Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 3, Issue 1, Article 7(June, 2002) Sam LEE, Ellen SHEK and Nicole WONG WWF Hong Kong Environmental Education Programmes Previous Contents Next

Education Centres and their Programmes

Environmental Education IN the Environment has been identified by environmental educators and the Hong Kong SAR Government Education Department as an indispensable component interacting with Environmental Education ABOUT and FOR the Environment. With the strength and experience of operating our centres at Mai Po and Island House, WWF Hong Kong's central-based education programmes focus on promoting and supporting Environmental Education IN the Environment to enrich students' learning experience in the environmental education process.

3.1 Mai Po Marshes Wildlife Education Centre and Nature Reserve
The Mai Po Nature Reserve, located in the northwest New Territories, was designated as part of the Mai Po/Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site in 1995. The Reserve covers a total area of 380 hectares, and contains gei wais (traditional tidal shrimp ponds) that are home to the largest mangrove forest and reedbeds in Hong Kong. The Nature Reserve is managed by WWF Hong Kong in co-operation with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department for wetland conservation as well as for wetland education.

3.1.1 Centres and facilities
There are two centres in the Ramsar Site - the Mai Po Marshes Wildlife Education Centre, situated within the Nature Reserve and the Peter Scott Field Studies Centre, situated just outside the boundary of the Nature Reserve. The Education Centre has an exhibition hall with panels and displays to provide information on different aspects of the Reserve, while the Field Studies Centre provides guest accommodation and a seminar room to accommodate small-scale workshops and overseas training courses. There are a number of bird-watching hides for visitors to view birds without disturbing their activities, one floating and two fixed boardwalks through reedbeds and mangroves, a Nature Trail with trail side information boards, a 'Gei wai museum' showing the way of life of a gei wai operator and his family, and a Waterfowl Collection for guided visitors to rest and enjoy watching a representation of migratory waterfowl found in Hong Kong and Southern China, especially during summer when bird numbers are lower.

3.1.2 Education Programmes
A variety of visit programmes have been developed to fulfill the needs of many different audiences. Visitors to the Mai Po Nature Reserve can be classified into four main categories: Primary School Group, Secondary School Group, Disabled Group, and the General Public. In addition to promoting wetland conservation, the visit programmes demonstrate the tremendous potential of wetlands in supporting education and public awareness.

Formal Education Programmes
The Mai Po school education visits are supported by Education Department, through an agreed annual quota which started in 1986, to address the problem of having insufficient field studies centres in Hong Kong to support teachers who were working to fulfill the secondary school curriculum requirement (mainly related to biology and geography subjects). With the increasing status of environmental education in 1990s, the service provided is no longer restricted to geography or biology teaching objectives but focuses on integrating environmental education objectives into different subjects in the formal curriculum, as well as for extra-curricular teaching purposes. In 1993, the annual quota was extended to cover primary school visits. The current annual visit quota is 400 (300 secondary school groups and 100 primary school groups). School visit invitations are sent out in August and successful applicants are notified no later than the end of November. As there is a huge demand for places, applications are processed on a first-come-first served basis with the exception that if schools have already been accepted twice to visit the Reserve they will not be allocated a visit the third time unless the quota has not been filled.

Education visit programmes for secondary school groups were first organised in 1985 to promote an understanding of and interest in wetland conservation. With the designation of Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay as a Ramsar Site in 1995, our Mai Po study visit programmes were refined to focus on arousing school visitors' awareness of wetland functions and values (for wildlife and mankind) as well as the conservation of the Ramsar Site through an issue-inquiry approach. There are five topics for secondary school groups, which are:

• General visit;

• Mangrove Ecology in Deep Bay;

• Diversity of Life in Wetlands;

• Land use in the Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site; and

• Water Pollution in Deep Bay.

The first topic was designed for junior secondary students while the other four are suitable for senior secondary students. All topics are closely linked with the secondary school curriculum in order to enhance the integration of the learning experience to formal education. All visits are conducted in a guided visit approach along a five kilometre trail. The programme duration is four hours to fit in school administration needs.

With assistance from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the UK, our primary school visit programme was started in 1993. It aims to enhance student's interest in, understanding of and concern about wetlands and their conservation. The programme is conducted along a two kilometre trail and lasts for three hours. In comparison with secondary school groups, a shorter trail was selected for primary school groups to reflect their physical abilities. Three topics specially designed include:

• Story of Birds;

• Mai Po Detective; and

• Wetland Insect Watch.

Nature interpretation, bird watching, insect catching and interactive environmental games are the main visit programme contents. Programmes are not specially related to a single subject syllabus in the primary school curriculum but focus on arousing a young mind's appreciation of the beauty and wonder of our natural environment and concern for nature conservation through fun first-hand learning experiences.

In line with WWF Hong Kong strategies and objectives, new secondary and primary cross-curricular programmes will be developed. With the Education reform and the increase encouragement to teachers to include elements of assessment of and for learning, there are plans to revise the tour programmes to incorporate such elements in the programme format.

In-formal Education Programme
Visit programmes are organised for the general public during weekends and Public Holidays. Through a three-hour guided visit, the recreational programme aims to arouse community support for wetland conservation. Training programmes are organised by the WWF Hong Kong Education Team for Part-time Interpreters, mainly university undergraduates, to support implementation of the public visit programme. Individual or group bookings can be made through our Public Visit Hotline on 2526 4473.

The idea of offering equal opportunity for disabled visitors to Mai Po Nature Reserve has been one of our goals since the early 1980s. Nearly all our educational facilities, including bird-watching hides and road-signs are designed to fit, whenever possible, with the need of disabled visitors. The visit programme has been extended to serve disabled groups for them to appreciate and enjoy Hong Kong's wetland wonders.

3.1.3 Evaluation of the Programmes and Facilities
The education and public tours were originally designed to be more narrative and less interactive. Over the years, school tours have been slowly revised to add more elements of games and interactive activities to make them more enjoyable for students and at the same time to increase learning receptiveness. In addition, a greater variety of tour themes have been added to provide more choice for schools to choose from.

As the Reserve is an open area and students are required to walk a considerable way during the tour, students are often observed to be tired and having had short attention spans particularly during summer. To make the programme more effective, tour routes have been revised and fine-tuned to make them more suitable for junior secondary students. In addition, the Wetland Insect Watch tour was developed in 2000/01 to replace the Wetland tour, particularly during summer months, for primary school visits. This tour involved continuous stops along the route. In this way we could capture students attention more effectively.

In order to reinforce the student-learning process, Mai Po Secondary and Primary Teacher's Packs were developed to encourage teachers to conduct pre and post visit activities. The pack was distributed to schools so that teachers could duplicate the activity sheets from the pack and brief students prior to joining the tours. We discovered, however, from responses received in our tour evaluation forms, in school year 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 (1st semester), 52% and 35% of primary school teachers respectively and 60% and 61% of secondary school teachers respectively, have either not briefed their students prior the trip or used the materials from the pack to prepare for the visit. One of the reasons observed was that sometimes the teachers who booked the tour at the start of the school year, were not the ones that accompanied the students during the tours. Most bookings were done at the beginning of the school year. Another reason could also be that teachers are not able to get hold of the pack since it was distributed some years ago. Hence, we have decided to upload the pack to the WWF Hong Kong website and at the same time remind the contact teacher of the supporting pre-tour activity sheets.

In order to evaluate our education programmes effectiveness, teachers are encouraged to fill in a Tour Evaluation form and send it back to us after their visit. Questions include reasons for the school visits, effectiveness of the programme to deliver its message, including duration of the visit, staff performance during the visit, and whether the school would recommend others to join the tours. The following reflected responses received (over 60% replied) for the school year 2000/01 and 2001/02 (1^st semester), saw that over 50% of the responses received stated that the reason for their visit were for environmental education and/or as an extra-curricular activity. A very positive response (range from over 85% to 95% totally or mostly agreed) was received on the effectiveness of the tour programmes. Our staff performance also received good ratings (range from 79% to 100% totally or mostly agreed) regarding their skills, knowledge and fieldwork excursion. Most teachers (100% totally or mostly agreed) would recommend others to join the tours.