Something exciting is happening…
Over the last few months I have visited several universities, state and international schools in Beijing to speak about birds and the environment, and accompanied several classes on birding field trips to sites in and around Beijing. As part of my environmental education work with EcoAction, I have also participated in an exciting new project to develop an “environmental curriculum” focused on wild birds. I am pleased to say this “environmental curriculum” has been approved by the government and is now being piloted in two Beijing state schools by EcoAction’s founder Luo Peng.
The environment is almost completely absent from the Chinese state curriculum and our aim is to help fill the gap by providing schools with supplementary classes dedicated to the natural world. As well as classroom-based theory, including lectures by professional scientists, the environmental curriculum includes practical exercises, field trips to some of Beijing’s best birding sites, investigative studies – for example of Beijing’s wild bird markets – and learning how to communicate nature by writing basic scientific or media reports about their findings.
Our hope is that we can develop and expand the pilots to cover more schools in Beijing before engaging schools across China and, ultimately, making ourselves redundant by influencing the national curriculum.
Through all of my engagement thus far, I have been so impressed with the enthusiasm and depth of engagement of the students. Their sense of wonder and awe about all things natural reminds me very much of my youth when I began to discover birds and the environment in which they live. If we can help just a little to make, and nurture, that connection with the environment, I am confident that the leaders of tomorrow will make more enlightened decisions.
You can keep up to date about the latest engagement with schools on a new dedicated Education page.