How does one learn about biodiversity when forced to be indoors? Like many aspects of life, Covid has also changes the way we engage with children. Initially, with our reach was restricted to children of the staff of Keystone Foundation, Last Forest Enterprise and Aadhimalai, we experimented with biodiversity education during covid times. At first, like everything else, the team tried the online approach of zoom calls, which also restricted our reach to children with access to internet. But with the kind of response received from the children it was soon realized that they were already overwhelmed with back to back online classes and yearned for something different which refreshed their minds.
After some reflection, it was decided to kick it old school by designing weekly theme based fact sheets with printable activities to do. Nature related themes were chosen every month so that broad elements of the theme were covered on a weekly basis, to give the children an introduction to biodiversity as a whole.
Activities include word puzzles, mazes, odd one out, coloring pages, choose the right answer, crosswords, join the dots, etc-all based on the theme of the month. The idea is to make learning fun without having to go outdoors.
So far, in the third month, we have covered insects, birds and trees. Not only were these activities well received by the children but also our reach has increased to different working areas. But it was felt that it is important that the children also interact with each other to discuss the activities, so zoom calls are organized once in a while to facilitate such discussions and interactions. Overall, till date we have about 20 children participating between the ages 5 to 15.
The best part about these activities is that it can be sent to children in other places as well. As you can see in the picture above, Ian is fully engrossed in his maze puzzle at home in Calcutta. He tells us about his experience in the video below.
By Nayantara Lakshman
