Nature is our best teacher – five-day nature education camp concluded at Gandhinagar with training tribal school teachers to Master Resource Persons
Gandhinagar: Science and Technology applications are important in areas of agriculture, health and nutrition security as well as for protection and conservation of the rich traditions of the tribal communities.
It is the need of the hour to emphasize on training and capacity development so that tribal people are encouraged to enhance the scientific outlook and to develop entrepreneurship with healthy lives and livelihoods.
With this objectives, Gujarat Council on Science & Technology (GUJCOST), working under the aegis of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat in collaboration with Vigyan Prasar, Dept of Science & Technology, Govt of India and GEER Foundation, Gandhinagar has successfully concluded a five-day residential training workshop for the teachers of Tribal Schools in Gujarat from 6 – 10th February 2021. The programme has been organized at the Aranya Udyan of GEER Foundation at Palaj campus in Gandhinagar.
A total of 45 teachers from tribal schools in 12 districts, including 16 ladies and 29 gents’ teachers participated in this residential programme. The program aimed to empower tribal people with knowledge, tools and pool of information so that they can undertake their operations in a more systematic and scientific manner.
The program aimed to empower tribal people with knowledge, tools and pool of information so that they can undertake their operations in a more systematic and scientific manner.
The programme was inaugurated by Shri R. D. Kamboj, Director, GEER Foundation on 6th February 2021. In his inaugural address, Shri R. D. Kamboj informed that the community members at tribal areas are closely connected with nature. They have a special emotional attachment with the nature they live in and they have also practiced the ways and means to protect the nature and ecosystem in their adjacent areas. It is necessary to orient the children and community members in accordance to their normal day-to-day life.
Conducting the interacting session, Dr. B. K. Tyagi, Scientist F, Vigyan Prasar, New Delhi expressed that nature is the great and world’s best teacher. Nature gives all its resources which are important to human beings. It is the best and great teacher for each and every one who wishes to learn from Nature. He explained the process of nature exploration while explaining the dynamics of nature law.
The activity sessions were conducted by Shri Jawaid Alam, Coordinator, Nature Club of India, Patna. During the camp period, the participants conducted a total of 25 experiments including germination, identification of plants, tree mapping and profile, making of herbarium, terrarium, leaves zoo, ant house, underwater viewer and bird watching and so on.
As a part of their job training the participants visited Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar and explored the grassland ecosystem along with the wildlife species and birds there.
Among other resource persons, Shri S. N. Tyagi, Shri Bharat Pathak, Dr. V. B. Kamble, Dr. Ketan Tattu, Shri S. N. Sindhi, Shri Aalap Pandit, Shri Bhavesh Trivedi, Ms. Himali Leuva, Shri Mahesh Trivedi conducted various interactive and activity sessions.
One of the most important and consistent lessons nature teaches is how very connected everything is, that means that every action we take will create a ripple effect on everything else, whether we see it or not. We all have a vital role to play – expressed Dr. Narottam Sahoo, Advisor, GUJCOST.
This workshop trained the tribal school teachers to be the master resource persons in their localities and to organise similar programmes and activities at their schools and communities in association with GUJCOST, he added.