Green Living Association, a partner of ‘Cleanup the World’ and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is successfully striving in establishing an environment friendly Pakistani society.
After successful achievement of the objectives set for the first 5 yearly theoretical campaign ‘Kids’ Action to Restore Environment’ (KARE 2007-11), in 2012, Green Living Association (GLA) launched its second 5 yearly practical campaign ‘Collective Action to Restore Environment’ (CARE 2012-16) with an objective of involving 100,000 families of the students across Pakistan in making the total number of 200,000 students participants along with their families since the start of GLA in 2007.
In 2016 GLA’s practical environmental campaign ‘CARE’ accomplished with a mega success in achieving its planned objectives. CARE has facilitated hundreds of thousands students and their families in bringing environment friendly developments in their lives by involving them in the research based attractive and colourful green activities. Under this campaign, each year, GLA launched multiple research based practical Environmental activities for the students and their families in bringing environmental conservation to their daily lives and lifestyles. All activities of Green Living Association involve nominal registration fees for the students to join a comprehensive three stage package; i) offering studies from the specific modules for all categories, ii) participation in the activity and iii) complimentary practical rounds in making the activities life-changers for the participants.
Benefits of Practical Environmental Education
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Practical Environmental Education (PEE) connects us to the world around us, teaching us about both natural and built environments. PEE brings actions based on genuine awareness regarding the issues impacting the environment upon which we all depend.
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Whether we bring nature into the classroom, take students outside to learn, or find impromptu teachable moments on a nature walk with the families, PEE has many benefits for youth, educators, schools, and communities.
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PEE is hands-on, interactive learning that sparks the imagination and unlocks creativity. When PEE is integrated into the curriculum, students are more enthusiastic and engaged in learning, which raises student achievement in core academic areas.
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Not only does PEE offer opportunities for experiential learning outside of the classroom, it enables students to make connections and apply their learning in the real world. PEE helps learners see the interconnectedness of social, ecological, economic, cultural, and political issues.
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PEE encourages students to research, investigate how and why things happen, and make their own decisions about complex environmental issues. By developing and enhancing critical and creative thinking skills, PEE helps foster a new generation of informed consumers, workers, as well as policy or decision makers.
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By incorporating PEE practices into the curriculum, teachers can integrate science, math, language arts, history, and more into one rich lesson or activity, and still satisfy numerous state and national academic standards in all subject areas. Taking a class outside or bringing nature indoors provides an excellent backdrop or context for interdisciplinary learning.
Here you can find brief description of few activities successfully accomplished under the CARE campaign.
My Garden Quiz 2012
School gardens are a wonderful way to use the schoolyard as a classroom, reconnect students with the natural world and the true source of their food, and teach them valuable gardening and agriculture concepts and skills that integrate with several subjects, such as math, science, art, health and physical education, and social studies, as well as several educational goals, including personal and social responsibility.
My Garden Quiz was the first practical activity of the CARE Campaign designed for the school students in their 1st to 12th educational grades. Before the Quiz, GLA provided the Green Ambassadors and their supporters with the Guidebooks of their respective categories. After the assessment of the Quiz Sheets Green Living Association presented to the winners presented lucrative prizes for the winners of the Quiz. Besides the prizes for the winners GLA awarded a recognition prize to every participant of the Quiz.
Click here to know more about 'My Garden Quiz'
Growing Garden Quiz 2013
My Garden Quiz proved to be a wonderful way of developing students’ positive attitude towards nature. We noticed that school gardens were both "shrinking students' waistlines and increasing their understanding of food and the environment. According to a research "when middle school students in large urban communities are given the opportunity to learn about ecology in a real-world context, they are more enthusiastic about attending school, make better grades, eat healthier food due to wiser food choices, and become more knowledgeable about natural processes."
Such healthier trend inspired us keep extending the benefits of Growing Garden through the next practical activity of the campaign. Growing Garden Quiz was organized in the last quarter of 2013 as the second activity of the GLA's practical Environmental campaign 'Collective Action to Restore Environment' (CARE). Thousands of students joined hands firstly to establish their Green Living schools’ clubs and then to practically grow their schools gardens in association with their schools’ administration. The families of the participating students joined hands by growing the gardens at homes.
Click here to meet the national winners of ‘Growing Garden Quiz’.
3R's Practical Project 2014
Involving students and teachers in recycling education and practical activities to reduce, reuse and recycle trash can be a great learning and lot of fun. Educating students about the importance of 3R's and bringing those to their lives provide a path to a greener future. ‘3R's Campus Quiz’ was the first activity of the project to help the Green Angels (the participating students) discover how 3Rs can transform their lives on campus by developing the habit of Environmental conservation. One time’s participation of the students offered them practical skills of Environmental Conservation under a 3-phase plan of activities including:
1. Study from the Guidebooks
2. Participation in the 3R's Quiz &
3. Participation in 3R's Practical Mission
3R's Practical Mission was a complimentary (free of cost) activity of the project by Green Living Association for the participating campuses, organized during the summer camps.
Click here to know about 3R's Practical Project
Click here to meet the winners of 3R's Campus Quiz
Energy Project 2015
Energy generated by fossil-fuels is a big source of world’s greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and global warming. It is really important for students and all segments of society to know the dangers caused by the fossil fuels on our environment and our capability to reduce dangerous greenhouse emissions by increasing renewable energy generation and green power purchasing. In wake of the rising greenhouse emissions in the world and alarming energy crisis in Pakistan Green Living Association arranged Energy project for the schools’ students which offered study from the Guidebooks, participation in the Quiz and free participation in the practical energy project arranged during the schools’ summer camps.
Thousands of students across Pakistan joined the project in getting useful theoretical and practical education and enjoying lucrative prizes distributed by Green Living Association. The project proved really successful in motivating people to use renewable energy to support a sustainable future.
Click here to know about Energy Mission (free practical activity)
Click here to meet the winners of Energy Quiz
Cool our Planet Quiz 2016
‘Cool our Planet’ was the last Green Quiz of the five yearly CARE campaign. The focus of the Quiz was to combat Global Warming – the most critical issue of the contemporary world. Global warming, which is a gradual rising of Earth's temperature, is different from all threats to our world, representing a scale of threat greater than anything humans have faced in recent history. No doubt, our responsible and timely approach could save our planet from the serious impacts of Global Warming in giving humans healthier lives and in saving many species from extinction.
Each Green Angel (participating student) was supposed to involve 4 family members to solve the Quiz in their association by getting help from the guidebooks provided by GLA. Important attributes of the Quiz include categorizing the students in 4 different categories, warm participation of students and their families across Pakistan and distribution of lucrative prizes among the students to recognize their green initiatives.