Under the project ‘School of Nature’, Green Life Conservancy (GLC) imparts Nature Education, contextually referred to as Learning Facilitated by Ecological Immersions, for children aged 10-12 years at Happy Children’s Library. We have used the Nature Vidya (NV) course designed by Nature Science Initiative, Dehradun, as a base course to direct the learning for the children. However, resource materials that are developed by GLC and other organisations are also included as a part of the School of Nature’s facilitation.

A group of 12-13 kids are a part of sessions of Nature Vidya/ School of Nature that are facilitated every Friday. Since its commencement in July 2024, film screenings, storytelling, creating art, bird walks, and games for children, have all been a part of the facilitation. It has aided the children to grasp a basic understanding of varied natural habitats, bird features, and behaviours. Each chapter of Nature Vidya introduces a new element of the environment to the children. We have been conducting a minimum of 2-3 sessions to cover subjects in addition to NV’s chapter so that the children can get a clear-cut understanding of the elements we are covering.

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Check out our Instagram post about the activities

Shruthi, a learning buddy representing GLC, intends to and attempts to train Anita and Rita (who co-facilitate these sessions at HCL) to be educators/ learning buddies henceforth and to more children.

Through this project with the children at HCL and other places, we aim to:

• Encourage the innate curiosity of a child to learn, explore and seek clarification.
• Aid Socio-Emotional Learning for children through nature’s principles.
• Overall personality grooming and confidence building through interactive forms of learning.
• Help in academics through practical/hands-on learning and exploration.

No better classroom than Nature! ‘School of Nature ’is for children from areas abundant in the natural environment and scarce in terms of mainstream opportunities. Therefore ‘Learning through ecological immersions’ aims to build young leaders, innovators and achievers who take inspiration from the rest of Nature! 

GLC is preparing to conduct a 2 month workshop beginning from 6th October at a nearby village called Simrar and set up an eco-club for children of Majhera and Doba, Nainital district, Uttarakhand. Check out the space for more updates. Support us by subscribing, and funding so that we can take up this program on a full-time basis. Feel free to comment or write to us

The activities in the workshops were in a sequence. One activity led to another, and each had a set learning objective. It included –

• Games like Nature Bingo, Nature Art, Mice Hunting Owl, Fact or Fiction.
• Nature and Bird Walks opened a new perspective on their immediate environment for the participants.
• Activities such as video screenings and storytelling introduced them to Understanding Air Quality Index, Communications in Natural Environment, and similar topics.
• Hands-on activities included Creation of Bird Comics and Story and Poetry Writing.

The workshops included action-oriented activities towards climate change. In the region of the workshop, smog is a concern during this part of the year, so I introduced the AQI, Air Quality Index, to the students. The students were facilitated to express their emotional fluctuations to reduce the anxiety the subject attracts. I was taken by surprise by the students’ reciprocation. Beyond comprehending the concept, the students also wrote poems expressing their reflections.

Through a few games, films, and videos, the participants’ attention was drawn to ways of communicating in the wild/ natural environment. This learning, in turn, is echoed in their Bird comics. The stories created comically were logically also very much on point!

Check out our Instagram reel on Moradabad workshop- 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCrgokSTCnp/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Material references for the activities conducted were from Early Bird resources, Smash Out Loud Climate action curriculum. 

Igniting curiosity about the avian species through a natural history documentary film.

We screened the Kumauni version of the film ‘Valley of Birds Under Threat’, produced by ‘On Nature’s Duty’, for the children from the government middle school of Majhera, Nainital. The screening was a part of our project ‘School of Nature’, which aims at enabling learning through ecological immersions, especially for children from rural/marginalised are…

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It turned into sessions of bird watching, creating art, improving presentation skills, English speaking, and more. 

Under the project, we facilitated six sessions of about four hours each between October and December 2024. Birdwatching was a primary part of every session, along with other activities and learning associated with it. Although the number of students varied across the total duration, we had on average eight students attending most of the sessions.

Connecting students to the natural environment and animal behaviours has been a regular part of our sessions and workshops. We initially used our large-screened laptop for film screenings. However, we received wholehearted contributions and donations from members of a virtual community- the Keeday Makauday Foundation which aided in funding a projector for our further sessions.

One of our initial sessions was learning to journal, particularly the experiences and simulations from their time in nature. Here’s a link to the content from the day we went out nature journaling.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCE82BxS7nq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

We facilitated sessions on story writing, reading environment-based children’s books, theatre and skit performances. These not only strengthened their presentation skills, and critical thinking but also helped them learn about their immediate surrounding habitat and environment.

Students interacted with our friend, Benjamin, a river ecologist, from the United Kingdom. They did great in basic English sentence formation and trying to grasp the sense of conversation. It turned into an activity of introducing their village, its life, lifestyle, and ecosystem to our guests in return for getting a glimpse of the place he was from. They exchanged gratitude letters at the end. 

The winter has settled at its peak, and we see everything around us slowing down, migrating away or withering to reduce their energies. So, we have also decided to pause our sessions, allowing the students and ourselves to replenish and nourish during the harsh winters. We shall return with more fun and insightful activities next summer. Indeed, we are keen on doing it for a longer term and bringing a tangible outcome from next time.

We look forward to and shall be happy to hear, receive support (in any form) from our readers. Comments, words of encouragement also go a long way