Help us Design a Blue School Concept Curriculum

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We are planning to organize courses about the environment and water sustainability for school children at the Regional Environmental Center, where I work.

The idea is to educate the children to protect the environment from young age. We wanted to implement the “blue school concept” and we are currently making a program for the course.

Blue school concept is an education model which combines elements of other approaches and unique elements of its own and has water as central theme.

Has anyone had experience with such water programs at community level? Which approach and methods do you propose? Is there a concept based on PRA or something similar? 

Please share your experience of conducting and designing similar courses for children and the technical approach you took.

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54 Answers

  1. Minja,

    Sparkling concept, Good Luck.   As an inhabitant of the blue planet I applaud your vision!  But do not forget to include the many ways that water interacts with soil and minerals chemically and physically, as well as with life to create the planet we love.  And remember that too much water can be as devastating as too little.

    Again good luck with this vast subject, essential in a wide range of university courses as well as primary education.

     

  2. every school/college must ha ve sloping roofs to collect rainwa ter to be fed to a plastic tank after the first flush at a height of 9 feet for use by gravity flow in toilets & washing of the canteen utensils & also to the garden for growing organic vegetables by the students.  

  3. I think to promote the concept of blue school it is necessary to make "WASH" as a separate subject in school curriculum.We can step by step educate the children.By educating them from childhood can bring positive changes  and at higher levels they would  be able to give their inputs  and soon we have WASH researches and experts every where.

  4.  Hello Minja, I would be happy to help and assist in project and curriculum design. I have worked as part of an after-school program that incorporates hands-on learning with specialists from the field, and offers entrepreneurial accelerator programs for children across Grades 1-5. I have also participated in a project using online scientific data to build new progressive lesson plans for schools.  Please feel free to get in touch.

    Other sources of information:

    https://cocorahs.org/

    http://limpets.org/

    https://freshwaterwatch.thewaterhub.org/

     

  7. Few suggestions:

    1. It is good if the bathroom and toilet are provided with quality equipment that conserve water uses. If not the student needs to be provided with how to use the water in more efficient way i. e. not to open water tap to big and too long. (there are many way of spoiling water in the bathroom and toilet) 

    2. Sometimes in the school yard there are garden, the plants need water thus it should be given water regularly. The student can be given field training to do it in more efficient way. Soil have certain field capacity the proper way to give water is up to the field capacity, unless leaching is needed.

    3. In developing country, most of sport at school are done outdoor. The children should clean the stuff outside in order to avoid dirty bathroom that need a lot of water to clean it.

    Regards,

    Ilham Abla      

  8. Dear Minja,

    I have been involved in one week practical freshwater courses for a youth organization in my country. It is a very basic course and covers the topography, hydrological cycle, including weather, monitoring, the ecology of water, water threats, water as food source (different methods of fishing), methods to purify the water on a home and/or survival level, and the impact of human development on the water source.

    This course actually form part of a larger camp, where the children are taught to row, sail and diving techniques.

    If you are interested and want to contact me you are welcome.

    Regards

    Carin 

  9. Hi Minja

    There is some experience of the Blue School Model by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Nicaragua, through their AGUASAN Projects. However all documents are in spanish, you could contact Ing. Ricardo Alvarado to provide you with electronic copies of the materials.

    Best regards

    Urs Hagnauer

  10. Let me know what you need. I'll help in any way I can.

  16. Our future generations thank you for your efforts Minja.

    Here in New Zealand we have an educational model which may be of interest to you. Water would be one part of their educational subjects.  http://www.enviroschools.org.nz/how-enviroschools-works  

    We here at CLIMsystems are in the design phase of a simple educational tool for school children which could bring the aspect of climate change adaption to your water module. Please connect with me if you are interested in beta testing.

    In support of environmental education, CLIMsystems has developed and released a series of educational resources which can be applied in various settings. They are in a Word format for easy customisation for your country or locale. The initial set covers topics such as water supply, extreme heat, coastal erosion and protected areas.

    http://www.climsystems.com/simclim/teachingresources

    Towards and informed future!

    Best regards, Clare

  18. In Slovakia was developed 70 project under name Blue Schools - it is many nice story was developed with invite youngsters for educate and implement projects on principle of New Water Paradigm (www.waterparadigm.org)

  23. Normally you would expand the theme to environmental issues and sanitation/hygiene. These kind of programmes are being implemented in all parts of the world. Look for "WASH in Schools". When you google it, you find many links and resources. Methodology depends very much on the characteristics of the communities you want to work in: urban/rural, socio-economic conditions, family structures, cultural believes and habits etc. and last but not least the knowledge level at this point (before entering with activities).  I have been working on this since the late 1990s and could refer you to interesting methods if you could share more information. Regards, Annemarieke Mooijman

  25. An excellent idea. Please do not adopt short cuts and try to evolve the program and course content in team work with students, faculty and local communities. Please do consider to include: Familiarisation with water and its sources, importance of water for organic life,  its end uses, its collection and transport and its processing for recycling,,,

    Other important components of Nature that support Life can also be added,,such as Soil, Energy, Air and children can be educated for sustainable deployment of natural resources..

    Once a Local Blueprint or skeleton is ready, then, you can bring in experts and get it fine tuned and get the content developed by experts--local and from outside. 

  26. Hello

    I would be ​very much ​interested. As ​a Environmental Technology and Management professor at ​Chitkara University  let me inform that we already ​have a ​Subject of Environmental Management for all the undergraduates and ​have the right ​expertise to ​develop a blue ​school concept".​ We should ​lobby for the ​financial support  to our ​ network. ​Greetings. ​Dr Charu Khosla 

  32. Hello,

    I would be very much interested. As a tourism professor at Shkodra University "Luigj Gurakuqi" let me informa that we already have a Scientific Master in Sustainable Tourism and have the right expertise to develop a blue school concept". We should lobby for the financial support to our network. Greetings.

    ARJETA TROSHANI

  34. At Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), we offer interactive, objective, science-based water education for children starting at a young age. Our teaching methods are engaging and universal. Some are available for purchase, while others can be downloaded for free. I would suggest checking out our free "Clean and Conserve" materials, which offer specific resources for young children, elementary and high school students, as well as educators. You can download them from http://www.projectwet.org/cleanandconserve. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to know more about Project WET. We work in more than 70 countries already through our international network and are always looking for new partners.

  35. A good option.  Teaching water should start from schools.  If you have introduced the value of water at first, then start teaching them how to quantify the water use.  How many pots, buckets, litres they use for cultivation per m2,  for bathing per person,  for livestock per cow or chicken.  Then later you can get them to compare with each other, each schools, regions, or compare with developed country norms etc.  In my experience, the biggest obstacle for sustainable use of water resources is that the public do not know how to account for water.  Start from school: It is a brilliant idea. Hold competitions.    Best wishes,  Sohan

  36. 1.  every school must do rainwater harvesting from a sloping roof to collect the rainwater after the 1st flush by filtering it into a covered cement tank of 20,000 liters size with a copper mesh size 3 x6 feet kept inside it to kill the bacteria & prevent algae will last for 9 months, depending on the tank size,

    2. the waste water from the canteen & toilets can be fed to a vegetable garden to be grown by the students.

     

    1 Comment

    1. Is it safe to us the waste water directly in a vegetable garden and not risking "recycling" pathogenics?

  39. Good idea. I hope when you are done you can share the final plan for replication in other places.

    I would propose you organize to engage your learners intensively as you plan. You can have them bring pictures of water issues you would like addressed , both from their own observations as well as from internet searches. It will help capture their attention from early. All the best.

     

  40. Might change the 'blue', but to expose them to air and earth (soils) might provide a valuable view on interrelation and interaction. Furthermore, if the idea of water as 'H2O' can rather be convayed as a liquid with varying quality, it might open the student up for diversities in water utilisation.

  41. Might change the 'blue', but to expose them to air and earth (soils) might provide a valuable view on interrelation and interaction. Furthermore, if the idea of water as 'H2O' can rather be convayed as a liquid with varying quality, it might open the student up for diversities in water utilisation.

  43. Minja, there are several child related methodologies that have been developed and tested globally by likes of UNICEF, Wateraid etc including PHAST modules

     

  44. Great initiative! One aspect, that is mostly not taken into consideration when explaining the wastewater treatment process, is that what we do in a WWTP is closing the cycle from photosynthesis (water + CO2 + sunlight energy > energy rich organic matter + O2), via human and animal consumption and digestion (including O2 uptake) for energy and growth, producing loaded wastewater in the process, back to water and CO2 in the WWTP by supplying micro organisms with atmospheric oxygen, which these use for the digestion of the organic matter in the wastewater.

  45. I had an experience to work on a model called "Eco-water Literacy". This model was implemented in West Bengal where I was a key resource person.  This was a community level programme.  I have a couple of academic papers based on my experience with this project. If you are interested please mail me at: sengupta_pradip@yahoo.com.       The paper is available at:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279456355_Role_of_Science_Communication_for_Grass_Root_Level_Capacity_Building_in_Eco-Hydrology_-_Case_Study_in_West_Bengal_India

  47. Don't forget the business lessons and politics around water. 

    1 Comment

    1. The Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, India has been doing some interesting work in setting up information/resource centres around community water management for quite some time now. you may want to get in touch with them for some interesting ideas on interactive demonstration models to explain concepts and technologies in water management.

  49. I think it is a good idea the water programme. I got some experience about the water now. I mostly focus on social science aspects related to water supply such as privatization, health and socio-economic factors. The methods I used are mostly econometrics.

  50. I would like to propose that this course should be activity based. First Explain what is hydro logical cycle through activities and examples. Difference between Freshwater and Marine water. Water is essential for life explain through examples. Different uses of water and their dependency on each other (ecosystem approach). You can also link it with climate change factors and mentioned about any disturbance in Hyrological can also create problems for all biodiversity including humans.  

  51. Minja,

    Best thing to do with kids is to explain :

    1- Types of water

    2- Resources.

    3- Hygiene. 

    4- use control and conservation.

    My regards

  52. Minja, what a wonderful idea. The MARE curriculum by Lawrence Hall of Science and Project WET are both excellent. All the best to you and this important, timely effort.