents what she did. And it's so beautiful. 

[00:13:28] Dominique: That's very powerful. And that's what you were saying is the beauty of all of it is these kids are so receptive and then they get to teach their parents and it's cool. The parents have provided that feedback so that you know, that's really happening. 

[00:13:40] Tania: So NanoValbruna takes place at the latter end of the month of July. When do you start working on the programming for this week?

last year the festival ended in the 1st of August. So, actually we started prepare the laboratories for this year, like after two, three months. So it takes almost one year to prepare everything.

[00:14:04] Dominique: That's incredible. One year's time of effort. 

I feel like important to say that I'm not alone. I mean there is a team, a great team that works with me and consider that I think without them I cannot do anything really. 

[00:14:20] Tania: And you're all young, the volunteers. How old are the volunteers? Actually from high school to university school and, and me.

[00:14:28] Dominique: And they're there 'cause they care. And I know you won't say it, but I think that this speaks a lot to your leadership and your energy that you bring. 

[00:14:35] Tania: It's more because I think that every year they find here family, so they like this context. 

[00:14:44] Dominique: The community building of it all.

[00:14:46] Tania: Yeah. really we are extremely open to young people that want to help us because they care. And when you demonstrate that you care about not just yourself, not just about them working, but also about kids, I think it's the most beautiful sign of humanness. So 

[00:15:07] Dominique: I love that. I want the on a t-shirt.

[00:15:10] Tania: I'll take one and give it to you. Really. For sure.

[00:15:15] Dominique: Can you also explain what NanoPiçule means? What's the meaning behind that name, for those who don't speak Italian? Could you explain even just the words, what they mean, and then also what it means to you? Because 'Nano' is little. 'Piçule' is? 

[00:15:29] Tania: Piçule means, little. Little kids. So, you know, in Friulano that is a particular language that people from here still speaks. So it's a modern language and it's quite difficult.

I think, I got one more question for you. And I'm just curious, there's so many groups out there working on sustainability, teaching conservation. I mean, there are schools all over the place that are seeking creative ways to engage young people the way that you are. What can other organizations learn from what you think NanoPiçule is really successful at? What's so special that you think other organizations could learn something?

You know, I think that the thing that probably make us special are people, people who cares. So, there are some other organization that do the same, but probably they don't, it is not that they don't care enough.

[00:16:29] Dominique: I think you've got a great energy on your volunteer team. Do you feel like that speaks a lot? You think that the students can feel that?

[00:16:35] Tania: I think it's the only way. The only way because we had to know every time, everything. This is the only way we can have success in this because every time something happens, we had to be flexible to provide a solution every time, in every moment and for every kind of problem. 

 maybe, the special thing of our group is flexibility.

[00:16:59] Dominique: Where you get ideas? How'd come up with the cow activity?

[00:17:03] Tania: Last year, we had a different topic. It was food, But we always try also to valorize, try to take value from the products, which we can find here, here in Italy, here in this region. So, for example, one of the motto of NanoValbruna is think global, but act local. We take it also in NanoPiçule. We take and use it also in NanoPiçule because we want to provide a change in their mind, change in their habits, but we also to do with these little communities, with kids and using things that they know.

[00:17:46] Dominique: so, because last year's focus was food. You really focused on talking about food systems and then you thought about what's local. And there's local cows and cheese and dairy that's coming from this community. And that's a great, I mean, it's also a global problem and a global topic, but that's a great reason for why that you landed on this cow activity because you wanted to engage them with the dairy industry. 

[00:18:07] Tania: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:18:08] Dominique: That's so cool. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me. 

[00:18:11] Tania: Thank you. Thank you to you, really. 

[00:18:12] Dominique: Your energy is infectious. I think truly I've personally seen so many education programs as a part of events or festivals or, you name it, schools. And I think there's a lot of magic to what I've seen you do with kids and they just seem so happy. And you guys seem like you have bottomless energy every morning. They do this programming first thing in the morning. 

[00:18:35] Tania: thank you so much for chatting with me and sharing what you've been able to do.

Thank you to you, really.

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[00:18:43] Dominique: So Adam, what'd you think of Tanya's episode?

[00:18:45] Adam: Oh man. I'm glad that she's at the helm of NanoPiçule. Really the work that she's doing engaging with young people, I love her energy and how dynamic she's made some of these activities,

[00:18:55] Dominique: I think it's unmatched. Her passion and love for what she's doing too. I know that I've done some nonprofit work around sustainability to engage kids in the past, and I think there's just no substitute for the energy that those students looking for from the educator and from the people who are facilitating those activities. I just think her love for the work was palpable, and I think it just reinforced that idea that that really, really matters in that space.

Kids can see everything.

[00:19:23] Adam: I love it. Well, and if she's worked with 120 kids in the last year and those kids are coming back and that's being reinforced, it sounds like they're holding onto that stuff that they learned from last year.

[00:19:32] Dominique: And when you learn that in your youth, you take that with you through your whole life so those seeds go on and on.

And I mean, that brings us home perfectly, I think for this miniseries about engaging young people in some of these activities. Innovation, education that is Nanovalbruna mission. And I think coming back to sharing that with even the youngest of the young people and finding a space for them at Nanovalbruna, I think is a great way for us to ring in this miniseries and to see the impact just go across the board.

[00:20:07] Adam: Yeah. And I love how that's really been a constant theme across all of the guests, right? Whether they are bringing in young innovators who are pitching ideas and participating, whether it's teaching people how to take videos and and communicate the ideas better. Even weaving that communication around climate change and regeneration into the fabric of the conference itself. It's really neat seeing how all the different guests have done that one way or another.

[00:20:33] Dominique: Well, thanks Adam for doing the miniseries with me and for allowing us to highlight Nanovalbruna. This was really exciting.

[00:20:40] Adam: And I'm very grateful that I got to share in the experience from afar. It looks so beautiful. I can't wait to visit at some point in the future. And thanks to all the guests who joined from Nanovalbruna to make this possible.

[00:20:53] Dominique: As always, our guests have found a unique way to champion sustainability. We're here to put real names and stories behind the idea that no matter your background, career, or interests, you really can contribute in the fight against climate change.

[00:21:05] Adam: You can find our episodes and reach us at thegreenchampions.com.

If you wanna stay in the loop, give us a review and follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Our music is by Zane Dweik. Thanks for listening to Green Champions. We'll dig into another sustainability success story in our next season. 

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