Shillong, June 11: A remote village under Mawkynrew block in East Khasi Hills saw a lot of excitement among students while observing the World Environment Day recently.There was no regular tree plantation for the students of Annie Margaret Barr Memorial HS School in Khrang village. Rather, they had some ‘fun-learning’.
A ‘balloon car’ made with waste plastic bottle and straw was some of the interesting experiments the students observed and took part with much interest during a “Learning Science and Environment with Fun” programme held at the school.
“This is perhaps the one of the best ways of teaching students the various scientific principles,” said N Suting, a science teacher of the school, located around 45 km away from capital Shillong. He also advocated the need for teachers being trained on such activity based learning (ABL) pedagogy.
Around 300 students in the jam-packed hall of the school wholeheartedly took part in the over two-hour programme organised by the Zoological Survey of India, Shillong and TREE (Transformation through Research Education and Empowerment) Foundation.
While resource persons from TREE Foundation demonstrated various basic scientific properties with help of inexpensive materials, experts from ZSI helped the students learn some basic aspects environment.
“Ice-breakers”, something very rare in a regular workshop, were one of the most-welcomed part of the programme. “Such light moments help the students relax and get back to learning once again with full energy,” said Fullstar Lamin Gayang, one of the resource persons of TREE Foundation.
“I am thrilled to see such excitement among students in a learning environment… some the queries posed by them are awesome,” said Ilona Kharkongor who demonstrated the need not to kill caterpillars – even though some of them cause itching if touched — among other living beings for the sake of human beings.
TREE Foundation, in collaboration with the State Council for Science Technology and Education (SCSTE) Meghalaya, has been organising ABL workshops under “Fun-Sci” programme across the state. The first phase of the ambitious programme has been launched in 12 schools in as many blocks in Khasi-Jaintia and Garo Hills regions.
