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  e-newsletter of the Centre for Environment Education
ceenario 80
April 1 -15, 2013
Science Express Biodiversity Special Rolls Off Again

There is also an on-board conference coach where teacher training workshops are held. While waiting for their turn at the station, students and other visitors can take part in several exciting “platform activities”, as well as browse the picture panels on the outside window panes of the entire train, where numerous Indian species of flora and fauna are shown.

A dedicated team of 40 young Science Communicators are traveling and living on-board, handling the tasks of visitor education, teacher training, advance publicity, school coordination, etc. School kits with resource material in English, Hindi and several regional languages, are also given out by this team.

During its previous phase (June-December 2012), the SEBS stopped at 51 locations in its 18,000 kilometre run, and over 23 lakh people, including 6 lakh students and 32,000 teachers visited the exhibition.

During October 9 – 19, 2012, the train halted at Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh to facilitate visits of delegates to the Conference of Parties (COP11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was hosted by India. During conference, participants from more than 190 countries have had an opportunity to see this unique exhibition on wheels. SEBS was nominated by MoEF as India’s Brand Ambassador during the COP11. The train has also received extensive media coverage, both print and electronic.

This unique partnership of MoEF, Department of Science and Technology, and Indian Railways is being widely hailed as the world’s highest visited exhibition on wheels, till date.By October 28, this year as part of its second phase, the SEBS train will halt at 60 locations across India.

Science Express

The SEBS gets the green signal to start its second journey.

On April 9, the CEE Delhi Office on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), organized a function at the Safdarjung Railway Station to flagoff the next phase of the Science Express Biodiversity Special (SEBS). The then Minister of Railways Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal; the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment and Forests Mrs. Jayanthi Natarajan; and the Chief Minister of Delhi Mrs. Sheila Dikshit graced the occasion and flagged the exhibition train off.

A short film was screened depicting the last year’s launch and the train’s journey across India, including feedback from a cross-section of visitors.

Eight coaches of this train have been conceived, designed and fabricated by CEE. These are dedicated to showcasing India’s biodiversity and issues in its conservation. Various bio-geographic zones of India are depicted through a variety of interactive exhibits, short films and audiovisual clips, displays, kiosks and backlit panels.

The remaining coaches carry interesting and informative exhibits on climate change, energy and water conservation, and other current issues in science.

'Joy of Science' a special hands-on laboratory is set-up in an exclusive coach where students can perform experiments to understand science concepts.

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'Save Water' Awareness Rallies
Save Water
Students themselves prepared placards and slogans to spread the message of conservation of water.

As part of the World Water Day celebrations, CEE North organized week long awareness rallies with Children’s Forest Programme (CFP) schools. Students from all grades; teachers and community representatives participated in this rally. Total 782 students and 32 teachers from 6 CFP and Paryavaran Mitra schools of Lucknow took part in these rallies. Officials from UP Forest Department Mr. T.P. Dubey and Mr. Asthana flagged of the rallies and motivated students to take action towards saving water and saving trees.

Hands-on Science
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Even a single tree can provide an exciting teaching-learning opportunity

CEE North organized a day-long module linking basic science concepts to environment, for a group of non-science teachers on February 27 at the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Faizabad. The sessions were conducted by Mr. Neeraj Pal, Project Officer and the scientific concepts were supported with examples from our day-to-day life e.g. evaporation, transpiration in plants, condensation and precipitation etc. Teachers also ‘Explored a Tree’ as part of the session on using outdoor for effective teaching-learning of science. Teachers shared their views that they never realized that so many aspects could be explained to students with a single tree in the school campus.

A film was screened to orient the teachers on the Paryavaran Mitra Programme and also to discuss their role in it. The programme is being implemented in Faizabad district with the help of DIET Faizabad. More than 80 teachers attended the training session.

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Celebrating World Forestry Day
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Students spreading the message of importance of forests and their conservation.

CEE North, in collaboration with Uttar Pradesh Participatory Forest Management and Poverty Alleviation Project (UPPFMPAP), Lucknow celebrated World Forestry Day event in three schools of Lucknow viz. City Montessori School, Station Road; Poorva Madhyamik Vidyalaya (PMV), Uttar Dhauna; and Saraswati Shishu Mandir. More than 350 students and teachers participated in these events.

Senior Officials from UPPFMPAP planted saplings in each school and interacted with students. They briefed them about the importance of trees and forests for human survival and urged students to play a key role in their conservation. Schools also took out rallies in their nearby communities with messages on the importance of forests and its conservation. Students of the schools also presented a puppet show which was based on importance of water and forests.

Newspaper Outreach

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The newspaper reaches out to 3.68 lakh people every day. 

CEE North, has joined hands with DLA Group of Publications by signing an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under its Paryavaran Mitra initiative. Under the association, CEE as a knowledge partner, will contribute one-page fortnightly features articles on environmental issues and concerns for the DLA newspaper.

As part of this partnership, the first article was published on World Water Day focusing on the conservation of water. Each article focuses on motivating readers to take handprint actions. CEE has built in feedback mechanism as well to get readers inputs and suggestions.  

Announcing the Earth Care Awards

The Earth Care Awards have proudly stepped into their 5th year. These awards are an effort to recognize excellence in climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives. JSW and Times of India are the joint sponsors of the awards with Centre for Environment Education (CEE) as the knowledge partner and TERRE Policy Center as the outreach partner. The award focuses on three important areas, signifying action by large industries; small scale industries; land use; land use changes and water resources under community category and innovation for climate protection category.

Eminent personalities and experts from different walks of life form the jury to shortlist applications from different corners of the country. CEE assists the Earth Care Jury in evaluating the applications through desk based review and on site field evaluation. The evaluation process is supported with a well-defined technical and methodological framework for assessment of green house gas mitigation and adaptation parameters. Earth Care Awards recognize the initiatives as one of its kind, after multiple assessments for consistency of claims and real impacts. Some of the features central to the success of such initiatives are extensive networking with stakeholders, reality checks, development and delivery of information in a timely manner, and strengthening capabilities through knowledge sharing. 

CEE invites applications of any project, product or service which has the potential to deal with the pressures of climate change (including reduction in the release of greenhouse gases through energy efficiency improvement or emission reduction, conservation of land and water resources). Application Deadline is July 15 , 2013. You could send in the application to [email protected]

CEE is the ENVIS centre on Environmental Education (EE). As an ENVIS centre, CEE caters to the information needs of environmental educators. Write to the CEE ENVIS Centre at [email protected]

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© CEE  2013 Editorial team: Mamata Pandya, Carol Dsouza, Design: Pankaj Gorana