A Successful Workshop for Life Science Teachers at Daroji Bear Sanctuary

A Teacher experiencing a live specimen

A three day workshop for High school teachers of Biological Science  was held at the Nature Camp site of the Daroji Sloth Bear sanctuary, near Hampi in Bellary District.  The workshop was conducted by the Regional Museum of Natural History and intended to build the capacity of the Life Science Teachers. There were thirty teachers from Hospet taluk and a battery of resource persons from Mysore and Bellary.

At the bear sanctuary

Inaugurating the workshop on the 2^nd Sept 2013, the DDPI Mr. Narayana Gowda, emphasized the need of such workshops to update oneself to keep up in the line of teaching and inspiring youngsters to take up diverse carriers.  He illustrated the wasteful food habits of a squirrel and enumerated how they will be favoring the forests by dispersing seeds. The Block Education Officer Mrs. Sunanda, hinted that the workshop would be worth while and insisted the teachers to involve in it wholeheartedly. In fact she had sat through my session four years ago in a workshop conducted through Society for Wildlife and Nature. The Asst. Conservator of Forests Mr. Jalihal and Nagaraj, Range Forest Officer presided over the function.

Teachers involved in ice-breakers

The workshop was packed with Nature games, hands on activities as the intended outcome was to add life to Life Sciences and strengthen teachers to inspire youngsters towards life sciences. Field visit to the Sanctuary on the second day was a high light as none of teachers had gone into the sanctuary though they lived adjacent to it. Seeing the sloth bears in the wild, a nature walk that introduced a variety of fruits that the bears eat and an interaction with the Forest officials mesmerized the teachers. They not only appreciated the dynamics in ecology but developed a respect towards the tricky job of the forest officials who handle the Man-Animal conflict issues.

An outdoor class

The third day was dedicated to preparation of teaching aids using paper. Mr. Srinivasa introduced the properties of paper and began with an exercise of tearing paper to feel it as a medium of expression. He demonstrated origami, kirigami and mask making .The teachers thoroughly enjoyed trying out with a pair of scissors. There were slide show and film show and an exhibition of the handy work of the teachers.

Speaking at the valedictory function Mr. Santosh Martin said that we all have some bit of responsibility towards Nature and nobody should chicken out of it. Expressing their contention and happiness over the work shop Mr. Veeranna and Raja Khan felt the need of follow up programs to be conducted in their schools.