By: Osha Roshalia (Volunteer Panda Mobile)

Panda Mobile returned to Bandung to educate students in several elementary schools and children's library communities about the environment. The series of activities took place on August 7-11, 2017. One of the visits was an invitation from PPPPTK IPA SEAMEO Qitep to share information about conservation efforts undertaken by WWF-Indonesia through the Panda Mobile education truck.

In turn, the students climbed onto the Panda Mobile truck to get information about WWF-Indonesia. In this session, they were introduced to various efforts to conserve nature and endangered animals. "WWF-Indonesia focuses on protecting six umbrella animals, such as the Javan Rhino, Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Elephant, Orangutan, sea turtle, and whale shark. We can protect them together in an easy way, starting from (implementing) an environmentally friendly lifestyle and supporting WWF-Indonesia's brothers and sisters," explained Dwi, volunteer Panda Mobile during a visit to PPPPTK IPA SEAMEO Qitep.

"Education is the basic thing needed by humans. Through sustainable education, education will develop even better, of course for the environment as well. In line with what WWF-Indonesia is doing, we see many interesting learning methods to be applied in our school," said Hong Yen, one of the teachers from Vietnam who participated in the Panda Mobile activity.

In Panda Mobile, students can get more information by watching movies and reading books in the Panda Mobile library. They can watch the movie "Tiger Hunter" or "River for All". After watching the movie, they were eager to answer questions posed by the Panda Mobile volunteers.

The students were also able to engage in environmental observation activities around them by observing the water quality using Panda Mobile's water lab facility. Using a microscope, they observed water samples taken from the school premises for microbes present in the water. They were also introduced to the acidity of water using a pH meter and litmus paper. "After knowing the quality of water around our school, let's together maintain the existence of clean water and be economical in using it," said Alifa, volunteer Panda Mobile.

In addition to PPPPTK IPA SEAMEO Qitep, Panda Mobile also visited several other schools, namely Penabur International School, SD Widuri, SD Semi Palar, Taman Bacaan Pustakalana, and SD Tunas Unggul with a total of 968 children. In each school and community, Panda Mobile's visits are filled with various interesting educational activities.

Educational games about protected animals are also a mainstay of Panda Mobile to provide information about protected animals in a fun way. The "Sumatran Tiger" themed cricket game and the "Explore Papua" game are two examples. Both games are effective in increasing students' knowledge about protected animals. "So, in Papua there is a whale shark which is one of the protected animals. If we litter into the sea, it can affect the marine ecosystem as well as the whale sharks," explained Bobby, a Panda Mobile volunteer during a visit to SD Tunas Unggul.

Among the many activities conducted with Panda Mobile in various schools, there is also the storytelling method to disseminate information about the dangers of plastic waste to the environment and animals, as done at Penabur International School. Kak Iyan from Panda Mobile tells a story accompanied by a guitar. Not just entertaining, Kak Iyan also inserted a message about how to protect this Earth with very easy things, such as reducing waste. "So garbage that is thrown carelessly, let alone thrown into the river will cause animals in the sea to be disturbed, such as sea turtles that can eat plastic bags because they think plastic is like jellyfish food," said Kak Iyan.

The series of Panda Mobile activities in Bandung also received a positive response from the school. "Thank you for the arrival of WWF-Indonesia's Panda Mobile to our school. Frankly speaking, the learning method is very fun so that information about protecting the environment can be spread more easily. Hopefully, with this education, our students at school can support nature protection efforts carried out by WWF-Indonesia," said Wienny, principal of SD Widuri Bandung.