By: Anjani Mutter (Volunteer Panda Mobile)

Education about rare animal and environmental conservation should be done to children since early childhood education. This is so that the messages conveyed can be absorbed well to children and can be implemented starting from small things in everyday life, for example not littering, using tissue and paper in moderation, and utilizing recycled goods as a form of their concern for the environment.

That's what WWF-Indonesia's Panda Mobile team did last Thursday (10/20) at Kiddie Planet, Pantai Indah Kapuk, North Jakarta. Kiddie Planet is a school for pre-school children (3-6 years old) with a practice-based learning method.

After listening to a brief introduction about WWF-Indonesia, all participants totaling around 85 children watched short films entitled "Hunters and Tigers" and "We Are All Connected". The children who consisted of playgroup and Kindergarten B classes were excited to watch both films. They were also very enthusiastic about the activities and presentations delivered by the Panda Mobile team, especially when the theme was "Tiger Life" and explained about the different types of tigers found in the world as well as extinct tiger species. Apart from being enthusiastic, the students were also quite proactive in answering questions given by the Panda Mobile team.

Next, they were divided into two groups. One group checked the water quality in Panda Mobile's water lab and the other group played with Panda Mobile's volunteers. During the water lab activity, all participants listened to an explanation from the Panda Mobile team about the water cycle and saw how the color of water changes on litmus paper indicating acidic or alkaline properties. At the same time, the Panda Mobile team invited one of the groups to play the game "Hunters and Tigers" which was attended by around 40 children. They were very excited to play it.

It is not an easy thing to convey animal and environmental themed messages to young children. But the enthusiasm of the students for the theme of animals and the environment as raised in the Panda Mobile activity this time is enough to make the Panda Mobile team optimistic that if knowledge about the protection of endangered animals is done early on, in the future, there will be concern for the environment in these children. They will voluntarily protect the environment and endangered animals in accordance with the campaign.