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| Yayasan IDEP Foundation’s ‘Learnscapes’ Curriculum |
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| About the modules content and format | The wider benifits |Our current proposal for this curriculum |
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| Yayasan IDEP’s ‘Learnscapes’ Curriculum has being designed for Indonesian primary school grades 4, 5 and 6. It targets these grades because many children (especially girls who then become primary care givers and keepers of households) leave the education system after primary school due to a lack of financial resources.
The curriculum has been planned so that it runs in conjunction with, and complements, the National IPA (natural sciences) curriculum of Indonesia.
Each module is designed to run for 3 hours per week for the period of one school trimester, and is therefore a viable option for the ‘muatan lokal’ (i.e. local curriculum) that is being requested from local school officials.
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| About the modules content and format |
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| The curriculum’s 9 modules are designed to run for a trimester (12 weeks): |
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1 – WE ARE THE FUTURE - introducing personal responsibility for the environment
2 – THE WEB OF LIFE - improving the quality of school environment
3 – GETTING TO KNOW MY ENVIRONMENT- Local environment, resources & plant research
4 – MY GARDEN MY DESIGN - includes hands-on gardening practices
5 – HEALTHY FOOD / HEALTHY LIFESTYLES - harvest/prepare health formulas from gardens
6 – TAKING CARE OF MY GARDEN - practical skills to sustain food production
7 – THE HEALING GARDEN - developing gardens that use plants for common ailments
8 – KEEPING MY ENVIRONMENT CLEAN - waste management strategies
9 – HAVING FUN WITH HARVESTS - increases organizational & management skills
Each activity leads to the next, so that over the 3-year period children build on their growing understanding of their natural environments, the impacts they have on their environments, and how they can modify their lifestyles for better personal and environmental sustainability.
Full research of the theoretical base and the development of a parallel schedule that works with Indonesian National curriculum has been completed.
To date, several of the elements of this curriculum have been successfully pilot-tested at two schools on Bali.
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| The format of each module is : |
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• A book which contains a story, a take home poster, 12 weeks of activities / exercises
• An integrated review process, with a reply-paid envelope for impact evaluation
• A teacher’s manual
The curriculum uses the platform of environmental awareness and the methodology of physical and practical activities to help develop students’:
• Written and oral communication
• Mathematics, science and technology
• Waste reduction and management
• Nutrition
• Music, arts and crafts
• Studies of society and culture
• Aspects of design, geography, economics and ecology
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| The curriculum’s ability to impact the larger community: |
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| The curriculum is designed to systematically train children to understand, engage and improve their environments, including homework that involves their families and communities.
It uses a fun and dynamic story-type interface so as to engage students’ interest, and is designed in a way that it is not completely dependant on teacher’s abilities to deliver it.
It is filled with hands-on practical work and experiments which are to be undertaken both at school and in the home. A synopsis of each module goes home with the child to be applied by the household, encouraging family participation in the processes.
Field research within the community is also part of the curriculum. This encourages community support, involvement and cultural relevance. At the end of the 3-year program, ongoing field projects are transferred to younger children, which develops communication and management skills.
It also supports the development of new teaching skills and approaches for Indonesian educators. Teachers will use creative hands-on teaching techniques, active field research, local knowledge and resources to enhance the curriculum. It also teaches local educators how to use the local environment resourcefully as a source of a wide variety of teaching tools and therefore dramatically increases ongoing access to what, in most cases, would otherwise be unaffordable teaching support tools.
This curriculum is readily adaptable for regional or even global application through school systems and / or via the Internet.
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| Yayasan IDEP Foundation’s current proposal for this curriculum: |
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| This project is currently seeking formal funding to be able to continue.
Should support be ascertained, Yayasan IDEP proposes to undertake the detailed development, execution and monitoring, evaluation and refining of a pilot curriculum in 10 schools in various locations throughout Indonesia over 3 years, after which the curriculum could be integrated into the national school system.
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| Outputs (Short-term results after 18 months) |
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• The completed development of the 3-year curriculum
• Improvement of teaching capacity in local educators
• Change in learning methods, from rote learning to hands-on, project-based learning
• Children forced to leave the school system after grade 6 will have some useful skills ie food and craft production, and micro-business management |
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| Outcomes (after 3 years) |
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- Behavior changes in students including:
- increased stewardship of community environments
- awareness of nutrition
- understanding about practical use of herbal remedies
- waste management at household level
- Children will have designed an environmental impact assessment
- Reduced pollution at schools, community levels and in households
- Generation of produce from organic gardens at schools and at homes
- Local waste will be reduced, separated and, where possible, recycled
- Community members become engaged in their local environments
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| Impacts (long-term) |
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• Behavior changes at household and community levels
• Increased nutrition
• Decreased pollution at community level
• Improvement of family income due to skills learned
• Management skills acquired from classroom projects
• Improved capacity of teachers
• the curriculum includes projects for study of micro-enterprises based on skills learned, providing opportunities for income enhancement for women in the community from sale of eco-friendly products (ie recycled paper, compost, vegetables, herbal remedies and plants) |
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| The practical skills learned by the students will include: |
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• Understanding personal responsibility about their environments
• Observation and analysis of local erosion issues, water and waste water usage
• Understanding the importance of soil and water conservation
• Identifying and documentation of local plants and revaluing biodiversity
• Understand the impacts of pollution through direct observation and analysis
• Practical skills for separation and recycling of solid waste
• Recording the skills and knowledge of community elders including traditional healers
• Learning basic project management through small classroom projects
• Re-value farming as meaningful, sustainable work, and reduction of rural exodus to cities
• Understanding the connection between health and nutrition
• Planning, planting and maintaining an organic garden and composting system
• Revalue work traditionally done by women and address early gender conditioning
• Public speaking and planning skills used to transferring the projects to other students
• Learning basic project management skills through small classroom projects
• Learning marketing skills by holding a harvest fair |
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| Because of the interest displayed at the national level, the curriculum has the potential to reach millions of people and make a positive and sustainable impact on Indonesians’ environmental awareness and management at individual and community levels.
If you are interested in supporting this program please contact us for more details.
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