The goal of the project is to implement “dedicating to environmental education”. Based on the existing environmental education networks, we link the environmental education resources and performance in different groups, including governments, schools, non-governmental organizations, communities, eco-schools, facilities of environmental education, and institutions of environmental education, together through multiple environmental education learning channels. We want to make the issues related to environment popularized among people and close to our life in order to establish the foundation for environmental education from a young age, develop it sustainably, and achieve the goal of “generation to generation”. The goals of the project are as below:
(一) Promoting activities related to environmental education, inspiring residents of the city to understand local ecological environment, and enhancing knowledge, skills, attitude, and value of environmental education
Centered on “World Earth Day” which is a global movement with the meaning of environmental protection to design activities with local features. For example, trilogy of Jurassic world in Chiayi. It focuses on the local endemic species in Taiwan- Farmland Green Treefrog to hold activities of guessing frog voice FB lucky draw, in-depth guided tour in the evening at Beixianghu Park, and environmental volunteer fitness walking at Beixianghu. The large-scale event delivered the opening of the environmental education this year. Because of the excellent marketing effectiveness of the series of activities, one third of the submission of the competition entries and promotion for the annual environmental education picture books were related to the Farmland Green Treefrog. What’s special is that we used the awarded picture book for the environmental education this year, “Well, I am original from here” for the concept development of the interactive teaching aids used by the volunteers. Due to the impact of epidemic this year, many events are forced to be suspended or postponed. However, we still received 301 participants registered the preliminary contest of the knowledge competition held by our city. The number was the top in the country. It shows the students in our city are highly motivated for the participation in environmental education.
To encourage and recognize those who work for and promote environmental education for a long time, we want to show people the passion and devotion of these caretakers for the environment through the award of National Environmental education Award so that people can learn from them and make efforts to the environmental education together. We have already held Chiayi City Preliminary Kick-Off Presentation this year, invited the awarded units of National Environmental education Award in the past years to share their experience, and invited experts and scholars to explain the competition information and assessment focus. After reviewing and implementing on-site assessment by the evaluation committee, the winning unit in each group has been determined. There were four units receiving the award this year, including High Distinction Award for Community Group, “Chiayi City East District Dongchuan Community Development Association”, which devotes to the community construction and establishing and implementing environmental education; they not only gather the cohesion of the community together but also root the environmental awareness to the heart of residents. The High Distinction Award for Agency Groups, “Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office, Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan”, integrates historical industry into environmental education in their Chiayi Timber Factory by awakening the awareness towards natural conservation and ecological maintenance among people through technology to retrieve the linkage between people and the nature. The High Distinction Award for Elementary School Group, “Chiayi Municipal Jhih Hang Elementary School”, makes good use of campus environment and technological teaching to enrich the dimensions of the courses and blend it into life teaching. The Excellence Award for Elementary School Group, “Chiayi Municipal Minzu Elementary School”, focuses on “air quality” and combines it with the subjects of arts and science for curriculum application integration. Each unit is trying the best to promote environmental education so that the concept of environmental protection is spread at every corner of the administrative region as well as deeply rooted in the heart of people and implemented in the daily life. We hope to establish a model for environmental education through above and a future of sustainable development in Chiayi.
Originally, we planned to hold the activity of summer camp. Under the impact of COVID-19, schools had been suspended. Considering the level 3 alert is not able to be relieved by the end of June, we handled the change of the contract for the event. It has been deleted and replaced with a short video of environmental education. Through the video, we present the issues of environmental hazards to stimulate the literacy of caring environment and cherish ecology among those who watch the video. Moreover, we want to deliver the message of the issues to more people through the creativity of the short video and the sharing on the network platforms and further affect the self-behavior of the people who watch the video. The purpose is to urge people enhancing their concepts and knowledge of environment as well as the value and the attitude towards it so that they can achieve maintaining environmental sustainability in the implementation of daily life.
We held 16 sessions of activities related to environmental education this year and attracted 556 participants. Through factory visit, we help people understand the function of incineration plant and the reuse disposal process, highlight the importance of resource recycling and reutilization as well as waste reduction. We also work with Green Life Classroom Environmental-Protecting Treasure House and Green Roof Demonstration Platform to promote the concepts of “recycling”, “bottom ash reutilization”, and “environmental afforestation”. Other than displaying the measures of energy conservation, we also hold the DIY courses of eco-friendly essence oil mosquito spay and seeds key ring as well as potted plant growing management and hands-on practice.
(二) Enhancing the professional ability among environmental volunteers so that they can show their professionalism when facing people for environmental education
We held two-stage educational training to enhance the quality of services provided by volunteers and protect rights and interests of those who receive services. We strengthen the professional knowledge and skills towards environmental education among volunteers through the combination of theory and practice as well as the programmed course. The course is centered on the key promotion of environmental policies of this year to help volunteers understand the current situation of environment and the implementation of policy through guided teaching so that they can use what they learnt to assist the promotion of environmental education in the region and delivering the correct concept of environmental education to people.
Among them, a special training was delivered. To avoid the contact among people, the original physical training courses scheduled were revised to the online learning courses. We taught volunteers how to use network platform to participate in the courses and join 2021 National Environmental Volunteer Elite Online Conference to open up the vision of internet and link with new generations.
(三) Implementing the environmental education act, maintaining ecological balance, achieve the respect to life, and promote social justice
We held environmental education regulations presentation and declaration audit. The courses explained the meaning and regulations of environmental education act and arranged the hands-on practice for operational system. We used the actual simulation on the declaration operation to help each relevant unit in the city to understand the regulations of environmental education act better as well as familiar with the system operation, data maintenance, and declaration process in order to fulfill the compliance of the provision of Article 19 of Environmental Education Act. In terms of declaration audit, we focused on the correctness of personnel data and the comparison between the regulations and implementation of environmental education as well as inspected the legal compliance and implemented on-site supervision to enhance the declaration efficiency of environmental education program at each unit in our city and the completeness of implementation results.
The clearance rate of environmental seminars in 2020 was only 38.37%. Because of it, we increased the environmental seminars to eight sessions this year with the total hours of 22 in 6 days. By August 3rd, 2021 (included), the completion rate of environmental seminars was accumulated to above 90% (started from January 1st, 2013). The completion rate of environmental education courses was 96.8%.
We collected the implementation results of action plans for environmental education done by each unit in our city, integrated the report and summary of the implementation of environmental action plans in our city, and executed reviewing and modification to assist the preparation of Environmental Education Foundation, including planning agenda, contacting members, assisting administrative matters, and preparing presentation.
