an environmental education pack

source: http://assets.wwfhk.panda.org/downloads/lolo_s_flying_journey_game_board.pdf



In this report, I try to write down what I have done so far at WWF-Hong Kong by explain an activity I participated: Lo Lo's Flying Journey.

Theater in Education (TiE) has a constantly evolving definition, as new strategies and objectives for using theatre as an educational tool emerge. Most define TiE as a general term that includes all the interactive theatre practices that help aid the educational process. Some of these processes include developing original scripts, using the performance of a play as a springboard for interacting with an audience and discussing important topics or themes, or theatre activities used to support classroom curriculum. In this sense, theatre in Environmental Education (EE) can be used in many ways. Educators can weave role plays and scenarios into their usual environmental activities to present a balanced view during the ensemble process (such as the seafood program of Ocean Park, in which an interpreter transformed into a fish man). Educators might also develop a theatre piece to use as the core of an education session (such as the drama section of Step). Well-developed theatre programmes may even take a full-length theatre piece on tour.

On the other hand, speaking generally, Environmental education can occur both inside and outside the classroom. The Mai Po Centre, Ocean Park and Wetland Park may be congregated together in a group as “Outdoor Environmental Education”, that complement and expand classroom instruction. Among all these out-of-classroom educational activities, the outstanding point of Mai Po is its natural setting. Different form the Ocean Park and the Wetland Park where are somewhat artificial constructed, Mai Po offers a direct interaction with natural, rural, local and relatively pristine habitats. Although a field study based on wildlife is one of the most widely used and effective means of achieving high-quality environmental education in schools across the world, it is still a unique opportunity in Hong Kong.

Having discussied what the TiE is and what the environmental education wanted out from TiE, I will focus on the strength of the Mai Po Centre, in order to intergrate suitable theatrical activities for the program of Lo Lo’s Flying Journey.

The educational objectives should be clearly identified prior to working on a scene. The educational objectives of The Lo Lo’s Flying Journey would be:

(I don't know how to put a diagram on this blog...)
As the diagram shown above, The Lo Lo’s Flying Journey could be a multi-functional activity. In this multi-functional activity, I would like to try to put “linking” elements to connect the ideas and enhance the effectiveness based on the aspect of participation. Although “participation” is the most attractive and important point of TiE, many environmental educators found that it could be extremely difficult to apply on. The essential mistake is that it lacks of a trusting atmosphere as a group, between all students and between instructors and teachers when the role-play elements is imposed into a activity. Usually we used various methods of non-formal education (ice-breakers, trust, initiative games, forum theatre, discussions, reflection etc.). The aim is to build a trusting atmosphere within the group and to make participants more confident in their opinions, choices, and responsibilities. Read further to the second part of this paper for a practical guideline.

Warm-ups and ending games are added to help the students understand the relationship between immigrant birds, local birds and human beings. In the section of warm up, this paper suggests some simple activities to warm up the body, develop concentration, and at the same time to build up connections with the briefing. In the section of ending, a revision activity is added to help the students to familiarize themselves with the characters in the journey, and hopefully, to understand how they can convey a message as a conservationist.