MARIA'S PUBLIC SCHOOL
UNDER MARIA'S PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL TRUST
A Senior Secondary School affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education
Inter-School Avian Awareness & Birding Event
A one day event on Avian Awareness & Birding was organised by Sofia Navigation & Cruises Pvt. Ltd. aboard the MV Kohuwa Bon Cruise, in collaboration with Maria’s Public School (MPS), Guwahati, Assam, on the 24th of April, 2024.
Students and teachers from 4 schools of Guwahati participated in the initiative, inspired by the vision of Nellie Ahmed, Director, Sofia Navigation & Cruises Pvt. Ltd. and the Founder Director of MPS. Emphasizing the importance of Bird Awareness & Conservation, Ms Ahmed welcomed 45 participants from Sarla Birla Gyan Jyoti, Faculty High School – Amingaon, Royal Global School and MPS, with a collective ‘Call for Action’ that invited the schools to engage in long term collaborative partnerships to foster Environmental Stewardship & Conservation. MPS , being the National Coordinator for the Green Schools Alliance, USA already has well defined structure and strategies for Conservation Education that aligns perfectly with the aims and objectives of its affiliations with national and international organizations like Round Square & AFS.
Dr. Anwaruddin Chowdhury (Retd. Commissioner), ACS, Govt of Assam , veteran Naturalist and Conservationist graced the event as the Chief Guest and enlightened the participants with a wonderful presentation on his own life’s journey of Biodiversity Awareness & Conservation. The Educational modules for the event were designed by Dr. Biswajit De, the Creative Director of MPS who is also the country coordinator for Youth Fellowship Programmes of the IUCN Commission on Education & Communication. From the MV Kohuwa Bon, the participants spotted more than 15 species of Birds and prepared a detailed checklist under the guidance of Dr. Chowdhury and Dr. De. The participants also got a crash course on Geographical Information System (GIS) and the scientific methods of recording Scientific Data for Bird identification, curated by Dr. De.
The event also introduced the participants to ‘Art for Conservation’, through a wonderful Nature-inspired Craft Activity & Herbarium Design, curated by Sushmita Chakraborty, senior teacher of Science, MPS, through which the students explored their creativity as they designed Birds and Animals, using natural, bio-degradable materials. The participants were awarded certifications and recommendations from Ms. Ahmed and Dr. Chowdhury, and were also awarded special Badges for their enthusiastic participation. The event has been received by the participation schools as an initiation for long-term collaboration & partnerships.
Glides and Dives: Soaring to the End of the World - the first ever student-led conference of Maria's Public School By Iffat Ikram and Jannat N.S. Rahman
Glides and Dives: Soaring to the End of the World, the first student-led conference of Maria’s Public School began with an insightful introduction by the hosts for the day, Reeda Zulfiaz and Eenakshi Borthakur.
Advik Chakraborty of Class 2A, Maria’s Public School posed a very interesting question “Why do we love birds?” as he began his speech. The young environmentalist emphasized on the value of birds, on understanding their existence more than their appearance. He also urged the audience to learn more about the migration process, for it is through empathy that we start caring more about things. Advik’s crisp and astute presentation was an eye opener for the audience.
The host then invited the Founder and Managing Trustee, Ms Nellie Ahmed to share her views on the topic. Ms Ahmed started her speech with the quote “Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change and stop the collapse of biodiversity”, which caught the attention of the audience. She threw light on issues like how the exploitation of nature, climate crisis and the ongoing pandemic have not only affected the lives of human beings but also of the aerial beings. Ms Ahmed then spoke on the emphasis of Maria’s Public School on “Learning beyond the Classroom” and “Nature as a Classroom”. She explained how “Glides and Dives”, initially started as an action plan, which was later levelled up and made into a collaborative project including three Round Square affiliated schools. She concluded her speech with a special announcement, congratulating the teachers Urshita Bhuyan, Geetanjali Goswami, Sushmita Chakraborty, Malini Sarmah, Arundhati Gogoi, Chayanika Kalita and Samiran Sarkar, for earning the Teacher Leader Commendation Badge from Round Square, for their commendable work towards various projects. With this Mrs Nellie Ahmed officially commenced the ceremony.
Following this, the host invited the Principal, Ms Mausumi Mahanta, to deliver her speech. The principal highlighted the various achievements of the school over the years which included being invited to the United Nations International Conference during the years 2007 through 2013, wherein a group of six students accompanied by a faculty member was invited to visit the USA to attend the conference. The educator concluded by stating how the school’s curriculum with environment has become stronger over time and experience. “Glides and Dives” which began as an action plan has now become a case study which is being followed by many schools.
The host then introduced Mr Biswajit De, who explained the Glides and Dives project in detail. He explained how the project initially began in 2019, and how it evolved over time resulting in this student-led conference. He also showed how students were taught with the Geographical Information System (GIS) and laid emphasis on how the project involved migratory birds, waders and shorebirds. He then played a video for the audience that was both insightful and emotional in many instances. The video ended with the quote “Migration is a fight for life.”
The host then began with the first presentation of the day. The junior group with Mrinank Sharma, Ayushman Nair and Sinasta Meitei, presented on how climate change leads to decrease in bird migration distance. The budding changemakers laid emphasis on how climate change affected the lives of migratory birds and focused especially on the following birds: the Blue Tailed Bee-eater, the Great Egret, the Northern Pintail and the Black Stork. The group concluded their presentation with a call for action, for working towards a world that would stand against climate change.
Following this, the second group of presenters with Gargi Gogoi, Anshula Chetiya, Hemish Deka and Satakshi Kashyap dealt on the topic “Understanding Endemic Species”. The students began with an explanation on how endemic species are endangered and on the verge of extinction. The group posed the question, ‘What will happen in the absence of endemic species?’ and delved deeper into the issue with commendable insights.
This was followed by the presentation of the second plenary speaker, senior teacher Susmita Chakravorty’s presentation which highlighted on the topic, “Vanishing wetlands and threats faced by the migratory bird.” She rightly explained how humans have lost a sense of respect for water and wetlands and also how migration is like a ‘pilgrimage’ for the migratory birds. During migration, wetlands provide an essential stop-over for many migratory birds and that due to the decreasing wetlands many species of the same are dwindling and as a result, they are changing their destination or routes. Wetlands are used as breeding grounds, buffer zones and they also provide the birds with food, destruction of which highly impacts the birds. A few Ramsar sites in India were also well specified in the presentation.
The third plenary presentation was on the topic, “Urban ecology and its importance” which was presented by teachers Malini Sarmah and Arundhati Gogoi where they explained what urban ecology is, the species found in such an ecosystem, and the methods to study the same. They further talked about urban biodiversity and effects on the environment, its sustainability and urban ecology on birds. Furthermore, they also explained why the study of urban ecology should be added in the school curriculum.
With that, the programme moved on to a question and answer round where questions such as the routes of migratory birds were asked.
It was followed by a presentation by the junior students Indrika, Tristuv, Sourish and Priyabrata about their experience performing the bird survey at Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and undertaking creative projects like making bird cutout designs and bird journals as a part of this collaboration with different Round Square schools. They also expressed how in the process, they also learned how to use devices and equipment, conservative tools and applications and also recorded data and published them scientifically.
The last presenter for the day was Mr Udayan Borthakur, a parent and a Wildlife Biologist. His presentation included his experience performing the back yard biodiversity survey where he along with his daughter recorded various species of flora and fauna in their vicinity.
The first day of the programme was concluded with a vote of thanks by the hosts and the valuable feedbacks by the attendees and teachers.
Maria’s Public School is located in the city of Guwahati, the capital city of the State of Assam. The city is ecologically important, being a part of the Indo-Burma biogeographic hotspot. The city is surrounded by eighteen hills along with an internationally acclaimed wetland, Deepor Beel which is the RAMSAR site. The state of Assam has a wide diversity of birds, butterflies, reptiles and amphibians accounting for 1800 odd species. The conservational issue is of much importance because of the wide variety of species present here. Thus Bio-Diversity studies have been incorporated to spread awareness among the students. Regular field trips, bird watching surveys and nature studies constitute our curriculum for “NATURE AS OUR CLASSROOM”
REPORT ON GREEN HUB FESTIVAL 2018 at TEZPUR UNIVERSITY
organized by Green Hub & North East Network
By- SayantanChaudhuri and Upasana Patgiri
On the 11th of May 2018, a team of 17 students from classes VIII to XII accompanied by Biswajit De Sir and Sushmita Chakraborty Ma’am trail blazed to Tezpur University to attend the ‘Green Hub Festival’ held there annually. It is organised by Green Hub-a sub project of North East Network, in partnership with Dusty foot Productions. This was not just a field trip but an attempt to cultivate the students to become future environmental stewards of the country. We were picked up in a comfortable bus from Nilachal house and as soon as everyone joined in, off we went. On arriving at the university campus we were awestruck by its sight. We had not imagined it to look like that, so beautiful and full of trees! Needless to say, we were impressed; more so because it is an eco-friendly campus and everyone went around riding their bicycles. We walked our way to the KBR auditorium and seated ourselves comfortably.
We arrived just in time for the Panel Discussion on wildlife rescue with a team from Green Guard Nature Organisation in which environmentalists and conservationists like Rituraj Phukan and Ranjan Borthakur shared their experiences and stories in the field of conservation. This provided an insight into their thrilling lives and made us want to rescue an animal or two ourselves. Next a beautiful short film made by a member of Green Hub was screened and we were also entertained by a Garo song that he sang for us. Conservation is not just about rescuing animals and planting trees but it can be also expressed through art, illustrations and photos. This was explained to us by a renowned wildlife illustrator Pooja Gupta, who likes to spend most of her time getting inspired by the beauty of the natural world.
It was then our school’s turn to give a presentation. We along with Biswajit Sir and Sushmita Ma’am gave a brief, informative presentation on the ‘Role of Private Educational Institutions in inspiring youth towards Environmental Conservation’ giving the audience an insight into what our school has been doing for conservation and conservation education. Our presentation was followed by a talk on ‘Ending Plastic Pollution’ by Rituraj Phukan and it showed us few ways to avoid the use of nature’s greatest enemy-Plastic.
With this the festival came to an end for the day and we returned home having learnt a lot.
Marians bag prizes at Sanctuaryasia Kids for Tigers: Tiger Fest, 2016
A group of students of the school accompanied by teachers Mr Biswajit De and Ms Kalyani Chaubey participated at the Sanctuaryasia Kids for Tigers: Tiger Fest, 2016, a national event, celebrated across the country, at Royal Global School, Guwahati to celebrate the Earth Day 2016. Students had an enriching experience meeting the Founder Editor of Sanctuaryasia, Mr. Bittu Randhir Sahgal for the first time. As a part of the event, Marians had also participated in various inter-school competitive events where they have won prizes.
The prizes are:
First prize in Face Painting Competition by srudents Pratyashee Mahanta and Mouparna Barai, ace artists from class 10. Their Art was highly appreciated by Mr.Sahgal. Aanisha Hazarika and Ashrut Konwar also won the third rize in the same category. Second prize in the ‘Song for the Earth’ Competition
Biswajit De, teacher and Creative Director and HOD, Deptt of Graphic Design, Visual Arts & Media of the school bagged the Sanctuaryasia Green Teacher Award, 2016 given away by Mr.Bittu Sahgal for Exceptional Contribution to Conservation Education. Mr De along with teacher Ms Kalyani Chaubey had also attended a Teacher’s Conservation Leadership workshop conducted by Debojit Saikia, Professor of Environmental Science, NEHU.
Citizen Science programme at Amchang Wild Life Sanctuary – December 7-10, 2015.
Striving to bring the students of the school close to nature, this programme combined Survey-based field trip on Biodiversity Awareness and Nature Photography at the Amchang Wild Life Sanctaury, Guwahati, Assam, India.
Interaction and interviewing the officials of the Forest Dept. of Assam, Guwahati Wild Life Division constituted the first phase of the activities, where the students of Class-8, Session 2015-2016, asked them various questions regarding the wildlife of the Amchang WLS and filled up a questionnaire prepared by them, as a part of the regular curriculum.
Nature Photography was a part of the programme where the students got to learn techniques of Macro Photography. The students were able to develop their observation skills and abilities to identify and appreciate the different patterns and textures that exist in nature. Nature Photography is an interesting activity through which the students could easily be taught simple concepts about conservation.
The students also got to learn the basics of survey techniques, and the use of GPS Devices and their use in creating trail maps using waypoints.
They learnt the use of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) in the form of Mobile & Tab Applications and to use them in the identification of the various species of animals and plants that they came across during the ‘field trip’.