The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is blessed with an amazing diversity of plants and wildlife, despite being located in one of most inhospitable regions on Earth. Unfortunately, a recent environmental awareness survey published by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) revealed that this natural heritage is undervalued by almost all sections of the society.
According to the survey, only 45.8 % of people in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi are generally aware about the Emirate’s biodiversity. Moreover, the survey revealed that people were least aware about biodiversity issues out of all other environmental issues. The survey also revealed that only 34.6% of teens, 58.4% of upper primary students and 47.4% of lower primary students are generally aware about the Emirate’s biodiversity.
In light of this, EAD will be organizing a 2-day workshop to help teachers adopt the right approach when it comes to addressing environmental issues in their schools.
The workshop comes under the Sustainable Schools Initiative (Al Madaris Al Mustadama), in 2009, this whole-school initiative was launched to reduce the ecological footprint of schools. It addresses school administrators, teachers and students (including the school’s environmental club). Sponsored by BP, this initiative is supported by the Abu Dhabi Education Council and the educational zones of Abu Dhabi Emirate. For the pilot phase, 26 schools publicly pledged their commitment to reduce their school’s ecological footprint. This initiative is expected to expand gradually in the years to come.
The workshop, which is being held in Al Ma’moura Building, will be facilitated by Ian Signer, Co-Chair of the International Commission of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE).
During this workshop, Mr. Signer will introduce fun and interactive strategies to the teachers to engage their students in learning about and working to conserve the unique biodiversity of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. He will deliver an overview of the latest research in brain-based learning and successful teaching strategies presented through a broad diversity of interactive games, student field studies, and other innovative educational methods.
“By the end of the workshop, teachers will be able to return to their classrooms with a valuable set of tools to implement education about biodiversity that will inspire students to explore and appreciate the environment in their own backyard,” said Gayatri Raghwa, Environmental Education Specialist at EAD.
40 teachers from 26 schools from the Western Region, Al Ain and Abu Dhabi will be attending this workshop. To ensure that other teachers and schools not attending the workshop benefit as well, EAD has helped the participants’ network in order to share and learn from each other’s best practices.
This is the 7th training workshop organized by EAD, under the Sustainable Schools Initiative. The first was held in November 2009 and was entitled ‘Infusing Sustainability into Teacher Education’ and was facilitated by Dr.
Charles Hopkins, Co Chair on Education for Sustainable Development at UN University. Following that, 6 trainings were organized on ‘Water Education in Schools” and facilitated by environmental education specialists from EAD staff.
Objectives of Sustainable Schools Initiative
• To capacity build school communities to address their own environmental impact and to help schools roll out a sustained environmental education and awareness activity for the whole school community.
• To ensure environmental sustainability within schools through green auditing and management measures
• To capacity build teachers to tackle current pedagogies on environmental education
• To support and help establish environmental clubs in schools
• To initiate a Volunteer Field Educators Group to roll out ‘hands on’ field experiences for their students.
4 Components of Sustainable Schools Initiative
• Green School Auditing and Management
• Training the Trainers on New Teaching and Learning Strategies in Environmental Education
• Supporting and Establishing Successful Environmental Clubs
• Exposing Students to ’Hands On’ Field Experiences
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