We have successfully taken off on our journey of extending nature-based learning to the youth and children of Simrarh village in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand, India. It is a part of our project ‘School of Nature’ under Green Life Conservancy.
The response we received was immense and more than what we anticipated. It was not just with the number of students who showed up, which was 13, but the ease with which the students opened up. The enthusiasm that lasted throughout the session was also a source of energy for us. The first session ended on an exciting note, with the group deciding to arrive early for birding, next week. Also, the group of boys (yes, they were all boys!) got quite motivated to tag along a couple of their sisters from next week. This part thrilled us! 😁.
Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
The first day was planned light, for the students to grasp the environment and for us to understand the group dynamics, their levels of exposure, and the gap areas we needed to build the workshop upon. The age composition was in the brackets that we wanted to work with, 12-18-year-olds.
A few basic subjects we plan to cover during this workshop besides birdwatching include:
- Building upon forms of documentation- art, story-telling, writing, presenting.
- Getting the youth and children acquainted with basic English words and sentence formations around birdwatching and nature-related activities.
- Showcasing documentaries and films to substitute physical birdwatching and initiate dialogues and conversations around critical topics
- Introducing ethics of birdwatching, citizen science and its relevance.
- Introduction to professions related to the sectors of environment, sustainability and birdwatching.
- Basics of bird features and their evolution according to the bio-regions/ habitats.
- Getting them to explore and understand the role of birds in an ecosystem and the scope and benefits of birdwatching.
- Build a basic understanding of endemic species or bird diversity of Uttarakhand.
We are excited and keen to see the additional individuals who are going to join us in the next session. However, we do not intend to make it so large that the workshop’s efficiency reduces. We may divide them into batches and manage the activities age-wise. We shall call it a successful landing, once the session ends with the younger lot benefitting from and wanting more of it! 🙂
We are grateful for :
- Stationary contributed by Happy Children’s Library, Seem, Nainital.https://happychildrenslibrary.org
- Educational posters, and materials by Nature Science Initiative, Dehradun. https://www.naturescienceinitiative.org
- A couple of binoculars by Colonel Nilesh Korgaokar, Jeolikote, Nainital.
Discover more from Green Life Conservancy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.