Report on environmental education activities on
the Earth Day at Maruyama Zoo, Sapporo, Japan
Team members:
Devon (GES)
Chimka (GES)
Sinohara (GES)
Parveen (GES)
Sakai (GES)
Tsozoo(HUSCAP)
Collaborators:
Yoshida (CENSUS ADMINISTRATION)
Annisa (HUSCAP)
Instructor:
Nori Tanaka(CENSUS,GES)
This report is mostly written by participating member students of this program
Joint special lecture on environmental education by Center for Sustainability Science
(CENSUS) and Global Environmental Management (GEM) course, Graduate School of
Environmental Science (GES) 2012
1
Table of contents
–
Prologue(Doven)
–
General introduction( Nori)
–
Objective of the education program of Maruyama Zoo for the Earth day
event(Parveen, Chimka, Tsozoo)
–
Activities
•
Under 8(Devon)
•
Over 8(Parveen)
•
General
(Treasure
hunting,
Presentations,
Awarding
price )(Chimka, Sino,Nori)
–
Evaluation(Questionnaire, suggestion from participants on the site)(Sino,
Nori)
–
Closing remarks( Nori)
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Prologue(Devon)
The young mind is an important mind since it can be molded and shaped to
accomplish great and desirable things in the future. The world is faced with global
challenges such as climate change, habitat destruction, widespread pollution, new and
emerging diseases and the list goes on. As irresponsible inhabitants who have
contributed in no small way to the degradation of the planet we call home it this
therefore imperative that we attempt to curb our bad practices, reverse the damaging
effects on the globe and try to preserve our children’s future. Unfortunately, this will not
happen in our lifetime although we are the ones to begin the process and therefore we
have to continue the cycle so that our children and their children will maintain this
legacy. Therefore, recognizing this fact, we embarked on a project aimed at educating
young minds who may be able to influence an untold number of persons in the life they
are yet to live.
The repercussions of any seemingly small action must never be underestimated.
This content of this report reveals what a group of young people can accomplish if they
work together with the common objective of making the world and its fauna and flora
more sustainable. It is also hoped that the contents of this report will motivate others to
follow in our footsteps, duplicate and further enhance the activities embarked on Earth
Day 2012 at the Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Let’s continue to educate our
children and work together to save planet earth.
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General Introduction (Nori)
The root of a kind of formal environmental education could go back to 19th
century in the United States of America. Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of
United States of America, who was known as an active naturalist at the time,
established "The American Committee for International Wild Life Protection" in 1930.
This committee has later become "The International Union for Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources" in 1948. The inauguration speech of this international union
is known at the first time to introduce the term of "Environmental Education".
In the early stages of environmental education, nature study, outdoor
education and conservation education are major activities in the education. The
objective of nature study, outdoor education and conservation education is mainly to let
people know better about nature and raise awareness of importance of nature. In 1960s,
environmental pollution and the related disease became serious problems in United
states, European countries and Japan. Consequently, environmental education has
been taken very seriously by governments, resulting that environmental education is in
part of curriculum in compulsory education. Naturally, more focus put to prevention of
air, water, soil pollutions and conservation of natural ecosystems.
Achieving such effective environmental educations, well trained teachers are
needed. However, at least in Japan, there is no teachers in compulsory education, who
are specially trained how to conduct environmental education because there is not such
a curriculum subject in elementary and junior high schools yet. In fact, last 20 years
or so in Japan, many NPOs have been major players in children and adult
environmental educations outside formal education systems.
More recently, global environmental problem such as global warming due to
CO2 and other greenhouse gases emission to the atmosphere is placed at the front of
environmental issues. Therefore, environmental experts are now forced to consider
both global and local aspects to seek individual solutions. " Think globally! Act locally! "
is widely used phrase now. Even new term as "Glocal" is introduced. Indeed,
spacio-temporal aspects are essential perspectives for new leaders in environmental
researchers and practitioners in these days.
The most part of this report is written by students as a part of course work for
fostering practitioners for environmental education in the course of Global
Environmental Management (GEM), Graduate School of Environmental Science,
Hokkaido University.
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The GEM course aims to raise international experts to work for environmental
education and research under multi-disciplinary supervision. This training course is
designed to provide hands on experiences in environmental education in the GEM.
Our class team designed and conducted children and family activities in
Maruyama Zoo, taking a special opportunity of the Zoo for the Earth day event on June
2-3, 2012. In this report, we provide details of our activities in planning, execution,
evaluation and debriefing, which is a kind of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle. Hope
that this report provide valuable information to fresh men and women in the future
class.
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Objective of the education program of Maruyama
Zoo for the Earth day event (Parveen, Chimka, Tsozoo)
General objective
To raise the awareness of kids and their parents on various aspects of wildlife
Specific objectives
To teach kids to recognize difference between wild and domestic animals by using pets
and not pets cards, and color game
To create awareness about threatened animals and their feeds, habitat, human usage,
and threats by using animal puzzle game
To challenge the participants to learn and find out new information related to animals of
the Maruyama zoo by treasure hunt game
To encourage learning about some crucial issues of wildlife that they are facing at the
moment by power point presentation and discussion
Activities
1) Color activity for children with age under 8 (Devon)
Introduction
Differences between wild and domesticated animals are important. Wildlife is
an animal that lives in its natural state, providing for its own food, shelter and other
needs in a suitable habitat.
Domestic animals are those that humans keep in captivity or are bred for a
specific purpose.
Wild animals can become pets if they are properly tamed and domesticated but
the difference between them and dogs and cats for example is that although they may
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appear tame, they may still be wild. Another aspect to note is that although wild
animals may be tamed and domesticated they are usually unsuitable as pets and in
most cases are illegal to keep as pets.
Many animals are native to a particular region or area and are therefore well
adapted to that particular environment and habitat. It is important to identify animals
that are native because invasive species are problematic since they can affect the native
species by dominating them and making them extinct or endangered.
Children must know that even though an animal is seen in a zoo that may have
come from another country or region that does not mean that the animal exists in their
region. The existence of an animal in a particular area refers to their presence in the
natural environment.
Objective

Children can recognize differences between wildlife and domestic animals.

Children can determine which animals should be kept as pets as against those
that are better left in the wild.

Children will realize that animals exist in a wide variety in the wild using colors
as one of the characteristics.
Materials used

Pictures of brightly colored animals.

Colored cardboard.

Question cards.
Instructions

First the child selects an animal of his/her preference.

The child then identifies its color.

Next he/she determines whether or not it can or should be kept as a pet.

The child then determines whether or not the animal can be found in the region
in which they live. (Hokkaido)
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Participants
A total of 20 children participated in the activity with 60% being girls and 40% being
boys. A total of 80% of the participants were accompanied by their parents. The age
range was between 4 and 22 with the participants over 12 participating in English thus
having a chance to practice communication in that language.
Observations and Feed back
The participants were very responsive to the activity and the encouragement and
communication skills of the facilitators were very essential in the success of its
operation.
Some examples of additional questions that were required to prompt the correct
answers from were for example:
“Which one is your favorite animal?” (Asked whenever there is a delay in choosing the
animal)
“What other color can you see?” (Asked when they mention a color that is on the card
but is not the dominant color of the animal)
Have you ever seen this animal in your neighborhood? (Asked when they are unsure if
the animal is in Sapporo or not)
“Can you live with this animal?” “Do you think your parents would love living with this
animal in the house?” (Asked whenever they are unsure if the animal is suitable as a
pet)
Parents who accompanied the children seemed very enthusiastic as their children were
seen responding correctly to the questions. They also facilitated the exercise at times for
example:
A boy chose a poisonous green tree frog and he said that he can have it as a pet. His
mother then said that she cannot live with it and he changed his mind and said he
cannot have it as pet anymore.
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Participants were generally very intelligent and brave and made analysis that we did
not anticipate. For example:
A girl chose a pigeon like bird that is not native to Japan. She said that she can have it
as a pet but it is not possible to have it because she never saw it in Japan.
In cases were siblings and friends came together, it was noted that they helped each
other, gave differing opinions on a question and that made it even more interesting. A
case to note is the following:
Two boys came together and one of them chose a yellow butterfly. One of them said it is
in Hokkaido. The other boy told him he never saw that butterfly in Sapporo and they
discussed among themselves and he eventually changed his mind and said it is not in
Sapporo.
It was very heartening to have a special needs participant who was in a wheel chair
accompanied by her mother and sister and to see them go through the activity together.
She chose the yellow frog.
Initially the activity was perceived as one to be done in groups but in practice it was
conducted on an individual basis. This was positive because it allowed for each
participant to answer every question and the time to go through the complete exercise
was roughly about 2-3 minutes and therefore not time consuming for persons who may
want to move on to other things. In addition, it allowed for children to choose their
pictures without any competition whatsoever.
It was pointed out by one of the parents that it would have been nice to have
information on the animals pictured at the back so that the souvenir picture would also
be informative. This will be done if and when it is repeated.
Conclusions
It can be concluded that the activity was conducted successfully and fulfilled the desired
objectives and it is hoped that the participants are somehow motivated to learn more
about animals and their welfare and sustainability.
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2) Animal puzzle game for children with age over 8
(Parveen、Febrina)
Introduction
An ecosystem is an ecological system formed by the inherent interrelationship
between living things and their environment. Ecosystem can also be said as an order of
whole and complete unity among all the environmental elements that affect each other.
In ecosystems, organisms evolve in a community together with the physical
environment as a system. The organism will adapt to the physical environment,
whereas organisms also affect the physical environment for living purposes.
Human beings have a very important role in maintaining the balance and
sustainability of ecosystems. This concept should be learnt and realized from early age.
Since human beings have very initial roles in maintaining the sustainability of
ecosystems, then the environmental education can be early taught to children through
the simple and familiar ways that they easily understand, such as by introducing them
the kinds of organisms, for instance animals. Why should we choose animals? Because
they can more easily learn things that they are familiar with. Even when they were
toddlers, they were already introduced to several animals both pets and wild animals.
Therefore, animals are not alien things for them.
Every human being on the earth has responsibility to conserve threatened
wildlife, so children should also know about them. Environmentally aware people can
play an active role in conservation of wild animals, and this will help to reduce the
extinction rate of wild animals. These days children have a less idea about the wildlife,
especially related to threatened animals. Indeed they are more interested in video
games and cartoons in televisions. Most of them are seeing animals in zoos, and has no
idea about their natural habitat, and associated threats in the wild. So introduced or
make them aware about wild animal’s habitats, feeds, human usage, and survival
threats are necessary, and should be the part of environmental education program in
school. Therefore, this activity is designed for kids older than 8 years to introduce them
about the threatened animals from around the globe. This activity will cover eight
threatened wild animals viz. Snow Leopard, Blue-fin Tuna, Red Crowned Crane, Sea
Turtle, Honey Bees, Polar Bear, Hornbill, and Musk Dear.
Objectives

To create children's awareness about threatened wild animals
10

To introduce children about the feeds of threatened wild animals

To introduce children about the habitats of threatened wild animals

To introduce children about the human usages of threatened wild animals

To introduce children about the threats of threatened wild animals
Materials used

Pictures of threatened animals, their feeds, habitats, human uses, and threats.

White boards

Magnets

Markers

Pictures of wild animals as posters for souvenirs
Instructions
1. Eight threatened animals were selected on the basis of their conservation status
and habitat types.
2. Pictures associated with their main feed, habitat, human usage, and associate
threats were collected and printed.
3. Magnet strips were attached to each picture to facilitate adhesion to the white
board.
4. Pictures were equally distributed in two white boards and one animal was
assigned as the example. Other pictures were randomly placed in the white board.
5. Instructors provided the direct information related to animals in details to
facilitate the game.
6. One the basis of example set and instructions kids were asked to arrange
pictures in proper order. After the rearrangement in correct orders, kids have been
given detail information by the instructors related to wild animals and their feeds,
natural habitats, human usages, and main environmental threats to them.
7. More information related to wild animals and threats associated with them were
discussed with participants. After the completion of activity kids were awarded
with the poster of a wild animal as a souvenir.
Outcome of the activity
More than 20 kids enthusiastically participated in the activity mostly
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accompanied by their parents. Some kids also came with their friends and classmates.
Most of them worked as a team to crack downed the animal puzzle game. Whenever
they felt any difficulty in matching threatened animals with their feeds or habitats
instructors provided hint about the wild animals. For an instance a child was facing
difficulty in matching habitat of Musk Deer, then instructor hinted about high
mountains, and the child instantly recognized the habitat. With provided hint others
kids were also able to rearrange the pictures in right order. It was noted that kids and
their parents have knowledge about most common and famous threatened animals such
as snow leopard, polar bear, and blue fin tuna. However, they have less idea about not so
common animals such as musk deer and hornbill. It was also observed that kids
possessed significant knowledge about the animals, which are present in the Maruyama
zoo such as snow leopard, and polar bear.
It is desired that kids have learned about threatened animals, and this activity
has facilitated to increase their awareness level. Sidewise, parents also got chance to
know about the knowledge level of their kids focusing on wild animals. On the basis of
kids performance on the activity, parents can encourage them to learn more about
important expect of wildlife in our lives. Thus in can be concluded that this type of
activity and interaction have motivated kids to know more about threatened wild
animals and their feeds, habitats, human usages, and threats.
Future directions
Following things should be considered in future while carrying this type of
activity:
1. Selection of wild animals should be diverse including indigenous threatened animals
2. Fact sheet about each animal should be prepared and provided to the participants
after the activity
3. Videos related to animals should be shown sidewise to provide more information
3)General Activities (Treasure hunting, Presentations,
Awarding price )
3-1 Treasure Hunting(Chimka)
Treasure hunt (Quiz)
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Introduction
Due to climate change and anthropogenic factors that influence its
projection, the world we are living in is continuously changing. Some places and
ecosystems are more vulnerable to the occuring, the same as to some species and
their habitats. Human kinds have been a part of the natural system. For the last
few centuries it became the dominant species.
Though we can enjoy all the
advantages of modern life, human activities are causing destruction to the wild life
and deterioration of their natural environment.
To sustain our modern comfortable lifestyle, we need to consider about the
environment for it is the origin of our existence. Education is a powerful tool in
order to change the mindset of general public. Especially kids are curious and
adaptive to new discoveries; though kids these days especially from urban areas
have less interaction with wild nature and wildlife therefore are not aware of the
issues and problems that occur.
Zoo is another place where kids can have quality time with their friends
and families observing and making some small discoveries about our world. It is
also a great place to learn about wildlife
Objectives

To raise the awareness of kids and their parents on specific aspects of
wildlife and animals

Educational quiz that challenges the participants to learn and find out new
information and have different perspective on some crucial issues that are
facing at the moment
13
Materials used
Brochure with the general information
Quiz questions
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Treasure Hunt (Quiz) questions
1.
What
is
the
major
threat
of
the
habitat
for
polar
bears?
___________________________________
2. Find three kinds of monkeys in the zoo and point out what is the characteristic
difference for each monkey.
1)_________________________2)_____________________________3)___________________
3.
This red animal lives in the moist sub-alpine forest from Southern China and
northern
Myanmar.
It
feeds
on
bamboo
and
mushrooms.
What
is
it?______________________________________________
4. Tell three animals that can do seasonal color change.
1)__________________________2)_____________________________3)__________________
5. This big white animal lives in Arctic region and it is one of very popular animals in
the Maruyama Zoo. What is it?_______________________________________________
6. Suggest three animals in the zoo, classified as endangered in Japan.
1)_________________________2)_____________________________3)___________________
7. Find scientific names for :
1)Buzzards _______________________________________________
2)Fowls _______________________________________________
3)White storks _______________________________________________
What is the similarity?______________________________________________
8. Which is the most significant threat for wildlife? Please circle the correct answer.
a) River pollution, b) Climate change, c) Deforestation
9.
What
is
the
best
way
to
protect
wild
animals?
_________________________________________
10.
Why
diversity
in
nature
is
important?
_______________________________________________
Instructions
1. Fill in the answers on the question sheet.
(Most of the answers can be found on the information cards on the animal cages
in the zoo)
2.
Write down your name and contact information.
3. Bring and place in the campaign box before 14:00.
4. Come to the Zoo center at 15:00 for prize giving exercise.
15
Results of participants

Reecived 17 answer sheets
◦
15 points – 1
◦
14 points – 1
◦
13 points -2
◦
12 points -2
◦
11 points -4
◦
7 points – 2
◦
6 points – 4
◦
4 points -1
Answers to the Questions
1. Sea ice melting, global warming, climate change… - 1
2. Pictures of Monkeys attached - 3
3. Red Panda – 1
4. Reptiles, birds, deer, rabbit, wolf… - 3
5. Polar bear -1
6. Endangered animals in Japan – 3
7. 1)Buzzards __Buteo buteo 2) Fowls ______Gallus gallus
3) White storks ___Ciconia ciconia /Same species and genus names/ - 3
8. a) River pollution – 1 b) Climate change – 3 c) Deforestation – 2
9. a) practice proper waste disposal, b) slow down when an animal is on the road,
c) recycle and reuse to limit the impact on natural resources, d) don’t use
dangerous pesticides and chemicals, e) Control my pets when outdoors because
they can kill wildlife, f) don’t buy products if not produced in a sustainable way,
g) don’t buy products made from endangered animals - 1
10. Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how
small, all have an important role to play - 1
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/In total – 20 points/
Observations and Feed back
1st question
1. What is the
major threat of…
2nd question
2. Find three kinds of
monkeys in the zoo and
point out what is the…
7
1
Right
Right
Wrong
10
16
3rd question
4th question
3. This red animal lives in the
moist sub-alpine forest from
Southern China and northern
Myanmar. It feeds on…
3
4. Tell three animals that
can do seasonal color
change.
6
Right
14
6th question
5th question
0
7
6. Suggest three animals in
the zoo, classified as
endangered in Japan.…
Right
10
Right
17
Right
0
11
5. This big white animal
lives in Arctic region and it
is one of very popular
animals in the Maruyama…
Wrong
Wrong
Wrong
Partially
right
17
7th question
7. Find scientific names for
:
1)Buzzards 2)Fowls…
8th question
8. Which is the most significant
threat for wildlife?
1
2
1st favorable
2nd favorable
Right
Wrong
14
3rd favorable
9th question
10th question
9. What is the best way to
protect wild animals?
10. Why diversity in nature is
important?
Right
Right
Wrong
Wrong
Going around the zoo finding answers to various questions ranging from easy to
medium levels.
Questions that are considered difficult required the participants’ own opinions and
thoughts.
With the upper questions, we wanted kids and their parents to identify some
animals by giving some descriptions, notice differences of animals within one
classification, notice their scientific names, their knowledge on endangered animals,
current threats to the wildlife and their habitats, and their own opinion on the
importance of biodiversity and wild life protection.
All the participants showed their effort and interest in the treasure hunt
activity. Most of the kids were accompanied by their parents, so it was a great
opportunity to grab their parents’ attention on the aforementioned problems. Kids
were very impressive how much effort they put in trying to answer as many
questions as possible. Especially at the end, 2 boys came and were trying to find
answers on the importance of biodiversity from the books that were in Zoo Centre.
Further Improvements

Design of the brochure
18
◦
To make it easy to find the instructions
◦
To make more easier to folding in shape

Selection of the questions

Accurate translation
Evaluation
(Nori, and Sino)
We collected answer sheets and checked their scores.
Based on the scores,
we selected 10 top participants and giving them prize. Before the prize giving
ceremony, Mr. Shinohara and Dr. Noriyuki Tanaka gave them lectures on
endangered wide animals and provided them answers for the questions.
Approximately 30 children and parents attended the prize giving ceremony session.
we asked many question to children, which could be acquired during our activities
in Maruyama zoo at the day. We found that children were very actively involved and
learning further on wild animals in the zoo and elsewhere.
Presentations:
Presentations used for explaining the objectives of this activities as a whole
and for showing desirable answers for the questions are shown in appendix 1.
Presentation shows endangered species in Japan and the causes for the reduction of
the number of species. The most widely recognized and quoted species is now in
Japan is "Toki", Nipponia Nippon. In the presentation, details on "Toki" is presented
and the efforts to put "Toki" back to our environment is shown. The gaining "Toki"
habitat is not only to release "Toki" somewhere else is not far enough because proper
feeding ground and "Satoyama" like landscape must be recovered. In the
presentation, many local peoples like farmers, local governmental officers, officers
of Ministry of Environment, many NPOs are clearly appreciated for the activities to
regain "Toki" habitation in Noto peninsula, Japan. Many participants know about
"Toki" but surprisingly, few knew that "Toki"' scientific name, which has Japanese
country name in Japanese language.
Questionnaire survey:
After the zoo activity, we sent questionnaires to participating children and
accompanied parents by mail to collect if the activities could affect the children's daily
behavior or not. In order to increase the number of questionnaires, we put a stamped
return envelop, retrieved answer sheet on the event and pictures taken by Tsozoo. We
sent thirty four questionnaires. After a month, 7 questionnaires were received by mail,
19
which were 12% of the total participants and 21% of questionnaires sent by mail. This
was much less reply we expected but there were useful comments from them. In the
questionnaires, we asked following questions (Questionnaires sheet in Japanese is in
Appendix 2).
1) Participated activities (color game, animal puzzle and treasure hunter)
2) After the event participation, what are specifically learned by children?
3) Is there any change in behavior of children in terms of environmental issues?
4) Is there any change in children's behavior?
5) Suggestions to improve future our activities
Five color games and four animal puzzles among returned questionnaires were
participating game activities. Only Two were answered to participate in treasure hunter
game. Three were noticed some change in children mind more to care about nature
and wild animals by asking related questions to the parents. One child showed clearly
his appreciation to what you eat every day.
Overall, the reply showed positive
impression about our program. One strongly suggested that the content level of the
program, especially last presentation about bio-diversity, should be more easily
understandable. Therefore, materials for presentation may need to be improved further.
Closing Remarks ( Nori)
This report should be valuable documents to demonstrate the effectiveness of
so called participating education scheme in university curriculum. The class members
are both undergraduate and graduate students, who have various nationalities such as
Japanese, Mongolian, Nepalese, Indonesian and Guyanese. In this class activities, the
team with such diverse backgrounds in culture, tradition and professional disciplines
demonstrated to work together toward common objectives of the project.
Certainly, this is a cornerstone of class activities outside university campus and
lessons learned by both participating students and instructors. Many participants in
this zoo activities are very collaborative and seems enjoy learning about wild animals
and the problematic relationship with human through provided games and lectures.
We acknowledge Maruyama Zoo staffs, Mr. Toru Kikuta, Dr. Gakushi Ishimura
and Ms. Yumiko Yoshida for providing such nice opportunity to the class to participating
the Earth Day event and on-site support for the activities.
20
Appendix 1 Presentation materials
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
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Appendix II
アンケート調査へのお願い
先日の円山動物園アースデイでは本学の企画いべ b とにご参加いただき誠にありがとうご
ざいました。 お手数をおかけいたしますが、本アンケートにお答えいただき、同封の編
使用の封筒に入れて返送していただければ幸甚です。 本企画の効果を確認させていただ
いて、より良い企画を今後提供させていただくための参考にさせていただきます。
１）参加したイベントは何ですか？
あ）色遊び
い）アニマルパズル
う）トレジャーハンター
２）この企画で野生動物について何を学ぶことができましたか？
３）この企画にご参加していただいたあとで、お子様と野生動物についてなにか話合われ
たでしょうか？ もし、話合われたのであれば、その内容をお聞かせください。
４）この企画にご参加していただいたあとで、野生動物のためにと、何か普段の生活の仕
方を変えましたか？ もし、何か変えたのであれば、その内容をお聞かせください。 と
くに、子供たちの変化につてお聞かせいただければ幸いです。
５）その他、この企画に関してお気づきの点や完全すべき点がありましたら是非お聞かせ
ください。
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