VACATION TRAINING PROGRAMME ON BIORESOURCES FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

Funding Agency: National biodiversity Development Board, Dept. of Bio Technology, Government of India

Children are more receptive to new ideas than adults and have the capability to influence their families more effectively than any outside motivator. Children are future role models and parents. What they learn at school is likely to be passed on to their peers and to their own children. They may question existing practices in the household and become agents of change within their families and communities; they have the ability to influence their family members more effectively than any outside motivator. Making scientific awareness among the students, thus offer an ideal opportunity to mould young minds, in their impressionable age, towards promoting the concept of sustainable development and conservation of the biodiversity. The 22days long residential workshop was attended by 31 XIth And XIIth standard students from all over Kerala and was conducted during April-May 2006.

The programme envisaged utilizing the potentialities of child as a changing agent and was intended to inculcate among the students an appreciation of the biological resources of the state/country, their use and management; to provide hands on experience on Identifying the available bio resources – Plants, insects, birds, aquatic etc. in selected places in the southern districts of Kerala and collect and document information on them, understand and document locally available bio resources, their sustainable use and conservation. Instead of conducting a series of conventional lectures on the topic, the programme was conducted in the form of ‘Meet the Scientist’ sessions where the invited expert introduced the subject followed by an interactive session with students, and wherever possible laboratory work and field observations facilities also were provided. The activities enabled them to interact with experts in various field including core and visiting faculty from the host organizations and other organizations. The students also undertook individual projects at the end of the programme.