INDOOR NATURE CAMP 2014. INTRODUCTION Nature is exciting, inspiring, refreshing and constantly changing. It is full of mysteries to be marvelled at and beauty to be admired. World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) organizes and conducts Nature Camps for affiliates, corporate, families, students, schools, members of the public and any groups who are interested in nature or want to experience its grandeur first-hand. Our aim is to generate support for conservation of nature through creation of environmentally conscious, knowledgeable, sensitive and active individuals and groups, using nature camps as a tool. TI Matriculation School campus support good environment, nature and wildlife. So, it is important to organise in-house camp for students of their school within their school premises to learn about their nature and wildlife. After receiving tremendous response from Nature Club students during last year in-house camp, WWF-TNSO continued their second consecutive camp this year on 11th and 12th January 2014 for Nature Club students of 6th, 7th and 8th classes at TI School campus. A total of 46 students along with 5 school teachers attended the camp. This year in-house camp theme focused on Nature and Wildlife photography to enrich the student’s knowledge on wildlife importance and photography techniques. The camp consists of theoretical session, practical session, group discussion, reference reading, games, etc. SESSION: 1. KNOW YOUR BIODIVERSITY After the grand celebration of pongal festival in their school campus in the morning hours, the 46 campers were dreaming and with full of expectations joined the camp at 1100 hrs in their school Auditorium. The camp inaugural session started with brief introduction by S. Saravanan, Sr. Education Officer, WWF-TNSO and Ms. Bhuvaneswari, Nature Club Advisor TI Matriculation School. After the briefing about the camp; students were divided into groups and asked to document biodiversity in their school premises with questionnaire provided by WWF. SESSION: 2. RESOURCE MAPPING After tea break, students went in search of their birds, reptiles, insects, trees and amphibians in their school premises. After an hour students were called back to compile their sightings of biodiversity individually and later with groups. Sr. Education officer also asked the students to draw their schools buildings map and mark the identified biodiversity in the map. Students came up with checklist of birds, reptiles, amphibians, trees etc and also brought few insects, tree leaves, flowers, bird feathers for further identification. Students were excited to enlist the predatory bird species like Shikra, Vine snake, butterflies etc. and the presentation of biodiversity checklist and school resource mapping was judged by their Nature club teachers. SESSION: 3. CAPTURE YOUR NATURE Lunch break continued with an exciting session on Wildlife Photography led by Ms. Srilekha, Founder, The Wild Walk, a young wildlife photographer. Students were ready with their camera to learn the techniques to capture their wildlife. Ms. Srilekha briefed the students about the camera and their parts initially and later live demonstration on the method employed to use a digital camera and the methods used to take better image. She also discussed the functioning of camera and image storage detailed elaborately. She advised the students to avoid Photography of wildlife in night as it will be disturbing to the eyes of the animal that is being photographed. After the classroom session she asked the students to capture their biodiversity in the school campus. After the tea break students came with their images and showed to Ms. Srilekha to assess their photography images. She gave encouraging suggestion and appreciation to the students of their images. After her review she handed the photography manual to the students and asked to study various techniques of photography. Overall, students were excited and enjoyed the wildlife photography session. Finally, students thanked her for wonderful wildlife photography session and Ms. Kalaivani, and Ms. Bhuvaneswari, Nature Club Advisor proposed thanks to her and hand over the gift. SESSION: 4. IDENTIFICATION SKILL ON REPTILES AND BIRDS After the session on Photography Dr. J. Subramanian a herpetologist and WWF volunteer gave an informative and scientific presentation on `The fascinating world of Reptiles’ with special focuses on Snakes. The session involved the identification of various families and orders of Indian reptiles. The presence of Tuatara which was considered as a living fossil was the first information in the talk. Then the various orders such as Lizards, Crocodiles, Turtles and Tortoises, and Snakes were discussed with respect to the Indian subcontinent. A shed skin of a cobra was passed around and the skill for scientific identification of snakes was discussed which was enjoyed by the students. Counting of scales on dorsal side and ventral side enabled the identification of snakes from field guides. Various myths associated with snakes were enumerated and facts of some of the biology and ecology of snakes that were beneficial for mankind was discussed. Information of snakebite first aid also discussed with them. Finally, students are enjoyed the session and learned about various reptiles and their ecological importance. In continuation to reptile talk, Mr. S. Saravanan later gave a slide show on the `Amazing avian fauna of India’ which was welcomed by the students. This presentation involved the various aspects of bird taxonomy, feeding habits, habitat, ecological importance etc. Apart from this he also discussed the bird identification methods and skills to them. India has a great diversity of habitats ranging from the rain forests of Western Ghats and North East to the snow clad mountains of the Himalayas. This diverse habitat was empathized for the diversity of avifauna which was realized by the students at the end of the presentation. He also showed few common birds in the PPT and explained how to identify. This session had enriched student’s knowledge on birds and their identification methods. SESSION: 5. NATURE GAMES Before signing out for the night nature games were conducted. First was the popular `Musical Chair’ followed by a nature skit by group. These two games were followed by a `Camp fire’ with songs and dancing. Students assembled in front of the pavilion in the play ground and 26 chairs were laid in a circle for the `Musical chair’. Students went around the circle with the background music from a cell phone. Players have to gr ab the nearest chair thus excluding the nearest neighbour at the stop of the music. As the sequence goes on two participants enter the final round. The winner is the person who sits on the final chair with the stop of music. As the game began there was lots of excitement and encouragement by the members in the pavilion. Two events of musical chair were held- One for the boys and one for the girls. A separate event between winners of boys and winners of girls was held. A skit presentation game followed by a campfire was made. Each group was asked to present a simple skit on some nature associated topic. Students came out with innovative ideas and the best group that was adjudged as the winner presented a skit on the simple food chain with deer’s and lion as a components. Dinner was served after these events following a break for the day. DAY: 2 SESSION: 6. WARM UP & BIRD WATCHING The day two program started at the break of dawn with students in their respective groups assembling in front of the school gate for a warm up exercises. Relaxation of arms and legs followed by muscle exercises was done both by the boys and girls. The warm up session was led by Mr. Richard PT teacher of TI matriculation school. After the exercises students in their respective groups went to various parts of the campus looking for birds. An experienced ornithologist was assigned for each group for easy identification. The team of experts like Mr. SenthilKumar, Vice Principal, Ti school, Dr. J. Subramanian WWF-Volunteer and Mr. S. Sarvanan, WWF-TNSO. Students also asked to take as many pictures as possible to reveal their talent in Photography after attending the previous day’s presentation on taking photos. These photos were meant to be reviewed by a professional photographer later during the day. Some of the birds sighted in the campus included Shikra (Accipiter badius), White throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) and Common hawk cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius). A visit to a nearby lake was made as part of the bird watching session. Some of the water birds sighted include the rare Purple Moorhen (Porphyrio porphyrio), Common Coot (Fulica atra) and Cattle egret ( Bulbucus ibis). A checklist of birds was created at the end of the session on birds in the campus and the lake. Several species of butterflies were observed during the bird inventory of the lake. Some these include common species like Striped tiger (Danaus genutia), Plain tiger (Danaus chrysippus), blue tiger (Tirumala limniace), Tony coaster (Acraea terpsicore) Common crow (Euploea core) and Crimson rose (Pachliopta hector). The students also observed the diversity of insect life besides butterflies in the campus some of which were photographed. Tea break was given at the end of this session. SESSION: 7. REFERENCE READING After the bird watching exercise, students were asked to sit in their respective groups for working on various tasks on team building. The reference reading session was led by Ms. Reeba Mathew, Nature Club Advisior, TI School. Each team was assigned a team leader. Each group was assigned a bird or a plant or an insect. Reading material in the form of field guides was given to these groups and they were asked to refer their birds, butterfly and other biodiversity identification keys. Then later the group leader stood out to give a brief talk on the subject. The students enjoyed the whole exercise and it could be inferred that they learnt a lot from the available literature. SESSION: 8. WASTE RECYCLING Indoor nature camp also focused waste recycling and its importance. A power point presentation on types of waste in their homes, schools by Mrs. Bhuvaneswari, Nature Club Advisor, TI School. She also focused waste disposal and recycle methods. This point was stressed for students and they were introduced to the art of recycling. After the presentation Saravanan, WWF trained the students to make paper bowl and other materials by using grained paper pulp. Students were excited with this activity and prepared many article out of recycle paper pulp SESSION: 8. PHOTOGRAPHY EVALAUTION All the photographs from students were pooled in a computer to judge the best male and female photographer. The phographs were judged by Mr. Praveen, a professional wildlife photographer. He gave valuable comments on the photographs taken in general by all the students and declared the winners. Mr. R. Rohit was declared the winner for boys and Ms. Kavia was declared the winner for the girls. Photograph samples of all the photographs were projected on the screen and the judge commented that all the photographs were well taken. SESSION: 9. KNOW YOUR INSECTS Insects are a fascinating group of animals. New species are being discovered across the world every year. Mr. S. Saravanan, Sr. Education Officer,WWF-TNSO gave presentation on Insects and their importance to students. Various groups of insects such as butterflies and moths, grasshoppers and crickets, spiders, lady birds were highlighted in the presentation. Students check list of insects were collected and made the final list of insects found in the campus. SESSION: 10. NATURE GAME -TREASURE HUNT Students were involved in another exercise called `A treasure hunt’ game. Groups were asked to hunt their clues of biodiversity in their school campus. This session was led by Nature Club teachers Ms. Ruby Varghees and Ms. Bhuvaneswari. The four groups were made to sit separately from one another. Clues written on paper were placed in various places in the campus. The location of the first clue was given to the team in the auditorium. The team then has to find the second clue. The winner is the one who finds all the five clues. The students enthusiastically went about collecting the clues in various locations. Finally Mr. Manish‘s team was declared the winner. CONCLUDING SESSION Finally, indoor camp was concluded with the prize distribution for winners of various games and best campers. The concluding was headed by Mr. Senthil Kumar, Vice Principal and Nature Club advisors. The best camper selected for indoor camp was Mast. Rohit Ramesh Kumar, 7 A and Ms. Janani, 7 B. Similarly, the best student photographer was selected during camp they are Mast. Anish 8 B and Ms. Kavia Priya 7 A. Finally, the Nature Club teachers and resources persons were honoured by WWF.