KNP ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CAPACITY BUILDING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORS
By Vulani Mabunda
On the 19th
of July 2019 19x EMS from different host institutions, i.e. Sefapane, Nourish and Letaba Ranch attended
an Environmental Education workshop at Letaba Elephant Hall facilitated by KNP’s
Kirsty Reedman and her team.
Environmental
Education (EE) connects us to the world around us, teaching about both natural
built environments, EE raises awareness of issues impacting the environment
upon which we depend, as well as actions we can take to improve and sustain it.
The specific
outcome s from the Workshop was to empower participants to be able to:
- Design and implement an environmental Education Programme
- Design and implement a children’s environmental education programme
- Design and implement an environmental education programme for visitors to a conservation area
Through this workshop, EM's acquired a lot of knowledge and experience in terms of Environmental Education: EM's learned how to integrate different appraoches to facilitating EE, Basic EE Principles and knowing the laws that governs the Environmental Education (White Paper) objectives of EE and creating awareness, gaining knowledge and to make EE to be a life long process.
The EMs were taught about
how to use natural resources like water and energy and resources as
instructional context. EMs were given
30 minutes to prepare a lesson and share on the following topics: what to do with waste: Re-fuse,
Re-duce, Re-use and Recycle; Renewable energy production, Energy use and
generation in relation to sustainable development, Consumerism-Lifestyle which
use more and more resources and produce a bigger and bigger footprint on the
earth.
Whether we bring
nature into the classroom, take students outside to learn, or find impromptu
teachable moments on a nature, walk with our families. EE has many benefits for
youth, educators, schools and communities. As a long-time supporter of
environmental education, I have asked each of the EMs to share reasons why they
teach EE, what it means to them and how it will benefit learners of all ages.
Amazing what #KNP does for us in the landscape!
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