Sharing Nature Articles and Activities

A Visit to fireflies
by Egret
 

"When I was young, I used to see many fireflies around my house in the Hong Kong countryside," said Ching Ching, the creator of 'A Visit to the fireflies' Walk.

Gaia's education officer Ching Ching

"Last year, when I was working in my room, a firefly flew in. I switched off the light at once to see the firefly dancing around," she continued. "As I watched, I wondered why it was difficult to see fireflies anymore. Are there any places in Hong Kong where we can see many fireflies? Will fireflies eventually become extinct in Hong Kong?"

We know that fireflies like to live near clean streams or rivers. If they are disappearing, does it indicate that clean streams in Hong Kong are becoming fewer and fewer?

Luckily, we were able to find traces of fireflies in a jungle near the New territories. So we started to carry out our first night program in Gaia School's history. We used Joseph Cornell's Flow Learning theory to plan it.

The following is how it goes:

1. Awaken enthusiasm

• Renaming (participants have to rename themselves with names related to animals or things occurring in the night).
• Facilitators introduce some of the characteristics of fireflies.
• Facilitators share some of the night experiences.

2. Focus attention

• Bury your worries (participants are asked to switch off all the mobile phones and pagers. Then they have to close their eyes, think about their worries and bury them.)
• Number off (because it's not easy to identify people in the dark, this helps to insure that everyone is following along.)

3. Direct experience

• Silent walk (during the walk, participants are able to see fireflies and listen to the calling of different night animals)

4. Share inspiration

• poetry writing for adults (expressing their feelings for the experience)
• Sound map for children (listen to the sounds in the dark and draw a map)

This program takes three hours. We have used it three times with family groups since last May. The youngest child was 6 years old, while the oldest adult was over sixty.

The feedback of the participants is positive. Most of them felt it was a very valuable experience-we can tell this from the beautiful poems they wrote.

During our night walks, we have found at least three different kinds of fireflies living in the area. We are happy to say that this indicates that there is still clean water in Hong Kong.
"Maybe the firefly who visited my room came to give us a mission, which was to focus our attention on the environment in Hong Kong," said Ching Ching."

We are now planning to offer this program to many more participants in the spring and summer.

Background

In 1993 a small group of educators established The Gaia School, which became registered as a charitable organization in 1998.

Our main aim is to use creative nature activities to give people joyful and inspiring experiences of nature. We hope that by uplifting people's consciousness we can truly change their way of looking at and relating to the world. As a result, a better society can be created.

We deeply believe humanity is part of nature; therefore inspirational teaching in nature should be an important part of education. Besides the natural world giving us valuable resources, we can also gain endless knowledge and truth from nature. Apart from knowledge, the most important thing is to bring people into a deeper and more profound experience of nature. Inspirational teaching brings out latent potentialities, awakens our curiosity, and strengthens our sense of belonging to, and being connected with, all life.

We hope that participants can experience the pleasure of a harmonious time in nature through our elaborately designed activities.

Depending on the needs of different organizations, we provide various kinds of inspirational learning programs on different themes and modes.

Our web site(in Chinese only): http://gaiaschool.members.easyspace.com

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