PLAYING TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT
durian if you allow hunters to keep culling them.”
A new batch of conservationists from Southeast Asia have been exposed to this exciting approach as another Wildlife Conservation Course, which is in its third year, concluded in Malaysia recently. Twenty-five participants of the Wildlife Conservation Course listen intently as its director, Dr Cedric Tan explains how to measure the density of animals using a game called ‘Camera Trapping and Analysis’ laid out on a table. The groups would get up to move their pieces made of card when they get the questions right. The participants comprise conservation biologists and community outreach officers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Sri Lanka. For these young conservationists, the two-week course held at the University of Nottingham in Selangor, marks their first experience with a novel pedagogical approach aimed at enhancing their practical wildlife conservation work.
Developed by Tan, the 33 year-old Singaporean is a post-doctoral researcher in innovative teaching at the University of Oxford, and also researches on the ecology of clouded leopards in Peninsular Malaysia. “The idea to incorporate elements of traditional learning, experiential teaching and role-play gaming started four years ago when I was teaching undergraduates. I came up with games for revision classes and realised that students responded positively to them. Subsequently, I used games not only for revision, but also for teaching, as experiential games work well for my topics.” He adds that students’ involvement in participatory theatre, roleplaying, and even using puppets during lessons, left a better impression on them as they were actively learning.
While the thought of dancing and donning costumes might terrify the average biologist, Tan says that his approach to teaching is a matter of incorporating what he loves: art and science. He combined these two passions by producing educational videos with original choreography, lyrics and music. One of these videos earned him the top prize for the 2013 “Dance Your Ph.D”, which interpreted his thesis on the mating process of the red jungle fowl.
“Like other scientists, I allocate a lot of my time for publishing papers. However, I teach with games and conduct research on