Satellite Imageries enliven the classrooms!
Remote sensing, especially satellite imageries can be a powerful tool to enliven the classroom, especially when the topic of discussion is as technical and abstract as climate change!
Making climate change education more real, lively and linked to curricular goals in a variety of school subjects, is the effort that brought together Germanwatch and CEE India teams together last month.
Mr. Stefan Rostock and Mr. Holger Voigt from Germanwatch and Mr. Anoop Mohan, Ms. Aradhana Singh, Ms. Shefali Atrey and Ms. Shivani Jain, from CEE India and Ms. Rixa Schwarz, CEE Germany met at CEE to share their experiences on how live satellite imageries of the earth can be used in school classrooms to orient students on the topic of climate change, its causes and consequences, and to encourage positive individual action for mitigating climate change. The two teams also discussed about education system of the two countries and learnings of customizing their respective programmes based on the schools' requirement.
CEE ka Biscope programme was inspired by Germanwatch's Geoscopia programme and this meeting provided the much required space and time for sharing success and challenges of using satellite-based tools for enhancing teaching-learning on climate change. Germanwatch and CEE look forward to close collaboration in this field in the coming years.
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SamVednaa's Outreach Event
Government Science College , Valod, is one of the three colleges involved in the SamVednaa project - an initiative towards developing Model Green Colleges, supported by APFED and UNEP. In outreach programme held on 26 February, the campus came alive with a lot of activities as part of waste management and biodiversity conservation strategies.
The students learnt to build a compost pit and design informative labels for trees. The CEE team demonstrated how to repair dripping taps and offered tips to maintain electrical appliances.
During the feedback session, the participant students willingly promised to initiate actions towards making their college Green. CEE's Youth Programmes team and GIS Cell facilitated the event.
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A partnership for WASH
CEE is facilitating a participatory, systematic and step-by-step improvement of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities in 19 municipal corporation schools in Pune. This is through a partnership with the Kirloskar Foundation. Volunteers from the Kirloskar group of companies are working in the schools to identify areas for improvement, and setting up WASH Clubs in these schools.
A presentation was made by Avinash Madhale of CEE Urban Progamme Group at the annual prize distribution competition of the Swach Sundar Shala scheme of the Kirloskar Foundation. The presentation helped draw attention of the local administration to the WASH needs of schools. The presentation is accessible at the URL http://www.slideshare.net/avinashmadhale/kf-cee-wash-ppt-on-13-feb-10 .
Discussions are being initiated on designs for urban school toilets, training for engineers at the municipal administration, community outreach through the Urban Community Development Dept, and a leadership course for Principals. |
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MEC-CC gets its own space
Management Education Centre on Climate Change (MEC-CC) is a joint initiative of Gujarat University and CEE. The Centre which was established in February 2009, has has started an M.Sc. course on ‘Climate Change Impacts Management. This is a first of its kind course on Climate Change by any State University in India . The first batch of the two-year course comprises 20 students from a variety of academic backgrounds. Apart from faculty of CEE and Gujarat University , lectures are offered by faculty from Physical Research Laboratory and other renowned institutes.
A separate facility has now been allotted by Gujarat University for the MEC-CC activities. This was inaugurated on 25 February in the presence of Dr. Anil S. Kane, President, World Wind Energy Association. Shri Kartikeya Sarabhai, Director, CEE and Dr. Parimal H. Trivedi, Vice – Chancellor, Gujarat University who presided over the inauguration function. The winner of the climate change slogan contest conducted, as part of the community awareness campaign on climate change by the MEC-CC students, was felicitated on this occasion. Ms. Ruchi Jain won the prize for her slogan 'Today's waste is tomorrow's shortage'.
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Antarctic Explorer at CEE
Paul Rose, BBC presenter and Antarctic Explorer visited CEE on Thursday, 23rd February. He interacted with CEE staff and the students of CEE's Management Education Centre on Climate Change (MEC-CC) on climate change issues. Later Paul Rose gave a public lecture on “The Global Meltdown”, at the CEE auditorium. He presented an optimistic approach on climate change asserting that young people from developing nations whose access to the internet has opened a world of information is encouraging them to come up with innovative climate change ideas and solutions.
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| The visit was organized in collaboration with British Council as part of their Talking Climate Series. |
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Climate Change Education in Goa
CEE Goa has undertaken a two-year project on Climate Change Education and Awareness Programme for schools and general public. As a part of the programme, supported by the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (DST), Government of Goa, CEE Goa is developing educational material on Climate Change (CC) including relevant locale specific examples and case studies.
Towards material development, CEE Goa organized a State-level conference for the college teachers and students. College of Forestry, University of Agriculture Sciences , Dharwad, Karnataka and Biodiversity Research Cell, Carmel College for Women, Goa collaborated with CEE Goa in this conference. About 100 participants including the College teachers and students participated in the state level conference
The two-day conference deliberated on three thematic areas namely Impact of CC on agriculture and its productivity, Impact of CC on tropical forests of Western Ghats and Impact of CC on coast and coastal ecology. The participants held thorough discussions with panelists on each theme.
The second day of the conference discussed the framework of Power Point presentations and guidebook, to be developed as awareness material. Mr. Alexio Sequeira , Hon. Minister for Environment, Government of Goa facilitated this discussion. The participants and the Hon. Minister appreciated the framework developed by CEE and expressed need for a exclusive website on CC issues related Goa . The DST has committed resources for such a website to be developed by CEE Goa .
The Hon. Minister has suggested CEE to hold similar programmes involving youths in all the colleges of Goa wherein he would personally like to hear their opinions and suggestion on improving the environmental condition in Goa .
As a follow up of the State-level conference, CEE Goa, in association with the Biodiversity
Research Cell, Carmel College for Women, Nuvem, Goa organized an interactive session.
The interaction proved to be an effective platform for the Hon. Minister for Environment, for discussion with about 300 students. Students asked various questions pertaining to developmental activities in Goa and its impact of Coastal and western Ghats, various policies related to Environmental protection, and how the youth can contribute in implementing various environmental activities, projects and programme in Goa . CEE Goa is planning similar programmes with various other institutes. |
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Gram Shilpis : Introduction and Training
The ten Gujarat Vidyapeeth students trained as Gram Shiplis (GS), under a year-long training by the CEE and Gujarat Vidyapeeth, participated in a get-together with Vidyapeeth's employees and guardian villagers in a ‘parents meeting' held on 24 February. The meeting was precursor to the training and allowed the villager families to find out more about what their children are doing in these villages. It also allowed the village representatives gain some clarity on the project goals and the notion of building a rural cadre.
Instead of the regular practice of holding the interactions and trainings in Ahmedabad, this interaction was held at Parmorna-Daogarpur village, Liamkheda Taluka of Dahod District, where Nilam, one of the GS works currently.
The training included 5 Modules. The first was on Sanitation Units wherein the GSs themselves built a sanitation unit. The second module covered operating computers. The third module comprised agricultural demonstration, where business and technical models of earning upto Rs. 75,000 from from one Bigha (approximately 2400 sq. metres) of land were developed. The fourth module focussed on land restoration, which discussed various methods of desalination and fertilization to improve agricultural productivity. The final module pertained to drinking water to understand issues related to quality of water, protection of drinking water sources, testing of water etc.
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National Green Corps Programme re-introduced in Morigaon, Assam
National Green Corps programme of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), was re-introduced in Morigaon district of Assam on 26 February 2010 with a day long teachers training workshop.
The Society for Socio-Economic Awareness and Environment Protection and Morigaon District organized the programme; Assam Science Technology and Environment Council, the NGC Nodal Agency in the state and CEE North East (NE), Resource Agency, provided the technical support and guidance in overall implementation of the programme.
Around 85 in-charge teachers of eco clubs actively participated in the training workshop
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