Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams; experiential environmental education in action
The Scottish philosopher David Hume was not sure if the sun would rise tomorrow. We cannot be certain, Hume argued, because we cannot be sure that the future will resemble the past. All we really know, he argued, was what we experience directly.
In education, much of what we learn is theory rather than experience. Too often we learn about history without going to historical places, or we learn about photosynthesis or the water cycle in a stuffy classroom far from trees or a riverbank.
Increasingly, this is changing, as schools seek ways to help children care for nature in a changing climate. ‘Experiential learning’ - the process of learning by doing - is cropping up; schools are finding ways for children to see and care for nature directly.
Butterfly Conservatory in IMSG (I-X) Girls’ School, Islamabad
This week I visited one such project in a government school in Islamabad (see above). The Butterfly Effect is an ‘experiential early-age education program that nurtures environmental awareness through building a butterfly conservatory’ in a school. School children guide the butterflies through their stages of growth and then release them in a purpose built conservatory in the school grounds. The Islamabad conservatory, in IMSG (I-X) Girls’ School, was made of sustainable materials, recycled tyres for plant pots, re-used gates for walls and so on, and was put together by an inspiring team at ERA professionals including Chief Architect Zain Mustafa, and Chief Program Officer Shereen Abdullah, collaborating with the FDE and Ministry of Federal Education.
The effects were immediately obvious. Within the school the ERA team set up the Butterfly Effect Club, a group of students who take care of the butterflies each day and are the designated ‘guardians’ of the caterpillars, carefully tending them through the cycle. Students were caring, knowledgeable and proud of the butterflies developing in their charge.
Butterfly Effect Club Members with their caterpillars!
Elsewhere in Islamabad the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, in collaboration with Knowledge Platform and Green Guardians have set up a ‘Green Learning Farm’ to give students direct experience of rain water harvesting, water filtration, composting, and drip irrigation.
Activities at the Green Learning Farm Project in E-7 school, Islamabad
Topics such as the environment, biodiversity and climate change seem to be especially well suited to learning experientially. Around the world schools are showcasing inspiring examples. In the West Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, Rashaya Public High School students manage 12 beehives, producing 50 kilos of honey last year! In the Philippines students at Muntinlupa National High School - one of 3 finalists for the World’s Best School, Environmental Prize 2023 - have developed an algae microfarm, growing microalgae that absorbs carbon dioxide and emits oxygen, and that has dramatically improved the air quality of their school. Pupils from Ryan International School VK in New Delhi have planted more than 5,000 trees across the city.
Dr. Fozia Parveen. Credit: DAWN Images
One of the most thoughtful environmental educators in Pakistan is Dr. Fozia Parveen, a Professor at the Aga Khan University in Karachi. Fozia was born and raised in a small village near Gilgit, in the Northern area of Gilgit Baltistan, home to many of the 7,000+ glaciers that descend from the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalayan mountains at the roof of Pakistan. ‘Experiential learning’, was, for Fozia, a daily experience. Speaking to DAWN, she said,
“I grew up in front of glaciers, we were, therefore, never taught about glaciers in schools. I grew up with a sky full of stars, no one needed to teach us about the stars. Every evening we would just lay below the vast sky and make up stories. These things are not part of our curriculum.”
At AKU, Fozia has set out to create the same wonder for students across Pakistan, launching a climate change and environmental education curriculum, and a fellowship for 50 young climate action leaders from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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Despite Hume’s doubts, it seems likely that the sun will rise tomorrow, and be even hotter than today. In a warming world, with biodiversity under threat, it is more urgent than ever that students learn to care for the natural world. One of the best ways may be to let them experience it for themselves.