Local school teachers review the shark educational posters

Terence (WCS) explaining the posters to the Anse Royale teachers

This week teachers from Mahe and Praslin reviewed the educational posters on sharks for use in primary and secondary schools being prepared by the Green Islands Foundation (GIF), Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) and Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles (WCS). Workshops were organized for teachers to give their feedback and comments on how and when they can use the posters, but also any other ideas on how the posters can be improved for school children.

Creating shark educational posters is part of the Education and Awareness component of the Shark project that GIF has been running in recent years, funded by the GEF Small Grant Programme (SGP) and the Environment Trust Fund. These posters are intended to teach school children the basics about sharks and their role and importance in the oceans. They are Seychelles specific, presenting interesting information that the project partners have gathered about sharks in Seychelles.

Abi and Fred (SOSF) discussing with the teachers from Anse Royale

The educational posters come in a set of four on each of the following topics: shark anatomy, shark species, importance of sharks, and threats and conservation. Two versions have been created for each theme, adapting to both the primary and the secondary school levels. The posters will be accompanied by a short activity leaflet for the school children and a teacher’s reference document for more information about sharks should they be required. The document will be made available online on the GIF blog page.

Teachers from Anse Royale primary and secondary schools met with the project team  on Monday 27th April at the UniSey’s Environment Center, whereas those from  Bel Eau, La Rosiere, English River and Belonie schools were gathered on Tuesday 28th April. The team then hopped off to Praslin on Wednesday 29th April to interact further with the teachers from all the Praslin schools.

GIF staff explaining the Shark project

Teachers from Bel Eau and La Rosiere reviewing the posters

During the workshops teachers were introduced to general information about sharks and were given an update each time on what has been done so far so they could get an insight into the content of the posters. The feedback from the educators was very positive and many useful suggestions came out to help improve the posters not only for the children, but also providing a teaching tool adapted to the needs of the teachers.

The GIF project team would like to thank Abi and Fred from SOSF and Terence from WCS for their collaboration and most importantly for their valuable input into the creation of the posters. Thank you also goes to all the teachers who participated in the workshops and provided their feedback, hoping that the posters will indeed serve as  an effective learning tool and to spread the message that “sharks are awesome and we need them!” 

Teachers from Praslin giving their feedback