UNLOCKING INSIGHTS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT WITH PANDA MOBILE AT PUSTAKA BOGOR
By: Zickri Chairulisan (Volunteer Panda Mobile) & Natalia Trita Agnika
The annual "Library Visit Day" event is held again by the Center for Library and Agricultural Technology Dissemination (Library) Bogor. Activities held on Tuesday (25/09) again involve Panda Mobile WWF-Indonesia to open the insights of visitors PUSTAKA about environmental conservation.< br />
This year is the 4th year Panda Mobile participated in the "Library Visit Day" at PUSTAKA Bogor. This year there is something unique. It also invites special schools so that students with special needs can join in. Around 300 students from elementary, junior high, high school, and special needs schools in the Bogor area, West Java, participated in various activities carried out by Panda Mobile.< br />
One of the things the students did with WWF-Indonesia's Panda Mobile was to watch a movie inside the PUSTAKA building. The first movie screened was titled "Quartet at the Crossroad", which tells the story of four animals, namely rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans. In the movie, the students were able to find out about the conservation efforts made by WWF related to the preservation of the four animals. In addition, the students also watched the movie "River for All". Through the movie, they learned about the benefits of rivers, both for themselves, others, animals, plants, and the environment. After watching the movie, it is hoped that they will become more concerned about maintaining the cleanliness and sustainability of river water.
After watching the movie, the students were invited to the Panda Mobile truck in the courtyard of the PUSTAKA Building.
Another interesting activity done with Panda Mobile is playing cranklek with the theme "Sumatran Tiger" and Orangutan". While playing, they were also invited to read interesting facts contained in the game. They learned about the characteristics, habitat, food, and behavior of animals. Some of them just learned about the characteristics of these animals, such as the nature of tigers that are different from cats, are not afraid of water and can swim. They also learned that apart from eating fruits, orangutans also eat ants as a source of protein. Both pieces of information were written in English. The students were then challenged to translate them into Bahasa Indonesia. While learning about animals, they also honed their foreign language skills.
The activities carried out by Panda Mobile attracted the attention of many people. Nuniek, one of the librarians who visited Panda Mobile commented, "Very inspiring, the game is educational. The movie was also interesting to watch and there were some children who said it was the first time they saw WWF (Panda Mobile). They are very interested and would like to see it again in the future."
The eagerness shown by the students to learn made the volunteers Panda Mobile inspired. Moreover, some of the participants are special school students. Despite the limited conditions, they were very cheerful and excited. One of the participants even sang the song "Don't Give Up". The song reminds all who hear it not to give up easily in fighting. We can also apply it to never give up fighting for the environment.