Strengthening Environmental Education in the Sixaola River Basin
As part of the efforts to improve teaching of environmental education in schools in the Sixaola River basin area, and identifying needs by the Champions of Sixaola; the BRIDGE project organized a workshop named “Training for Trainers on Environmental Education”
This event was held on October 27th and 28th 2006, in Changuinola, Panama, and it was directed towards Panamanian teachers, of which 29 teachers participated.
During the two days, the teachers had the opportunity of contextualizing themselves about the Sixaola River basin and strengthen their knowledge about key topics related to environmental education, water, basins, cooperation, climate change and solid waste; through presentations and fun-filled activities that promoted the participation of the attendees. In addition, the main problems related to environmental education in the community were identified, which demonstrated the importance of promoting new activities that raise awareness about nature conservation among the population and institutions.
As the final products, it hopes to define the necessary resources for creating an Environmental Education Program, directed towards the schools of the Sixaola River basin, because currently, the Panamanian education program does not include the Environmental Education subject. Furthermore, considering the inputs of the workshop, it pretends to draft a Manual for trainers on environmental education, in order to improve and support the teaching of environmental education from the Panama Ministry of Education (MEDUCA) in the Sixaola basin zone.