Botswana's future environmental stewards

Another great quarter with the kids of the Primary School Environmental Education Clubs we work with, our focus has been Elephants and how we can communicate to them where we don’t want them, i.e. in our fields eating our crops. As the ploughing season is fast approaching, we believe that the knowledge we impart to the students will be shared with their parents, who are farmers, with the students playing a crucial role as our Environmental Stewards. At Motopi Junior Secondary School we are building the children's skills and this quarter focused on Scientific Report Writing, with active activities to get them to think about communicating their science findings in a written format. We are fortunate this quarter to have an intern, Ms Gabel, to give us more hands to help with the various activities and in doing so she has discovered her passion and is now working hard to develop a workshop for the primary schools that will translate our Living With workshops, which we deliver to adults, to this age group of learners. Our Living With workshops focus on how to interpret elephant behaviour, should you come across one, and learn their general behaviours so as to avoid any potentially dangerous interactions where possible. The exam period is fast approaching as the academic year here in Botswana draws to a close, so we wish the students the best of luck and look forward to seeing them once the exams are complete. Pula!

The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, is renowned for many things, including its large zebra migrations, not only from the Chobe down to the Park but also once in the park between the salt pans and the Boteti River. The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans provide the zebras with nutrient rich grasses that grow in that area of the park and thus attract them to this area. 

Our Maps and Migration activity which we recently delivered to the Environmental Education Clubs fits nicely with this phenomenon, bringing science to life in real time as the children can see the zebras from their schools and villages when they visit the river that is the western boundary to the National Parl.

During this session the children learn what a map is and how to interpret it. We also cover how animals may navigate through the environment, such as through the use of stars, the sun, smells and elephant highways. We discuss why migration is so important and what we can do to enable that to continue. We also touch on human migration and why some people choice or have to leave the country of their birth. 

A game of finding the treasure through the use of a local map is a fun way to round of the session and for us to understand what they have grasped.