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

3.2 Island House Conservation Studies Centre

Island House is a gazetted historical monument constructed in 1905 in the English style. WWF Hong Kong was awarded its custodianship in 1986 and has been using it as a Conservation Studies Centre to promote Environmental Education to serve the wider community in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong SAR Government Antiquities and Monument Office is responsible for structural maintenance work while WWF Hong Kong is responsible for general building and garden maintenance work.

3.2.1 Centre and facilities
The Island House Conservation Studies Centre is home base for the WWF Hong Kong Education Team. In addition to offices, a Teacher Learning Centre has been developed to build up teachers' capacity by providing regular teacher training workshops, advisory services and student activities on the implementation of environmental education. The Teacher Learning Centre is also equipped with an environmental education resource library, a seminar room and an exhibition room. To facilitate ease of use, the library database can be searched through the WWF Hong Kong Education Webpage http://www.wwf.org.hk/search/csearch.cgi. An arboretum is managed to support guided visit programmes conducted within the compound. Schools can book to use these support facilities to conduct their own environmental education activities. A nominal fee to cover facilities maintenance and administration costs will be charged. Enquiries please contact our Administration Officer, Ms. Yvonne Wan, on tel. no. 2652 0285 or by e-mail at [ywan@wwf.org.hk] for further details.

3.2.2 Education Programmes
The Island House visit programme first started in 1987 for both the school sector and general public. With the development of WWF Hong Kong's first Five-Year Education Strategy, the visit programmes organised at Island House have switched to focus mainly on the School Sector to promote the integration of environmental education into formal sector. In the past, guided visits were offered to secondary as well as primary schools. To encourage teachers to conduct their own environmental education in the environment, WWF Hong Kong no longer offers guided tours to primary schools. Instead, we have developed student learning themes at the centre for teachers to guide their own tours.

Formal Education Programmes
With the advantage of being locating in a New Town developed during the 1980s and 1990s, a field study programme was specially designed for senior form secondary students. We now conduct 30 such guided field study a year and tour applications are notified in August. The Island House education programme is partially sponsored (approximately 10% of annual running costs) by the Hong Kong SAR Government Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. After a briefing session conducted at Island House, students travel by coach to six different land use sites in the New Town which includes old and newly developed residential areas, a newly developed industrial estate, a closed landfill site, a traditional marine culture zone and village area, as well as a mangrove stand [which is gazetted as one of the 64 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Hong Kong]. Students learn the relation between the new town development and associated marine pollution through an issue inquiry approach. This three and a half-hour programme aims to sharpen students' skills in studying environmental issues and promoting students' understanding of the importance of sustainable development. The programme is curriculum linked to subjects like geography, biology and liberal studies.

With the generous support of the Quality Education Fund, WWF Hong Kong has been working this past year to establish Teacher Multiplier Programmes (see Section 4.1), facilities and resources for the Teacher Learning Centre (TLC), based at our Island House Conservation Studies Centre. Teachers are encouraged to use these facilities to conduct self-guided tours for their students. Several self-guided themes have been developed for teachers to make use of TLC facilities and resources to organise programmes for their students to enrich their life-experience for effective learning. As the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department subvention only covers a small portion of the operating and maintenance cost of the centre, there is a nominal charge imposed for the use of the centre facilities to help cover the operating and maintenance cost of the centre. Application to use the facilities, see Section 3.2.1

3.2.3 Evaluation of the Programmes and Facilities
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 the visits. Questions include reasons for the visits; effectiveness of the programme to improve students' knowledge, arouse students' concern on the environment, choice and design of route and whether the tour content satisfied teacher's teaching objectives; staff performance during the visit, and whether the school would apply to join the tour again. The following reflected responses received for school year 2000/01. However, out of 60 school visits only 19 responses were received. Nearly 40 % of the visits were because they wanted to fulfill the purpose of environmental education and over 33% of the visits were because they wanted to fulfill a syllabus requirement. A very positive rating was received for the programme effectiveness, e.g 100% teachers totally or mostly agreed that the tour programme fulfilled their teaching objectives and improved students' knowledge and over 77% totally or mostly agreed that the facilities of the route were well designed. Teachers were also very satisfied with our staff performance with 100% giving either excellent or good ratings. Most teachers (100% totally or mostly agreed) would join the tours again.

In order to reinforce the student-learning process, a resource pack entitled 'Environmental Balance Pack' to support the guided tour was developed and distributed to schools in 1999. The aim of the pack is to allow teachers to prepare students for the tour as well as for post visit activities. Over 70% respondents have used our Environmental Balance Pack to prepare for the trip.

The centre and its facilities are under-utilised probably because of the remoteness of its location, and that WWF Hong Kong does not publicise the use of the centre. Provision for self-guided tours is a recent phenomenon and it was through the recent launching of our Teacher Learning Centre in October 2001and subsequent Teacher Multiplier workshops and seminars that we have encouraged teachers to use the centre and its facilities to conduct self-guided tours.