Junam environment camp

Emily, Jeff, Tabitha and I trucked on down the country to Changwon city and neighboring Junam reservoir for the second English environment education camp for middle school students. 27 students, 8 Korean and 8 foreign volunteers got together to put on this camp, organized by our group - Birds Korea, the Ministry of Environment and the UNDP, whose officer in charge of the camp was Ms. Hong Su-yeon.

Jeff's team listens for their 5 sounds.

For these students, it was something completely different and a chance to get closer to the natural environment so easily forgotten or ignored these days. Breaking them into 6 groups and with one foreign and one Korean team leader each, we enjoyed a variety of activities and exercises.

Tabitha's team finds leaves to draw.

The first day saw us outside almost immediately, doing a natural treasure hunt, where they had to find and draw 5 leaves and 3 insects, find 3 different coloured flowers, and describe 5 sounds they heard. After that it was birdwatching time at Junam, both in the rice fields and at the man-made reservoir itself.

One group birds around the rice fields in the heat of the day.

Making things much less pleasant than the February camp at Upo was the 33 degrees heat, high humidity and glaring sun. That combined with the general lack of birds (summer is the least productive birding season in Korea) made for some challenging outings.

End of day discussions and thoughts at Changwon University.

The students then had to make and Eco-map of the area, complete with habitat areas, where different birds were and areas in which they noticed problems such as disturbance or pollution.

Eco-map making at the Junam Education center.

We ended Sunday with an activity in which they each had a different focus (home, school, world) but had to make a list of 5 things they could do to help protect the environment and help stop the rising species extinction rate. After half an hour, it was amazing and gratifying to hear what suggestions they came up with - truly amazing coming from kids who have never thought about these things in this way before!!

For us, too, it was a rewarding experience, not only in that we were able to see students outside of the classroom, but to teach them about something that matters to us all - the protection and conservation of the environment around us. As Emily and I are leaving, it's out last in Korea, but who knows what opportunities for this kind of thing await for us back home?

Only two more weeks to go - split by a weekend of camping with Cody and Karen, then we're off to Mongolia to start this trip we've been seemingly planning for years! Hope you're all well:)