CURIOSOIL

Awakening Soil Curiosity to Catalyse Soil Literacy

CURIOSOIL is a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation project, designed to awaken soil curiosity and catalyse soil literacy across Europe. This forward-thinking initiative seeks to deepen our understanding of how to spark curiosity about soil and foster meaningful connections between people and the living ground beneath their feet.

Drawing upon the outcomes of EJP Soil for Higher Education and the LOESS assessment, CURIOSOIL sets out to provide a comprehensive baseline of soil-related education and training across all educational levels in the EU and Associated Countries. By embracing community participation, educational innovation, and the co-design of materials, the project offers an integrated approach to enhancing soil awareness and addressing sustainability challenges.

CURIOSOIL’s objectives and approach

Awakening Curiosity: CURIOSOIL explores effective methods to inspire soil curiosity and build personal connections to soil, ensuring that educational interventions resonate with varied societal needs, values, and expectations.

Providing Understanding: The project assesses current levels of soil awareness among citizens, using this data to co-develop materials that support the goals of the EU Soil Mission. CURIOSOIL places emphasis on ensuring the lasting relevance and impact of these resources.

Applying Knowledge: CURIOSOIL contributes high-quality curricula and soil literacy materials to European repositories with resources available in multiple languages and for diverse age groups. Collaboration is key, involving professional educators, school heads, educational networks, and European authorities.

Ensuring Longevity: To secure sustained impact, CURIOSOIL works to improve the European Sustainability Competence Framework (GreenComp) and initiates art-science-society events and exhibitions that build soil curiosity across Europe’s geographical and cultural landscape.

The CURIOSOIL project proudly integrates advanced tools and approaches to maximize learning opportunities for students and educators.

ESHA’s role in CURIOSOIL

ESHA plays a central role in the CURIOSOIL project by leveraging its extensive network to engage school heads and teachers in testing and implementing the Soil Literacy Assessment Framework across primary and secondary schools. ESHA coordinates co-creation workshops, distributes toolkits and educational materials, and organizes webinars and conferences to promote soil literacy. Additionally, ESHA contributes to policy analysis, develops guidelines for digital and blended soil education, conducts AI-driven data analysis to identify educational needs, and helps shape policy recommendations at both national and European levels. Throughout the project, ESHA ensures quality assurance, supports effective communication and dissemination, and empowers professional educators to integrate soil literacy into curricula and practice.

LEXIE: Immersive Learning & AI Conversations

ESHA uses LEXIE, an AI driven holographic teaching assistant, as an immersive learning tool to visualise what lies beneath the ground and to let students interact with the material and ask questions deeper than teachers are expected to know. At the same time, LEXIE is used to start conversations about AI in education.

Discover More:

Watch the video to learn about the CURIOSOIL project’s impact and ESHA’s active involvement in advancing soil literacy in European schools.

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