School visit at Tacugama watching the chimps.

15 schools are taking part in the education program. It targets Primary School class 5 and includes the following components

Free the chimps board game.

• Teacher Workshops

Three workshops, one for each academic term, are being hosted throughout the year for one coordinating teacher from each school. During the workshops, issues and solutions regarding human impacts on the environment and wildlife are discussed, children’s activities are developed and the teaching materials are distributed. The first workshop was held in mid-November.

• Teacher’s Materials

A teacher’s resource pack is distributed at each workshop. Two of these contain materials to cover nine 20-minute sessions to be taught once a week during the spring and summer terms, completing the environmental education curriculum. They include teacher’s lesson plans containing background information and easily reproducible diagrams about the topics to be covered, as well as wall posters for the classrooms. They also contain class and homework activities for the students. The material to be taught has been divided into two terms of work to be taught in spring and summer 2008. The first term included an introduction to ecosystems and habitats, tropical rainforests, trees, logging, the water cycle, the carbon cycle and pollution. The second term will cover, biodiversity, wildlife of the WAPFR, chimpanzees ecology, welfare and conservation, hunting and bushmeat.

• Additional Activities at Schools

Program implementation includes a number of lessons directly carried out by the TKP team at the children’s schools. Members of the TKP visit the schools on two days per week during term time to carry out participatory reinforcement activities with Class 5 students. These lessons are designed to compliment the curriculum being studied using the teacher’s materials and resources provided during the workshop.

• Nature Club

Another component of the program is starting nature clubs in the schools, which are led by the co-ordinating teacher with the support of the project team. Members take part in further activities and ongoing projects, which they carry out in teams or alone, outside school hours. Members of the nature club will have the opportunity to win a final prize of one year’s school expenses, for one student per school, at the end of the year.

• Sanctuary Visits

One group of 30 students each week is brought to visit the sanctuary. During this visit, students are given an educative tour of the sanctuary before taking part in activities in the resource centre, education hut or forest surrounding the sanctuary. These activities focus mostly on chimpanzee welfare and conservation.