Qatar- QF's QBG concludes environmental awareness educational programmes

(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Doha: The Quranic Botanic Garden (QBG) has concluded its 2020- 2021 Fun and Learn, Young Botanist, and Food Security educational programmes — helping young people devise solutions to some of Qatar's most pressing environmental challenges through dedicated online workshops, interactive discussions with QBG experts and competitions. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, QBG held its Fun and Learn programme for children between 6 and 12 years virtually through social media. Designed to teach the younger generation about plants and the environment through a social media competition, the Fun and Learn programme aims to spread awareness of environmental action and the plants mentioned in Holy Qur'an, Hadith, and Sunnah. The programme included a recycling competition, where children were asked to record a video of them recycling used agricultural tools, providing an explanation of the used tools and follow actioned steps. Fatima Al Khulaifi, Director QBG, said, 'All our programmes aim to educate students about the importance of preserving natural resources, protecting the environment, as well as cultivating and reforming lands. QBG has established educational programmes that are suitable for diverse age groups and closely integrated into school curricula to ensure a practical application of this knowledge. Through this, we support environmental development — the fourth pillar of Qatar National Vision 2030 — and continue to work towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Fun and Learn also included the Little Farmer and Little Narrator competitions. The Little Farmer competition asks children to video record themselves sowing a plant mentioned in the Holy Quran or Hadith and provide an explanation of the steps taken and tools used. Children taking part in the Little Narrator competition told stories in Classical Arabic about the plants in the Holy Qur'an and Hadith, also submitted as a video and published on social media. As part of its Young Botanist Program, QBG launched its 2021 Environmental Research Competition. The programme targets high school students and introduces participants to botany, methods of plant conservation and multiplication through scientific and laboratory trips, as well as hands-on experiments conducted by the students themselves. Students and teachers visited QBG for consultations on their competition projects and were provided with direct support from QBG's experts. This year witnessed the addition of the QBG Virtual Tours programme as part of the pre-existing Young Botanist Program. The virtual tours schedule included many sessions for different school types to communicate with students in Arabic and English. The tours targeted students in grade 5 to 7. However, due to the large demand, the programme was expanded to include more age groups. QBG's Food Security programme encourages modern agricultural practices that make investments in this sector feasible. This year's programme included virtual meetings and a series of online workshops and live interviews to introduce students to the latest expertise in the field. Utilising the skills and knowledge acquired through QBG's Food Security programme, the students competed to see who would produce the best quality agricultural product.MENAFN17042021000063011010ID1101932221