Epaa launches out-of-school learning programme

Sohaila Ahmed, Staff Reporter

The Environment and Protected Areas Authority (Epaa) in Sharjah has launched the second Out-of-School Learning Enrichment Programme with the slogan “Go - Share - Think - Discover - Learn Beyond the Walls of Your School”. The programme, which will last throughout the current school year, is aimed at students in Kindergarten 2, Cycle 1, Cycle 2 and secondary education at all private schools in Sharjah.

The programme will help children to understand the difficult scientific subjects they are studying at school in an easy, clear and interesting way by connecting the information in school books to nature at the Environment and Protected Areas Authority’s Centres.

This programme also aims to provide interesting resources and practical learning methodologies that go beyond books, computers and technology to support the student’s understanding of scientific concepts in a convenient and fun way.

Moreover, it will achieve this by linking these concepts to nature and developing the students’ social and environmental awareness by encouraging them to interact with the surrounding environment, broadening the horizons of their knowledge about the importance of preserving environmental resources, and supporting the trend for interactive learning in schools by developing reading skills, accuracy of observation, focus, creativity, scientific research and analysis.

“We are delighted to launch the second edition of the programme following the great success of the first edition. We have built on our approach in order to achieve the programme’s core objectives. The programme is designed to enrich students’ scientific knowledge by connecting the scientific concepts and information they learn from textbooks to the environment, biodiversity, geology and other subjects and to things in their surroundings by applying lessons in Epaa’s centres,” said Hana Saif Al Suwaidi, Epaa Chairperson.

 Al Suwaidi, added that the programme is important because these centres are an important platform and an enriching educational resource for students. They provide various learning resources and methodologies that support scientific concepts that the students study in the general sciences, biology, geology, chemistry and natural history.

She also pointed out that these centres take an interactive and entertaining approach to learning. They make it enjoyable to look at different plants, pets, rare wildlife and endangered animals and to identify local and migratory bird species, animals that live in mountain habitats and rare wild plants.

The programme covers the scientific classification of animals, plants and birds, the stages of development in the human lifecycle, the evolution of plants’ lifecycles, and other enriching learning sources that support the science curriculum.

338 male and female students from 17 government and private schools benefited from the first edition of the programme. They applied their lessons in science, biology and chemistry, enriched their knowledge at Epaa’s centres and learned through movies, by classifying various animals and plants and from workshops that included scientific experiments and making models.

In light of the programme’s positive impact on the students and their motivation to learn and improve their academic performances, and the support and recommendations of the teachers who applied the programme, Epaa introduced a more intensive version of the programme to private schools in Sharjah in cooperation with Sharjah Private Education Authority.

The programme’s vision is “Support, Facilitate and Enrich”. Support involves helping science, biology and geology teachers to find resources and effective teaching methodologies in schools of all kinds.

Facilitate emphasises the importance of helping students understand the foundations of the basic scientific concepts related to biomaterials by facilitating self-learning, connecting the students’ learning to surrounding natural elements and employing a variety of relevant active learning resources.

Enrich involves enhancing the students’ scientific knowledge by providing various enriching learning tools related to the concepts in the curriculum, which helps to motivate the students to learn and engage in scientific research.

In the last decade, environment and conserving natural resources takes the first place internationally, and since The Emirate has been a pioneer in the fields of science and culture; Sharjah, led by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, established an institution in charge of environmental affairs. This establishment led to the founding of the Environment and Protected Areas Authority in Sharjah.

The Authority aims to protect the environment, and the wildlife and its biodiversity. This happens through scientific research, setting appropriate policies to raise awareness, supporting the principle of sustainable development to preserve natural environmental resources, and by a guaranteed exploitation of natural resources to the benefit of the present generation without wasting the right of future generations.

Also, the Authority seeks to be the main source and the main reference in the Emirate of Sharjah for environment and wildlife.

The Authority also adopts the principle of participation and teamwork, between the Authority and the public institutions that have relevant environmental affairs on both scientific and practical levels. It also depends on sharing the members of the society in this noble goal which is the basis of the resettlement of our scientific capabilities; and to generalize the responsibility.

Many important centers which support the preservation of the environment and its safety, belong to this Authority and they aim to spread the environmental awareness in the United Arab Emirates. These centers are: