Shenzhen Ecological Nature School, which is located in Yangmeikeng, Nan’ao in Dapeng New District, on July 11 at the school celebrated the 5th anniversary of its establishment. At the celebration party the Ecological Nature School welcomed 40 new volunteers who will be trained as future nature teachers. “Due to the coronavirus outbreak, people are increasingly aware of the importance of nature, so we decided to expand our enrollment from the original plan of 20 to 40 so that more people can have the opportunity to learn about nature,” said Sun Feng, head of the Ecological Nature School. According to Sun, over the past five years since the school was opened, it has produced nearly 100 volunteers who had undertaken various social services related to nature education. The school had received over 10,000 visitors and learners in the past years and its lectures outside the school had been attended by more than 5,000 people. An additional 100,000 or so people benefited from the lectures indirectly through online social communication platforms. At the celebration event, guests shared their views on nature education and environmental protection. Zhou Yunxiang, chairman of the Shenzhen Blue Ocean Conservation Association, said it’s our common goal to improve our ecological environment. Zhou hoped that in the near future the association and the school could work together to open more public welfare programs dedicated to ocean protection. Eco-Heroes winner You Yun believes that nature education should start with learning about mountains and ocean as well as natural species, which relies on the concerted efforts by more social forces. The Ecological Nature School has been striving to explore sustainable development plans to promote nature education. Last year the school opened a lecture to drug addicts at the Shenzhen Drug Rehabilitation Center, aiming to translate the knowledge about and care of nature into something that can help enrich their lives. As one of the 56 nature schools in the country, Shenzhen Ecological Nature School was founded by the Shenzhen Ecological Monitoring Center. It is the only nature school with the theme of ecological monitoring and is committed to training volunteer teachers for environmental protection. The training content covers five categories: water, soil, atmosphere, fauna and flora. The editor-in-chief at the nature school has compiled a complete set of textbooks and designed courses including “Nature Education + English,” “Nature Education + Mathematics,” “Nature Education + Art,” and “Nature Education + Marine Conservation.” (Yang Mei) | 