Supported by Knowledge Transfer Project Fund from Lingnan University, we co-organized the Intergeneration Eco-classroom with Science Unit of Lingnan University in the summer of 2017.
Through the quality lecture and outdoor environmental education, we yearned for the public to have a better understanding of local amphibians and reptiles. On top of knowledge, we pursued the participant to practice and proclaim the importance of conservation. Furthermore, through group activities within the programme, it facilitated communication and collaboration between several generations. Lastly, making use of different social networks of public participants, the knowledge and ideology of conservation spread out to various communities efficiently.
The programme received an overwhelming response, including 105 applications from tertiary students and senior citizens. We eventually selected 26 tertiary students and 34 senior citizens, that is 60 of them to be the participant. The programme contained 4 activity days. The former 3 comprised indoor lecture and outdoor field trip, while the final one was a graduation and sharing ceremony.
The subjects of the indoor lecture were amphibians and reptiles, introducing their ecology, threats, conservation etc. For the field trip, it emphasized the technique of species identification via practising in several habitats, namely, Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, Long Valley and Pok Fu Lam Country Park.
To increase the learning efficiency, the participants were formed in groups in the training. Each group were formed with tertiary students and senior citizens, whereas they trained and finished the whole programme together. Moreover, the programme included self-reflection, which is a crucial element of experiential education. Therefore, we established two tasks for them, including a photo album of self-reflection as well as a video production of the learning outcome.
The major feature of this programme was the intergeneration collaboration throughout the training. This facilitated the communication and corporation between generations, exchanged experience and knowledge from different visions and aspects, and enriched the outcome of the whole programme.
Amphibians and reptiles play the essential roles in ecosystem and food chain. In recent years, they are experiencing great decline globally. One-third of amphibians are threatened out of more than 6,000 known species all over the world. This raised global awareness towards amphibians species, however, what have been done in Hong Kong so far in order to react and conserve our local amphibians?
