The Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Izmir Children's Assembly, consisting of five commissions, completed its March meetings. Children who took part in the commissions they selected according to their interests participated in training and workshops on topics such as conscious use of technology, label literacy, and gender equality.
The Izmir Children's Assembly, implemented by the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, meets every month and produces ideas and works on topics such as discrimination, respect for differences, gender, transportation, urban furniture, parks, culture and arts, leisure activities, alternative educational activities, sports, climate crisis, waste management, animal rights, information and technology, digital citizenship, and social media usage.
The Izmir Children's Assembly, consisting of the Urban Rights, Social Activities Planning, Nature and Ecology, Information and Technology, and Youth and Adolescent Participation commissions, has completed its March meetings. The children, who are members of the commission, stated that they look forward to each meeting and that they love the educational and entertaining activities. Preparations for the April meetings of the Izmir Children's Assembly are ongoing.
Conscious use of technology and block coding game
The March meetings of the Izmir Children's Assembly began with the Information and Technology Commission meeting. In the first part of the meeting, children's awareness of the connection they have with technology increased in the training titled "Conscious Use of Technology" given by psychologist Burçin Çoltu from the Health Affairs Department.
In the second part of the meeting, Robotics Trainer Merve Ece Meral, who works at the Child Studies and Education Support Department, held a workshop with children on “Algorithmic Thinking Techniques.” In the workshop, children met the first computer programmer as part of Ada Lovelace Week, learned the binary system 1 and 0 by having fun with the block coding game, and created sound outputs by setting up a sound recording circuit with a robot card.
Label literacy
In the first part of the Nature and Ecology Commission meeting, the member children were informed about food safety and healthy nutrition in the training called “Label Literacy” given by Serdar Demircioğlu, a food engineer working in the Health Affairs Department. In the second part of the meeting, the children discussed the relationship between the climate crisis and children's rights.
Adolescence was discussed
Members of the Youth and Adolescent Participation Commission received training titled “We Talk About Adolescence with Adolescents” from the Department of Health Affairs’ expert sociologist Duygu Erişkin. In the second part of the meeting, the topics of “What is Child and Adolescent Participation?” and “What is Meaningful Participation?” were discussed.
Gender equality and creative drama
The March meetings continued with the Urban Rights Commission meeting. Children who are members of the commission received “Gender Equality” training from Duygu Erişkin, a sociologist working at the Health Affairs Department.
In the Social Activities Planning Commission, free time activities were planned in different places, times and conditions with creative drama techniques, again led by sociologist Duygu Adult. In the event, children improvised by taking on different roles and offered solutions to problems using their imagination. In the second part of the meeting, an event called “Who Should Decide?” was held, where adults discussed the children’s participation in decisions that concern them and their trust in the potential of children.
