How To: Simple Environmental Camp/After-School Activity

Duration: 4 days
Purpose: Raise environmental awareness in one’s own community
Form: 5-8th*
Time: 1-2 hours each day
PCVs: At least 2, maybe more if you have a large group
*We used a 7th former to help with translation

Day 1: General Information
Educational Jeopardy/Discussion
Materials: Jeopardy Board
Divide kids into 2 teams.
Give kids 1-2 min to give their answer
Discuss the answers and spend extra time on the ones they got wrong

Environmental Jeopardy Categories and Questions
Trash:
How long does it take?
Plastic Bag - 50+ years
Glass Bottle - 1,000,000+ years
Cigarette Butt - 2-5 years
Plastic Bottle - 450-800 eyars
Rubber - 50-80 years
Pollution:
What pollutes the air? (cars, factories, burning trash)
What pollutes the water? (trash in water, oil, chemicals, sewage)
Why is burning your trash bad?
Why is water pollution bad?
How do you prevent pollution? (reduce/reuse/recycle, don’t litter, cleaner power aka solar, wind, pick up trash, talk about not littering)
Solutions:
You go to Dashkasan and you see a Chiko semochka bag on the ground. What do you do?
You see your uncle throwing a bucket of trash in the local river. What do you do?
After drinking a coke, your best friend, throws the bottle out of the marshrutka window. What do you say to him/her?
You finish a bottle of Fanta and now you have a bottle. What can you do with it besides throwing it away?
How can you educate your friends about the environment?

Day 2: Recycle Art
Materials: plastic bottles, old magazines, glue, yarn, scissors, etc.
There are a ton of things you can make from every day trash, you can make kids bring their own on pre-plan an activity. In Barda we made mobiles.
All you need is sticks, yarn and old newspapers or magazines.
Have kids work individually and encourage creativity.
Share everyone’s work in the end

Day 3: Environmental Walk/Scavenger Hunt
Materials: Checklist for scavenger hunt, prizes
Identify an area in or around your community where you can take the children.
Go to the area a day before the planned walk and outline a rough route.
Pick out items on the walk for kids to identify (broken bottle, 4 leaf-clover, etc
Divide the kids in teams with a PCV as each group leader.
Have kids find as many items on their scavenger list and have the group leader/PCV check the items off.
After you finish, have a brief discussion of what you saw and what we can do to improve or keep the area the same

Day 4: Clean Up/Picnic
Materials: Plastic bags (we used plastic bags to collect the trash in and put over our hands instead of gloves); hand sanitizer
Identify a small area to clean, as a group clean, the area for at least 30 min
Have a celebratory picnic (have each kid bring something, etc)

Notes from the Barda camp:
We had 12 kids show between the ages of 10 and 13 and we also got a 7th former to come and help us translate. We did our camp at the local “Usaq Park” and did our lessons and activities in and around it. For the nature walk, we went to the Barda forest which has a lot of cool looking trees and also a ton of trash piles everywhere. We had kids look for specific trees, leaves, bottles, syringes, birds, bugs and other pieces of trash. For the picnic we picked out the items we wanted and had kids sign up for what they’ll bring during the 2nd day of camp so they have enough time to get it done. All in all the kids had a ton of fun and so did we! Good luck!

June Update

The Environmental Committee is looking for a new member!
As AZ4 prepares to close out their service, the Environmental Committee is looking to fill their place with a new member from AZ5. Our mission is to “Raise PCV and staff awareness of environmental issues in order to encourage a positive change in environment of Azerbaijan.” If you are interested in applying, check your email for the application questions, or check out our blog at envcommaz.blogspot.com. The new member will join Kat Zigmont (AZ5 CED, Goychay) and Jeff Bailey (AZ5, TEFL, Ujar) in our attempt to strengthen the growing committee. The Environmental Committee was founded by Ina Arnaoudova (AZ4, TEFL, Barda) to try to do something about the environmental problems facing Azerbaijan. She was joined by Sarah Choy (AZ4, CED, Barda), Jenny Groza (AZ4, TEFL, Tovuz), and Mike Lee (AZ4, CED, Mingechevir), all of whom worked hard to create resources for volunteers to use when working on environmental issues. If you are interested in working with the committee, have any other questions about what we do, or have an issue you would like us to discuss, email us at envcommaz@googlegroups.com

If you are in AZ5 and interested in applying please submit to us answers to the following questions by July 7th:

1. Why do you want to be on the Environmental Committee?
2. What environmental problems are realistic for volunteers to tackle?
3. How do you think the environmental committee can assist PCVs in HCN education and mobilization?
4. What background do you have which will assist your role as an environmental committee member?
5. What project ideas have you had or implemented within your community or organization?

Earth Day 2008: Theory and Practice
Volunteers throughout Azerbaijan participated in the Earth Day Program this year, establishing a wonderful tradition of creating environmental awareness and promoting volunteerism. Not sure if your community will be receptive to environmental activities? Think again. Armed with resources provided by the Environmental Committee as well their own determination and perseverance, PC volunteers in all corners of Azerbaijan participated in the Earth Day Program 2008. The Program involved environmental based lesson plans as well as various activities with their local community members.

Check out THIS lesson plan to use in your classroom/club at anytime.

Earth Day Contest Results

Congratulations winners!



Sheep in a Field made of recycled materials by Roya Afandiyeva, Zaqatala












Flower Vase made by Sevinj Hajiyeva, Zaqatala












Flower embroidery made by E. Nagi, Agdam Rayon IDP settlement






All winners received an art kit and will be published in the next issue of the AzLander. Thank you to all PCV's and students who participated.