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Green Teacher Diploma in Environmental Education
Western Region
The examination of Green Teacher 2005 batch was conducted on July 9, 2006 at Ahmedabad. Four out of the six participants appeared for the examination and viva. Mamata Pandya, Madhavi Joshi and Pramod Sharma were the internal examiners while Mr. Shailendra Gupta from Eklavya Education Foundation and Mr. D.N. Shukla from M N Shukla College of Education were the external examiners.
The first contact session for the 2006 batch was conducted from 14-17 July. There were 14 participants, including from schools of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, an NGO from Udaipur, a faculty member from NID, Ahmedabad and CEE internal candidates. The sessions included an introduction to EE, a detailed orientation to the course and the modules, various approaches to EE such as using outdoors, games, case studies, role plays, media (ICT and audio-visual), etc. The participants went on a field trip to Thol Lake, Sundarvan Nature Discovery Centre and Manekbaug as part of the ‘Using Outdoors’ module. They were given daily assignments to improve their understanding on the course itself and the linkages of EE to Quality Education. A session-wise feedback has been taken from each participant.
North Eastern Region
The first phase of the first contact session of Green Teacher 2006 was held from 11-13 July. There were two participants. The participants were introduced to CEE and its activities, the Green Teacher course, EE: What, Why and How, etc. This was followed by “Approaches of EE”, focusing mainly on the concepts from Modules I, II and III. There was a presentation on “Writing articles for newspapers/newsletters/notice boards/etc. Several interesting games were conducted to enliven the proceedings.
The participants were taken on a field trip, first to Sualkuchi, a site endowed with rich biodiversity. Simanta briefed the participants about the various types of ecosystems and how to study them. A village trail was also conducted. The second venue was the Regional Science Centre – the Dinosaur Park, Butterfly Park and Aquarium house were wonderful and very informative.
Central Region
The first contact session was conducted from 27-31 July. Seventeen educators from Mumbai, Pune, Bilaspur and Bangalore participated in the programme. The participants were given an overview of the course, course design and structure. Project ideas were discussed for the six-month project that is part of the course requirements. The various steps involved in projects, logistics, importance of documentation and projects done by the previous batch were also discussed.
The contact session gave educators an opportunity to discuss their queries with the resource persons. Apart from the CEE Central team, Prof. Sanjeev Nalavade (HoD Geography Dept., Fergusson College) and Shri Anil Anjankar (Director, Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park, Katraj) helped the participants understand various aspects of EE.
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Field trips and institutional visits were done to Rajiv Gandhi Zoo, J. P. Naik Center campus and waste management in Aundh.
The objective of the field trip on waste management site was to help participants understand the different steps of, and stakeholders involvement in, solid waste management. A visit was made to a vermicompost site maintained by a society to understand household level waste segregation. Interaction with waste pickers was encouraged. Participants also visited a dry waste sorting centre, where waste pickers separate dry wastes into recyclable and non-recyclable waste. After the visit, issues like waste management rules, role of stakeholders and past and current waste management systems were discussed to help participants understand changing trends in waste management.
To understand the opportunities and possibilities of using the outdoors for teaching and learning, a visit to a wilderness area was planned. However, due to the rains, it could not be undertaken and had to be confined to a green area. Nevertheless, in the
small area, Prof Nalavade introduced participants to urban biodiversity – birds, insects, trees and mammals. Participants enjoyed identifying birds like wagtail, bulbul, ashy wren warbler, baya, Indian pigeon, common bee eater, etc. Activities like measuring the height of tree, type of leaves, tree autograph, bird count, etc. were taken up with the participants. Participants learnt that biodiversity is not confined to wilderness areas but is found in our own surroundings. They have all planned to use their institutions and surroundings to help their students understand biodiversity.
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