Helping children learn from Nature’s bounty

Environmentalists and World Teachers, who won a fellowship created by the non-profit Youth Conservation Action Network (YouCAN), will begin taking lessons on Nature to children across India.

The fellowship, which was founded with a grant from the National Geographic Society, aims to provide environmentalists with the tools to facilitate activity-based learning about nature and conservation. “We wanted to create a generation of young global educators who work with children in an exciting way,” says K Ramnath Chandrasekhar, in a press statement. He founded YouCAN with his partner Rachita Sinha. The 32-year-old is a trained wildlife filmmaker, photographer and conservation educator herself, and lives in Coonoor.

While they organize many short-term programmes including walks but Earth Educators and Earth Authors, which invites children between 8-11 years for a mentoring programme, are their long-term programmes. Though the fellowship programme’s cost comes up to Rs 150,000, they do offer 100% merit-based scholarships, thanks to the funding support of the National Geographic Society.

Through interviews and video interactions, the YouCAN team selected 20 people from 12 states such as Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Jammu and Kashmir. Among them are full-time teachers, environmental volunteers, environmentalists, and researchers.

The Earth Teachers are expected to connect the localized history of Nature with the bigger picture.  They all attended a seven-day residential programme in Masinagudi in the Nilgiris in June this year, where they were trained by experts in the field such as wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri, Educator Noan Fesnoux, who is Lead Course Designer and Developer Green School in Bali, and naturalists Yuvan Aves, Faiza Mookerjee and Surya Ramachandran, and several other nature lovers who addressed them on various topics.

“We will support them through an 11-month fellowship with a monthly stipend, educational resources, monthly workshops, and daily interactions. At the end of the fellowship, they will participate in the Teacher Festival towards the end of April 2023,” explains Ramnath.

The partnership is designed so that Earth Educators are motivated to start their own passion projects specific to the communities in which they work. Earth Educators, all between the ages of 20 and 35, will teach children from a variety of backgrounds. “There are children who go to private IGCSE schools as well as those who study in a school near the landfill,” says Ramnath. The team is reaching more people. Their ultimate goal, according to Ramnath, is to “bring about policy-level change in environmental awareness and education in India”.

A certain readiness is built in the participants through the curriculum which involves self-awareness and being aware of society. It also includes, exploring natural history and conservation plus manifesting Earth education. All of this is achieved via writing, listening, reflective talks, films, photo-documentation, lectures and learning sessions, mentoring and many other myriad and mysterious ways. With instruments gained by way of the fellowship, one educator teaches his college students ideas like low-waste residing, Nature journalling and fowl watching, that he connects with college curricula.

Another such programme is the ‘The Earth Ambassadors Fellowship’ by the Trust for Environmental Education (TREE). As their website explains, the changing planet urgently needs a generation of young environmental educators to connect students with nature. However, there is an acute scarcity of such individuals in India, where natural ecosystems are lifelines for its 1.3 billion people and its magnificent wildlife. Despite their heavy dependence on ecosystem services provided by nature, and the looming climate crisis, most students complete their K-12 education with very little understanding of our evolving environment, and how to care for it.

This Fellowship is designed to change this by identifying, training and supporting passionate youth to connect students with nature, while equipping their own selves better in environmental and conservation education. This, first-of-its-kind, one-year program, which has completed two cohorts, empowers young school teachers and upcoming grassroots conservationists to lead eco-clubs in schools using conservation documentaries and experiential learning sessions. Through them, middle school students learn about topics ranging from the Earth to ocean systems, and, more particularly, about India’s incredible but fragile biodiversity, as well as problem-solving. In the end, the Fellows showcase their work and students’ work to a larger audience. The mission through the Earth Ambassadors Fellowship is to create an active community of young environmental educators across India to develop a deeper understanding of nature among students, and thus make a positive impact on the planet.