http://www.bangkokpost.com/030408_Mylife/03Apr2008_fam009.php
MY ACADEMY
A day camp that instills the idea of climate change
ANJIRA ASSAVANONDA
How can children help save the world? Tau Rak School has started a day camp to raise awareness about global warming among children and guide them through alternative ways to save the planet.
The idea and method
Children will be guided to various experiments to create alternative energy.
"Each lesson will instill the idea of climate change, while the information will help build a strong scientific background that could increase their potential to become a thinker, an initiator or an inventor of the new generation," said Pichet Poesriprasert, director of Tau Rak School.
The camp activities will comprise hands-on experiments designed for children from kindergarten to Pratom six levels, and will include study tours to places that are good models for energy saving.
What's in the camp?
Programmes for primary students
- A visit to Chitralada Palace to learn about His Majesty the King's alternative energy projects.
- A study tour to Samut Prakarn provincial police station to observe the agency's use of biodiesel in its patrolling vehicles.
- Simple experiments on producing biodiesel.
- Demonstration of a simple production of electricity from easy-to-find chemical substances: Making simple battery from aluminum foil, salt water and activated charcoal.
- A study on production of electricity from bio-substances such as banana trunk.
- A visit to a windmill farm.
- An experiment to generate electricity from wind energy and solar cells.
- A study tour to the Bangkok Planetarium.
- Cooking lesson using alternative energy.
Programmes for kindergarten pupils
- Paint their own cloth bags, making each bag a "single piece of the world". DTree planting for cleaner air and a greener environment.
- Making photo frames and baskets from recycled paper.
- Painting with plastic straws: Children will learn about water pressure and how to keep it under control.
- Painting with coloured ice: Children will observe how changing temperature affects the status of water.
- Making a kite with used newspaper and the tree sprouts: To learn about the force of the wind.
- Experiment with a bottle fountain: How the different water levels affect the water pressure.
- Group discussions.
