EN
In the Polish Republic of the interwar era, the didactic and educational process of the environmental protection constituted in the implication of the whole of the educational process in public primary and high schools. The Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment carried out its legislative activity by founding the National Museum of Nature in Warsaw (since 1921, the Polish State Museum of Nature) in order to collect, keep and list the specimens of nature, to make compilations and spread the knowledge about nature and to make it available to school children as well as to popularize such actions as tree planting and collecting of waste papers. The museum also organized compulsory summer courses for teachers presenting the problem of environment protection which eventually became compulsory in schools. As the main aim of the following article is to present the chosen works of foreign authors used in educational activities between 1918 – 1939, it should be underlined that in the shaping of the environmental awareness of the Polish society of the Second Polish Republic, an important role was played by the works and books of foreign authors, written by A. Arends, L. Kny, A. B. Buckley, K. G. Lutz, H. Coupin, E. Thompson, C. Floericke, K. Lambert, P. Ledoux, K. von Marilaun, H. Fabre, A. E. Brehm, and E. Hassenpflug. Some of those works were translated into Polish from English, German, or French, and were used in schools by M. Arct-Golczewska, Z. Bohuszewiczówna, A. Czartkowski, H. Grotowska, W. Haberkantówna – before Poland gained independence in 1918. They were used in didactical and educational process in primary and high schools in the Second Polish Republic. The book written by R. Baden-Powell – “Scouting for Boys” – was translated into Polish and widely used in the Polish educational process. The 5th chapter of this book, entitled: “The woodcraft – getting familiar with animals and nature” deals with science of nature based on trips to the zoological garden and to the Natural History Museum at South Kensington and on observations of habits of wild and domesticated animals.