Do you still remember the tree-planting events held by TSMC in 4 cities back in March? With the support of the 4 local governments, TSMC volunteers have planted trees with children living in rural areas that they have been offering long-term volunteering service at. By planting trees, the volunteers and the children have made a promise to strive for a sustainable future and a commitment to environmental protection.
After the tree-planting events, we immediately launched an environmental protection project. Even though the event was hit by the outbreak in May, TSMC was quick to think on its feet. Continuing with the original plan, TSMC turned the in-person event into an online environmental education event.
Making Environmental Education Fun by Keeping Children Company and Rousing their Interests
The catch was how did we turn an environmental education that relied heavily on learning with five senses into a virtual event? How did we turn an immersive experience into something that could catch the children’s attention? How did we get children to take interests in environmental issues?
We decided to follow the guideline: we had to make the issue relatable to the children, so that they would remember the lessons. To do so, we had to pique their interests first. Designed with the goal to instruct while the children have fun and carried out in the company of TSMC volunteers, the game was a virtual reality, learning-through-play experience.
How did we turn an environmental education lesson into an online game?
TSMC collaborated with WALK in TAIWAN to develop the project “I Spy with My Little Eyes: Invasive Species,” where it invited every student in Chao-Tung Elementary School in Hsinchu County to become a detective and investigate the crisis of the brush pot tree, a native species in Taiwan.
On the screen, children could see real video footage filmed in the Water Curtain Cave in Hsinchu. With the additional sounds of nature, children would be able to have an immersive experience of being in the wild. The project was designed like a game, where children had to unlock stages to get to the next level. By using the paper-based game booklet as reference, children had to compete with other teams to find the brush-pot tree in order to make a bridge, or answer rapid fire questions about native and invasive species. While holding the children’s interests, the game also taught the children that not all introduced species posed a threat to the native ecology, and that there were other solutions than killing the invasive species.
Click here to see “I Spy with My Little Eyes: Invasive Species” video
TSMC teach children about the environment through games: children become detectives to investigate the real-life crisis of the brush pot trees.
Combining Reality: Making Care and Happiness Come True
Connecting with reality is another important guideline when designing the game.
TSMC collaborated with the OldTreeYard Foundation on a course project. In the project, we didn’t explicitly talk about the importance of old trees, or the mass flow in plants. Nonetheless, the anthropomorphized title “Grandpa Zelkova’s path” has already succeeded in grabbing the attention of children in Si Wei Elementary School in Taichung, where they asked questions such as “Who is Grandpa Zelkova? Is he a tree? Why would a tree be related to path?” The title had children asking questions about old trees in their daily lives, and by regarding Grandpa Zelkova like a senior parent in one’s home, they have taken the first steps to care about their environment.
Besides making the project fun, the connection between online and offline activities is another major focus when designing the game. Children could collect points for earning jellies when they answer questions online. When the children saw that their reward cards turned into actual jellies after school resumed, the children were simply thrilled.
Click here to see “Grandpa Zelkova’s path” video
Any interaction is encouraged, the point-collecting game is for children to understand their efforts online can be turned into rewards offline.
Sowing the Seed: Education for a Sustainable Future
In the tree-planting event in March, Chairwoman Sophie Chang said “we have to use saplings to let children know that the growth of trees owed a lot of time and effort to people.” Behind TSMC’s heartwarming and fascinating online education, the main purpose was to let the children know their indissoluble and intimate connection with the environment.
The two principals involved in the tree-planting event and the online education, Si Wei Elementary School principal Shen Tsui-lien, and Chao-Tung Elementary School principal Liu Chu-feng have also said respectively: “online learning can make our learning even more continuous” and “in regards to the environmental education course as designated by the school, we have broadened both the scope and depth of the issue, thanks to the TSMC volunteers.”
During the process, it didn’t matter what the children drew or asked, for there were no definite answers. They would all get a “case-closed” certificate to commemorate themselves as a guardian of protecting the environment. They would also receive a letter filled with words of encouragement and recognition from the volunteers, and Grandpa Zelkova’s leaf (a friend of Grandpa Zelkova). With online interaction and real-life care, we would like to tell the children from afar that we would always keep our promise: to love our trees, people and the environment.