Environment Education
« Participants take a tour of the open class room
Environment Education Imagine studying about the environment in the wild, feeling and smelling the plants, instead of looking at their pictures inside a classroom.
If this would help students, the nature recreation and ecotourism division (NRED) will try out such teachings with schools in Thimphu and Paro from next year.
To identify the needs of environmental education, and complement learning in schools, develop action plans and to relate nature with the existing curriculum, a two-day workshop was held over the weekend at the royal botanical park in Lamperi.
About 50 people, including science, geography and social studies teachers from Paro and Thimphu, participated in the workshop, to discuss the idea of teaching about nature outside the classroom.
“We consider environmental education and interpretation a very important program to educate our people, especially the younger generation, on the value and importance of conserving our natural heritage,” director of forest and park services, Karma Dukpa said.
The teachers will give theoretical knowledge in schools, and then teach practical in botanical parks, teacher and nature club coordinator of Motithang high school, Kencho Tobgay said. Students will also collect data from the parks for their project work.
“It will benefit students, as some of them will be visiting the forest for the first time, and will learn more from park officials,” a Dzongkha teacher from Rinchen Kuenphen primary school, Tshering Yangden said.
The teachers said the programme also related to Gross National Happiness, because it’s about preservation and conservation of environment and nature.
Appreciating the move, a biology teacher of Drugyal high school, Sampa Tshewang, said he would take his students to the park, despite the distance they would have to travel.
Participants identified relevant educational activities, concepts to complement school curriculum, and action plans to implement from the 2012 academic session.
Source: kuenselonline