Science ProgrammeTrains Budding Environmentalists at Primary level
Text and photos bySuzette Ebanks, Government Information Services
Cayman, like many other island nations,depends on a pristine environment to attract vital tourism. Yetthe burden of added visitors can result in the loss of delicateeco-systems, particularly where inhabitants are unaware of theimportance of conservation. To help address this problem locally,a small-scale environmental education programme is quietly workingto increase children's awareness of and love for their surroundings.
Assistantenvironmental science teacher Martin Keeley during a trip intothe central mangrove wetlands with Bodden Town Primary's yearfive class.
Since 2000 Cayman Brac's peripatetic assistantscience teacher Martin Keeley has travelled to Grand Cayman onceor twice a year, to teach the wetlands section of the year fivecurriculum to government primary schools. To date he has workedwith Red Bay, Savannah, George Town and Bodden Town Primaries.
From all appearances Mr Keeley's interactiveteaching style breathes new life into the science classroom. Followinga recent stint at George Town Primary, two students went to PrincipalMarie Martin to rave about the sessions.
"I was very impressed by their reaction,"Ms Martin says. "They described the field trip into the CentralMangrove Wetlands as the best day of their lives and asked mewhen he was coming back. I called Education Officer (Science)Fred Speirs to tell him that the children thoroughly enjoyed theexperience and that I believed they would greatly benefit frommore such activities."
Inside the classroom children received hands-ontraining in areas such as endangered species, ground-water pollution,the role of wetlands, coastline erosion and tidal ponds. Theytook part in activities like storytelling, dressing up in "mangrovecritter" costumes, and even walked through the insides ofa 50-ft inflatable shark. Students also viewed videos and slideshows, examined pond life under the microscope and video-microscope,and used the computer for Internet research.
Mr Keeley says such activities tap importantlearning skills in students.
"Rote teaching can only accomplishso much because the only learning skill that it engages is memorisation.It's very important to stimulate students' imaginations by makinglearning fun, tactile and investigative. And of course, good fieldtrips reinforce these techniques," he comments.
Following his own philosophy he routinelyends these weeklong sessions with boat trips for students andteachers into the central mangrove wetlands, which are followedby walks along the dyke roads near the North Sound dock.
Studentsqueue up for close-ups of wetlands wildlife.
These excursions quickly become investigativeadventures for young people, who use binoculars to keep listsof the species that they encounter. They display their newly acquiredknowledge of the wetlands' ecosystem by chatting knowledgeablyabout the difference between red, black and white mangroves ordebating the different kinds of wildlife that fly or swim past.Occasionally the Department of Environment staff cut the motorso Mr Keeley can inject a note of conservationism into the proceedings.Urging children to close their eyes and listen to the sounds oftheir environment, he notes that the silence is more profoundthan elsewhere on the island and suggests that an absence of man-madeconstructions is the most obvious cause.
Of course, students often have pre-existingnotions about the importance of conservation.
"Some have very strong ideas aboutthe impact of pollution, although they may not have a broad understandingof ecosystems and how they function. Others grow up in a moreurban environment with little or no knowledge aside from whatthey learn on television. This is even more reason to get themout of the classroom to explore their Islands," he acknowledges.
His material features varying levels ofdifficulty and an easygoing approach that makes sure childrenof all ability levels can understand the basic concepts of whyand how the wetlands need to be protected.
"Many," he explains, "receivesome level of environmental education before I work with them.What I try to do is to pull it together in a fun way. For slowerstudents, there are basic points that they can easily understandand have fun with. Those who are brighter can take the informationas far and deep as they want, and still have fun while they doit. I believe that all learning should have a strong element ofentertainment."
To reinforce this approach, Mr Keeley alsoworks with teachers of the classes that he visits.
"With the amount of material that today'steachers are expected to cover, it can be difficult to make asubject enjoyable for students. My message is that everythingis easier when the curriculum is more integrated, so I use manysubjects in my programmes. Students must be able to write, draw,role play and understand social and environmental conditions,as well as local, regional and international geography and cultures,"he says.
The success of this approach is alreadyevident at George Town Primary where senior maths and scienceteacher, Yvonne Lawe-Gonzalez, says students' test scores in wetlandsscience show an improved grasp of the subject compared to otherareas of the science curriculum.
Expanding on the benefits of the programme,she comments: "Through an innovative use of technology andmultiple activities he is able to hold their interest. It is adifferent approach to teaching science that allows us to spendmore comprehensive time on the subject. As a result children arebetter able to grasp the material."
Mr Speirs, who advises schools on the implementationof the national science curriculum, also considers integrationis an invaluable tool for teachers.
"A couple of years ago Red Bay Primaryput together a tremendous display for the maths and science fairto show how they had integrated science into other areas of thecurriculum. The following year the teacher boasted that becauseof what she had learned about integration she was able to completethe science curriculum," he comments.
Two years ago Mr Keeley produced a resourceguide called Marvellous Mangroves in the Cayman Islands to enhanceeducators' knowledge and ability to teach the subject. While copiesare in all schools, his present goal is to distribute the bookto individual classrooms. He believes this would motivate teachingstaff to incorporate the subject more frequently in lessons.
The resource guide is the result of 16 yearsspent working as a wetlands ecologist and educator, includingtime in Canada's Fraser Valley wetlands. It also reinforces corescience skills such as observing, measuring, classifying, inferring,predicting, communicating, hypothesising and interpreting data.
Aside from this publication, Mr Keeley alsopresents in-service training courses for local educators. Duringschool breaks he frequently travels to other countries to holdworkshops. He trained Sri Lankan educators over the Easter holidays,and his summer plans include similar trips to Honduras and SanAndres Island.
In these presentations he tells teachersthat interactive education is simple to prepare, although it requiresa fair amount of time and access to various easy-to-find resources."Once they have prepared these materials, they find thatit's easier to repeat and reaps huge rewards in terms of helpingstudents to understand what they are learning."
His colleague Mr Speirs says such sessionsare well received by local educators, particularly those who treatscience as a practical subject and encourage children to takepart in experiments and field trips.
After three years serving all Brac schools,Mr Keeley has begun to see a change in young people's interactionwith their environment.
"I think we are slowly building a moreaware community there. On field trips over the past year I haveseen younger students show a strong interest in their environment.As an example, I took a year-three group to the westerly pondslast fall, many of whom already knew the names of several birdsand were extremely interested in looking through the spottingscope to find more," he notes.
Environmental science is taught at all levelson Cayman Brac and at the primary school and middle school levelson Grand Cayman. Since 2000, the Education Department has sponsoredMr Keeley's Grand Cayman primary school visits. This year CaribbeanUtilities Company funded his weeklong stay at Bodden Town. Theelectricity supplier will also sponsor trips to a further fourprimary schools during the 2002/2003 school year.