Abstract
Hands on activity refer to brings about change in the society as it increases space for human activities to attain environmental sustainability. The study aimed to investigate the effect of hands-on activity programme on the awareness of environmental sustainability. This was a participatory empirical research where students, teachers, and local community members participated in a hands-on activity programme of environmental sustainability to improve the environmental issues of the locality. Students (n=20), teachers (n=4), and local people (n=16) were participated in the hands on activity programme. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis H Test used to analyze the feedback cum responses towards hands-on activity & environmental sustainability questionnaire. It was resulted that there was no significance difference in the responses towards the hands on activity programme and environmental sustainability questionnaire. The students, teachers, and the local people opined that a hand on activity is an effort of environmental sustainability.
Introduction
In the recent days, machines are working activities with the help of low workers, but in debate, how machines are able to protect the air, soil, and water from manmade pollutants, if man himself or herself is responsible or accountable to manage environmental sustainability to protect mother planet, the earth. In fact, individual participation necessary to protect the nature through hands on activity program could help or benefit to understand the concepts of nature, environment, and sustainability of environment. However, hands on activities are easy, feasible, reliable, valid, and eco-friendly to apply in the classrooms, institutions, and societies to keep the planet green and clean. Activities like field trips or study trips are organizing for the students or people to visit the ideal waste disposal sites and to see working of different devises those measures the affect of pollution. Hands on activities aim at organizing mass tree plantation programme, road cleaning, composting, making rally with environmental sustainability slogans, starting environmental, and nature related project, and making people aware about the importance of sustainable environment. Hands on activity such as using domestic wastewater and animal excreta, composting unused weeds, composting peel of the fruits and vegetables, using waste papers and plastics, grass and weeds. Similarly, utilizing agricultural lands and kitchen gardens; identifying the eco-friendly pests in agriculture and kitchen gardens are the examples of effective hands on activities those people can practice in their day-to-day lives. Similarly, hands on activity refers to the creativity on constructing beautiful statue using rock, soil, plastic or unused paper; habiting waste paper works, and fine arts in unused plastics and cans, and with unused or broken glass, tin, metals, or in paper curtains. It is also possible to reuse the unused electronic wastes like; rejected desktops, laptop batteries, mobiles, toner, inverter, air conditioners, televisions, phones, and different unused and rejected machines. School ground as environmental learning resources where teachers’ and pupils’ has major rules to create awareness people towards healthy waste collection and composting (Atmodiwirjo, 2013). Carter, Tyrrel & Peter (1999) sustainability of community water supply and sanitation programmes in developing countries encourage effective hand washing. Orzali (2009) connected students towards sustainability through hands on learning in high school science classroom. Jena (2011) investigated the relationship among hands on experience, community participation, observation, field visit, multimedia, and demonstration with environmental awareness. Students’ hands on experience enhanced environmental awareness but community participation and field visit was not related to the environmental awareness. Chowdhury (2014) found soil hand washing was not effective than soap washing. Hilary (2013) found hand washing campaigning could change thousands local peoples belief towards health sustainability. Jena (2012) planted more than 250 saplings and worked on sustainable development and environmental education programme found conventional educational methods are no longer adequate for the real needs of tomorrow, and environment sustainability is more prevalent and related with the higher education institutions. In addition, Jena (2018) found that community sanitation program encourages local people about environmental sustainability in Assam, India.
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Design of the study
This was a participatory empirical research where teachers, students, and local community members participated in the hands-on activity programme of environmental sustainability to improve the environmental issues of the locality as well as the earth. There was no formal hypothesis except the working hypothesis in form of research questions, and objectives. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis H Test used to analyze the response towards hands-on activity & environmental sustainability questionnaire.
Tool
Hands-on Activity & Environmental Sustainability Feedback cum Questionnaire
The feedback cum questionnaire has two parts. Part I (i.e. Feedback) has 11 dichotomous types of items and all these items of the feedback were related to the hands-on activity, whereas, the hands-on activity & environmental sustainability cum questionnaire has seven Likert types 5 points option having Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Undecided (UD), Disagree (D),& Strongly Disagree (SD), like options to respond. The KR20 reliability of part 1 of the questionnaire was.76 whereas the content validity ratio and the Split-half reliability of part 11 of the questionnaire was .64 & .71 .
Procedure of data collection
Composting, tree planting; and the techniques of reducing, reusing, recycling waste materials were the activities those the participants practiced and experienced. Students advised the people on how to compost banana peels, apple cores, grape stacks, vegetable peels and discussed on how to maintain environment sustainability. People realized the affect of wastewater, plastics, & fossil fuel. In addition, students took tea, water, sweets in their reusable cup, water bottle, glass, and after lunch, they used dustbin and requested the local people to use recycle bin for waste paper, plastic, & waste metal. Students practiced composting, planted trees, and trained people the techniques of reducing, reusing, recycling waste materials. The researcher advised the people on how to compost banana peels, apple cores, grape stacks, and vegetable peels those were habit maintains environment sustainability. During and after hands on activity programme a closed ended Hands-on Activity & Environmental Sustainability Feedback cum Questionnaire was administered to measure the effectiveness.
The teachers had the highest mean rank (27.00) than students group, (21.45) but this was an indication of better significant respond level of hands-on activity whereas the local people had the lowest mean rank (16.36). The Kruskal-Wallis Test (5.531) when the level of significance was set at 0.05, the small p value (.062) where the Chi-Square approximation, corrected for the existence of ties in the ranks of the data indicated no significant difference in participants rating for individual assignment. The result of the test was in the expected direction and found not significant. Hence, the item 2 (i.e. Composting Banana peels, apple cores, grape stacks, vegetable peels are the practice, which supported environment sustainability) was accepted.
Finding and discussion
It was resulted that there was no significance difference in the responses of the feedback as well as in the hands on activity programme and environmental sustainability questionnaire. The students, teachers, and the local people opined that hands on activity were an effort of environmental sustainability. Moreover, there was not surprisingly mean difference among teachers, students, and local people. Hence, hands-on activity programme was an effort of environmental sustainability. The recent study investigated the effectiveness of the hands on activity programme on the awareness of environmental sustainability. It was resulted that the hands on activity programme was a practical and necessary effort to manage solid waste, open defecation, and minimizing use of plastics, and polythene. It advised to use reusable cup, plate, glass, and permanent bags during lunch, dinner, and marketing. 100% participants (e.g.teachers, students, and local people) opined that hands on activity programme encouraged on composting, tree planting, reducing, reusing waste materials and aware the people on how to keep clean and green the environment and the mother earth. Orzali, 2009, supported this result. Christian & Rehan, 1999 found that hands on experience or hands on activity were the ultimate ways of environmental sustainability. They suggested that effective hand washing, stopping open defecation, cleaning sewages, lands filling the garbage are the ways of hands on activity. Jena, 2011 determined the relationship among hands on experience, community participation, observation, field visit, demonstration, multimedia on environment awareness. It was resulted that hands on experience directly correlated with environmental awareness. World toilet day encourages people to stop open defecation, and for that purpose collaborative house hold water treatment project and other innovative ideas were undertaken to maintain the environmental sustainability.
Conclusion
In this recent project, hands on activity programs were organized by the researcher, and evaluated the feedback and questionnaire of the participants. Teachers, students, and community people were participated in the hands on activity program organized in Silchar, Assam at two different places. In fact, the participants advised the people to use reusable cup in their home and they advised the tea stall proprietors to keep reusable cup made up of ceramics, steel, or glass. The participants collected and cleaned the polythene wastes, broken glass, plastics, and usable plastic bottle, and put these in the waste bins. They also planted few saplings and demonstrated the local people how to compost the vegetable wastes. In this programme, the participants also demonstrated to the people the effective hand washing and advised to practice before and after eating, and after defecation. Individually the participants visited and observed the condition of the sanitary latrine of the local people and advised to keep clean the latrine. In addition to these brooms, Dettols, phenyls, and bleaching powder distributed among the local people to keep the community clean and germ free. If we critically analyze these activities, we could guess how participants dedicated their work hour to the local people. Nevertheless, if the other organizations, NGOs, Government and private enterprises will come forward to organize such activities for the community development, then naturally India will be clean and green within 2020. Hence, hands on activity were an effort to get sustainability of the environment. The researcher is requesting the world of community to participate in the hands on activity programme to keep, manage, and maintain the environment clean and green.
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