Special Programmes
Special lessons are offered to schools during Environmental Calendar Days and Weeks throughout the year.
By celebrating National Water Week, we aim to give learners and educators some knowledge as well as skills about the importance of water conservation and the protection of water resources. This lesson, therefore, allows learners to actively engage with topics such as: How much fresh water if there on Earth for humans to use? Where does our water come from? How do rivers become polluted? What is a wetland and how does it function? What sort of animals are found in a river? What is waterwise gardening? How can we save water and not waste it? What can I do to help?
The term biodiversity refers to the huge variety of living organisms on Earth as well as the different ecosystems in which they live. Although a number of our lessons focus on biodiversity to a lesser or greater extent, Biodiversity Day is celebrated with a fun-filled lesson that focuses on exploring the rich biodiversity of the Kirstenbosch Garden . Learners build an understanding that living organisms are linked to each other and depend on each other in complex food chains and food webs which have to be conserved because they not only provide human beings with the resources that we require, they also maintain life on Earth. Learners create artistic 'biodiversity' crowns and write messages of commitment on a biodiversity banner which they take back to the rest of their school.
World Environment Week is celebrated in partnership with the City of Cape Town 's Youth Environmental School (YES) Programme. The annual theme chosen by the United Nations is adopted and a lesson is developed around this theme. The lesson is advertised in the YES Programme booklet and the City of Cape Town facilitates the bookings for the lesson as well as arranges the transport of learners. Once again, the lesson is learner-centered and addresses the issues of the annual theme through active learning. For the past few years, the lesson has been concluded with learners potting a number of indigenous plant cuttings; they are encouraged to monitor and record the growth of their plants back at school.
Eco-Schools Programme
The Kirstenbosch Environmental Education Programme received funding through WWF from the Table Mountain Fund to create an Eco-School Kirstenbosch Fynbos node. An appointed Eco-Schools node co-ordinator provides appropriate support to the educators of the participating schools with respect to the planning and development of activities and lessons as well as teaching and learning resource materials. The aim of the programme is to support educators to strengthen environmental education in their curriculum and to improve the environment of their school as well as the surrounding community. The Kirstenbosch Fynbos node has a compulsory focus area where schools have to engage with the type of fynbos in the proximity of their school, for example, strandveld and sand plain fynbos.
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