Aditya Pundir, Branch Manager of The Climate Reality Project India, brought 10 educators to Australia for the Skillshare. Aditya's group plans to use lessons learned from the Skillshare to develop lesson plans and teaching aids to share back home.
India is one of the frontline nations facing the impacts of climate change, and with its 1.2 billion people at risk there is an urgent need for educators to teach about climate change in their classrooms to children, and educate communities they are in touch with.
We have recently finished our 2 week Skillshare program for educators on climate change - part of an Australia Awards Fellowship funded by the Australian Government.
The teachers from India had an absorbing and stimulating interaction with Australian and Indonesian educators. We got to see the very robust environmental education program called AuSSI, which is being used by schools in teaching sustainability to their students in terms of water, energy, biodiversity and waste. The educators could see the programs in action at schools in Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong, Torquay and Port Fairy.
Teaching skills, leadership, values based education, and story-telling as a tool were some of the areas explored through workshops with the Australian Conservation Foundation, CERES Environment Park, BREAZE and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The experience was quite amazing - as my colleagues all agreed at the end of the program.
The intention now reaching back home is to translate this rich learning experience into content. We plan to develop lessons on various topics which can be used by the teachers as teaching aids in their classrooms. These lessons will be in English and vernacular languages and rich in multimedia content, with enough practical outdoor activities to keep children engaged. The development will be in digital form to help in wider distribution of the content to the learning community.
We feel that this initiative may not stop climate change, but will definitely help the future generations in adapting, reducing impacts, and moving away from harm.
We have recently finished our 2 week Skillshare program for educators on climate change - part of an Australia Awards Fellowship funded by the Australian Government.
The teachers from India had an absorbing and stimulating interaction with Australian and Indonesian educators. We got to see the very robust environmental education program called AuSSI, which is being used by schools in teaching sustainability to their students in terms of water, energy, biodiversity and waste. The educators could see the programs in action at schools in Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong, Torquay and Port Fairy.
Teaching skills, leadership, values based education, and story-telling as a tool were some of the areas explored through workshops with the Australian Conservation Foundation, CERES Environment Park, BREAZE and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The experience was quite amazing - as my colleagues all agreed at the end of the program.
The intention now reaching back home is to translate this rich learning experience into content. We plan to develop lessons on various topics which can be used by the teachers as teaching aids in their classrooms. These lessons will be in English and vernacular languages and rich in multimedia content, with enough practical outdoor activities to keep children engaged. The development will be in digital form to help in wider distribution of the content to the learning community.
We feel that this initiative may not stop climate change, but will definitely help the future generations in adapting, reducing impacts, and moving away from harm.
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