We are planning to organize courses about the environment and water sustainability for school children at the Regional Environmental Center, where I work.
The idea is to educate the children to protect the environment from young age. We wanted to implement the “blue school concept” and we are currently making a program for the course.
Blue school concept is an education model which combines elements of other approaches and unique elements of its own and has water as central theme.
Has anyone had experience with such water programs at community level? Which approach and methods do you propose? Is there a concept based on PRA or something similar?
Please share your experience of conducting and designing similar courses for children and the technical approach you took.
Sparkling concept, Good Luck. As an inhabitant of the blue planet I applaud your vision! But do not forget to include the many ways that water interacts with soil and minerals chemically and physically, as well as with life to create the planet we love. And remember that too much water can be as devastating as too little.
Again good luck with this vast subject, essential in a wide range of university courses as well as primary education.
every school/college must ha ve sloping roofs to collect rainwa ter to be fed to a plastic tank after the first flush at a height of 9 feet for use by gravity flow in toilets & washing of the canteen utensils & also to the garden for growing organic vegetables by the students.
I think to promote the concept of blue school it is necessary to make "WASH" as a separate subject in school curriculum.We can step by step educate the children.By educating them from childhood can bring positive changes and at higher levels they would be able to give their inputs and soon we have WASH researches and experts every where.
Hello Minja, I would be happy to help and assist in project and curriculum design. I have worked as part of an after-school program that incorporates hands-on learning with specialists from the field, and offers entrepreneurial accelerator programs for children across Grades 1-5. I have also participated in a project using online scientific data to build new progressive lesson plans for schools. Please feel free to get in touch.
1. It is good if the bathroom and toilet are provided with quality equipment that conserve water uses. If not the student needs to be provided with how to use the water in more efficient way i. e. not to open water tap to big and too long. (there are many way of spoiling water in the bathroom and toilet)
2. Sometimes in the school yard there are garden, the plants need water thus it should be given water regularly. The student can be given field training to do it in more efficient way. Soil have certain field capacity the proper way to give water is up to the field capacity, unless leaching is needed.
3. In developing country, most of sport at school are done outdoor. The children should clean the stuff outside in order to avoid dirty bathroom that need a lot of water to clean it.
I have been involved in one week practical freshwater courses for a youth organization in my country. It is a very basic course and covers the topography, hydrological cycle, including weather, monitoring, the ecology of water, water threats, water as food source (different methods of fishing), methods to purify the water on a home and/or survival level, and the impact of human development on the water source.
This course actually form part of a larger camp, where the children are taught to row, sail and diving techniques.
If you are interested and want to contact me you are welcome.
There is some experience of the Blue School Model by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Nicaragua, through their AGUASAN Projects. However all documents are in spanish, you could contact Ing. Ricardo Alvarado to provide you with electronic copies of the materials.
Good initiative, I want to be involved in such program. Water is one topic in Eco-Schools labeling programme. Please see: http://www.ecoschools.global/
I forward to participating to a work plan
Best regards
Hamadi Kallali
Researcher at Water Research and Technologies Center
We here at CLIMsystems are in the design phase of a simple educational tool for school children which could bring the aspect of climate change adaption to your water module. Please connect with me if you are interested in beta testing.
In support of environmental education, CLIMsystems has developed and released a series of educational resources which can be applied in various settings. They are in a Word format for easy customisation for your country or locale. The initial set covers topics such as water supply, extreme heat, coastal erosion and protected areas.
Here is a program called Watershed Warriors developed for grade school age children that may provide some ideas for you. I attached a couple links for different areas of the US.
In Slovakia was developed 70 project under name Blue Schools - it is many nice story was developed with invite youngsters for educate and implement projects on principle of New Water Paradigm (www.waterparadigm.org)
Water is Life project, supported by LIFE, produced guidebooks for primary and secondary schools, available in Slovak language. Good luck with your initiative!