PREPARATION OF LOCALE SPECIFIC AND ENVIRONMENT BASED EDUCATIONAL PACKAGE FOR KUTTANAD REGION OF KERALA

Funding Agency: World Wide Fund for Nature - India, New Delhi

The major objectives of the project included the preparation of status report of environment of Kuttanad region, developing an integrated locale-specific and environment based education package suitable for Kuttanad region and trying out the package among teachers and students. A detailed survey and field study was conducted to collect information on various environmental aspects and based on the analytical data, a detailed status report on environment of Kuttanad region in Kerala were prepared. The different concepts and approaches mentioned in the textbooks were integrated to make it more locale-specific and environment-based. Emphasis was given to identify appropriate activities and field programme to teach each concept in the textbook. The 6th standard science textbook was selected as a base for this work.

Both classroom as well as field activities were identified to teach each concepts. Instructions were given on how to teach each unit. Based on this aspect, 35 units were identified which will give an overall idea regarding the major environmental issues of Kuttanad region, how to tackle it and their role in it. The package was tried out in two schools and after getting their feedback, finalisation of the package was done.