The Chinese primary school ‘Hengde’ had the brilliant idea of building a water ecological learning field to enable kids to learn about water conservation and ecology through games and other hands on activities.

Implementation of the project

Following the Eco-Schools Seven Steps, the project was implemented by an International Ecological Commission of pupils from grades 1st to 5th.

The water ecological learning field included a series of actions and activities: the installation of spray nozzle on taps to reduce water consumption, a drinking water recovery system and the re-built of the draining system. The latter is of particular importance, as it allowed the schools to have an irrigation mechanism for the small 1-square-meter farms installed in front of each class.

Through the creation of micro wetlands, pupils had fun, while learning about purification. In these wetlands 54 species of plants and 11 species of aquatic plants were planted, and 9 species of aquatic animals introduced, so as to create a food chain network and improve the biological purification effect.

Outcomes

This complex and creative project has contributed and is contributing to the increase of pupils’ awareness on the issues of excessive water consumption and water saving, while allowing them to learn new methods to save water, to get teamwork skills, and enhancing their consciousness of environmental issues in general. Thanks to it, kids can make water-saving devices in groups or independently, and most of them have a preliminary understanding of the principles of some water-saving devices.