Four years ago a soy sauce factory was belching waste into historic and picturesque Shichahai, a city lake in downtown Beijing. It did not go unnoticed. Twenty-three residents took pictures, interviewed locals, confronted factory management, and began a letter-writing campaign to local government, which eventually relocated the offending structure. But what made this community action so special?

It was the fact that these concerned citizens were only 11 years old. They were participating in a WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) Education Initiative for Water (EIW).

The students from the Ya'er Hutong Primary School took proof of the pollution and the community's complaints to the factory's management and opened negotiations. Their bold actions even pricked the ears of local government.

Under great pressure, the factory was forced to move to the suburbs. but the kids were not done, as this was just their first foray into the world of environmental protection. In the following years, they have launched themselves into schemes to take on other environmental violators.

Environmental project

The EIW aims to instill in teachers and students an ethic of responsibility towards the environment through community-based projects.

As water management is an important city issue, the Beijing water system was chosen as its focus. Currently, the EIW project is being implemented by eight primary and middle schools, hundreds of teachers and nearly 300,000 students. The eight schools all border major water sources, some along the city moat, close to lakes, or by the Miyun reservoir, leading to an infinite number of project possibilities.

In 2001, when Liu Furong, a maths teacher from Ya'er Hutong Primary School, received instructions from the school board to make her students participate in the EIW, her first thought was that it would be no different from previous environmental awareness campaigns, calling for students to save electricity and water.

But gradually she discovered the project would go far beyond that, as it encouraged her students leave campus and head into communities.

"The present top-down education system in both curriculum content and delivery has tended to produce passive students with only a good theoretical knowledge, and militated against them becoming active and engaged citizens," said Liu.

Liu is one of about 60 EIW teachers in Beijing that has participated in regular training sessions, which coach teachers how to inspire community awareness in their students and develop individual projects based on local needs.

In the EIW, all the activities are student-centered. They observed what environmentally-unfriendly practices were going on around their schools, homes and communities, and then made proposals to try to solve these problems.

The young students' ability was a big surprise for Liu, as they found inspiration everywhere.

The soy sauce project, for example, grew from a simple geometry lesson.

"The students said the 'green' square was nicer than the 'yellow' square because it was more colorful, and it made them feel good. The green square should be bigger," she recalled.

"So I asked them to go outside, find something yellow, and make it green," added Liu.

After research, the students found that the smell and waste from the soy sauce factory seemed to be the strongest shade of yellow.

Soon, they produced photographs and tape-recorded interviews with surrounding residents. In the beginning, the locals were afraid, and thought complaining would not do any good. "They doubted that the kids could help," Liu said.

But the children's passion and sincerity moved the neighborhood, and they soon won the trust of the community.

"I was very proud of my students," said Liu. "They greatly improved their communication skills."

In 2002, some students from the school noticed the water in Houhai Lake was emitting a foul smell. For those kids who had grown up around the lake, it was a big concern as they were used to its clean and clear water. So they decided to conduct a little research to see what they could find.

They found that more and more people were gathering on the banks to fish. Also, many people were jumping into and then swimming in the lake which polluted its water. The decreasing number of fish spurred the growth of waterweed, which led to the deterioration of water quality.

After identifying the problems, the students swiftly took action. They donated their own pocket money for an initiative to supply fish to the lake.

What's more, they set up patrol teams to advise residents to stop fishing and swimming. Buoyed by their success, the students needed a new project, and they found it in the shape of a number of bars that had sprung up in their own backyard - overlooking the water of the lake.

Out trooped the class with their notebooks, tape recorders and cameras to interview bar owners about their water usage, recording details ranging from architecture to trash disposal.

After their field research, they held discussions in class about the advantages and disadvantages of opening these bars.

"Everyone illustrated their own point. Though they were unable to reach a conclusion about the direct effect of nightlife on water and fish in Shichahai, they did get the local chamber of commerce to rewrite contracts with the establishments," said Liu.

"Now all the bars have to pledge to save water, and to keep their area clean," Liu explained. Ya'er Hutong Primary School students are now monitoring the businesses and reporting any violators.

"The hardest thing was talking to people at the bars," said Guo Qian, a student on the project. "Sometimes when we went to ask questions, they didn't co-operate with us."

But Xiao Xiao, another student, said the interviews were the most interesting part of the project. "In the beginning, I was a little scared. I didn't know how to talk to people, but now I'm better at talking."

Expansion

Ya'er Hutong Primary School students are now incorporating their environmental enthusiasm into their everyday lives.

"You can plant flowers at home, and not throw rubbish on the ground," Guo Qian suggested. "And when you wash your rice, you can use the same water for your plants." She is, of course, planning a career in the environmental field.

Xiao Xiao now uses both sides of a piece of paper, and recycles garbage at home. "If you have a good environment, it makes everybody's life better," she said smiling.

The four-year EIW project not only increased environmental awareness among students, but also promoted their engagement in other issues.

According to Liu, the students at her school decided to recycle and sell newspapers to pay for newspaper subscriptions for classmates whose parents had been laid-off. They ran a campaign to encourage tea drinking, as a healthy natural product and cultural manifestation. They also decided to investigate the sustainability of the modern fast food industry.

"Their vision goes totally beyond our own," said Liu.

Both teachers and students also felt that academic performance rose with increasing awareness.

"In some cases, the students who once got poor grades demonstrated their abilities not highlighted or given credit to by traditional teaching methods. Also, their academic performance improved a lot as a result of boosted confidence," said Liu.

More importantly, Liu found the relationships between teachers and students seemed to get a lot better after the project. She developed a new attitude towards the teacher-student hierarchy, and now feels that teachers can often learn a thing or two from their students.

"Now I am not only a teacher. I am also a co-operator and a guide," said Liu.

With the basic education reforms in China, schools now enjoy more freedom to develop locally-relevant and school-based curricula, and in the selection of textbooks and study materials.

At Ya'er Hutong Primary School, the teachers have put the students' past environmental campaigns into their textbooks.

"It is aimed at supporting active, independent, and discovery-based learning," said Liu.

Recently, she received several guests from Northwest China's Qinghai Province, who hoped to join the EIW project.

And after its successful start in Beijing, the EIW is planning a westward expansion to take on other environmental challenges.

"We're discussing teacher training programs with Qinghai Normal University, but we hope to help the community too, with classes on health, women's issues, and farming technology," said Zhang Yi, WWF China's education program officer and head of the EIW. "But Qinghai will decide what they need. We'll provide them with the processes so they can get up and running."

(China Daily March 22, 2005)