A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
CBSE Centre of Excellence, Delhi East, organised a Pilot Capacity Building Programme on Environmental Education and Conservation of Natural Resources on 15 February 2023 at the COE office in Patparganj. The one-day workshop aimed to gather inputs from the teaching faculty for designing content for teaching the subject of Environmental Education in schools. Ms Rukmini Thampi, social science teacher and a founding member of the Eco Club at The Indian School alongwith about fifty other teachers of prominent schools from across Delhi-NCR participated in this workshop.
The resource persons, educators Dr Prathibha Kohli from Maharaja Agrasen Public School, Dwarka and Ms Pratishtha Gupta from ITL Public School, Dwarka, emphasised the need to incorporate the principles of sustainable development into our lesson plans and sensitise learners about the need to use resources judiciously. The session sought to evolve a teaching-learning pedagogy on environmental education and the conservation of natural resources.
Ms Gupta addressed the gathering in the first half of the session, wherein she introduced various vital terms associated with the environment and sustainability. Then, the participants were divided into ten groups and given handouts containing key terminology and case-based and multiple-choice questions to solve. Finally, the participants were encouraged to discuss probable solutions in groups through mutual discussion.
The groups were also called upon to speak on picture prompts shared by the resource person on environmental issues: each group and its members presented views from their respective perspectives.
The entire session was interactive and activity-based. In another group activity, members collectively analysed case studies on environmental degradation. Some of the topics were most relevant, like the polluted river Yamuna, land degradation, threats to the biodiversity hotspots in India, and the deteriorating air quality in the Delhi NCR.
The participants also learned about the SAFAR App, introduced by the government to monitor the AQI.
The resource person gave invaluable inputs on several hands-on activities, like making a pollution catcher, which children could do as project work. With the help of engaging examples and case studies, the attendees learnt some innovative nature-based solutions for transforming compact cities into resilient spaces. In recent years, cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai have developed Miyawaki forests, an afforestation technique that uses native species to grow multi-layered, dense forests.
The post-lunch session by Dr Kohli focused on waste management by applying the Principles of the 6Rs of Conservation to Waste Management in Schools.
The 6 Rs are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacture. These terms relate to a more sustainable life by reducing environmental impact.
The ebullient speaker shared several tangible measures that schools could adopt expeditiously towards encouraging sustainability:
- start waste segregation and composting - form a waste management team at school - educate the staff, students and the support staff - encourage paperless processes - Activity-based learning should limit the use of paper/making projects/ scrap files
This one-day power-packed session reiterated the need to conserve the earths vitality and rich biodiversity, with every participant acting as torchbearer of a sustainable future, carrying forth the message - SUSTAINABLE IS ATTAINABLE.
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