The first webinar of the webinar series under the programme “Transforming Environmental Education”, on Place and Nature based Learning was successfully conducted on 12th December 2020.

Tree Craze Foundation organized a webinar that brought together educators from various institutions and regions of India to discuss the challenges and lessons for schools during the pandemic COVID 19. A total of 19 participants were part of the webinar and it saw fruitful discussions on understanding how schools have coped with the pandemic and what the major learning areas.

After a short introduction and summary of this initiative by the CEO of TREE Craze Foundation, Ms. Bhawna Badola, the webinar session began. It was moderated by the Head of the Advisory Board of TCF, Mr. Puskal Upadhyay.

Mr. Upadhyay elaborated the context and relevance of such discussions on place and nature-based learning by enquiring:

• “Can the concept of school exist beyond the institutional building?”
• “Is the education within four walls alienating children from nature?”

Some of the key insights and discussion points by the participants are elaborated below. The discussions revolved around the following questions:

• How has the CoVID-19 situation affected the schools? What all aspects were affected in the beginning?
• How are schools operating during CoVID-19 ? How did you adapt?
• What were the difficulties in the shift to conducting virtual classrooms?
• Will virtual classrooms over the long run be unsustainable?
• How can we address social, environmental and experiential learning in such situations?
• Do you think children confined in schools or homes or dependent upon digital means will grow naturally?