The Jakarta Post 20 Apr 10;
Dozens of attentive children sit in a circle on the floor of the gazebo with a thatched roof, cooled by the breeze, listening to a woman who is explaining how to make a cake.
When she asked them about the ingredients on display, the children enthusiastically raised their hands to answer the questions.
The students at Sekolah Alam Depok, or school of nature, located in Bedahan subdistrict, Sawangan district, Depok, were learning about solids and liquids in their natural science class.
Sekolah Alam Depok (Sade) is just one of the “nature schools” that have gained popularity in Greater Jakarta in the past few years.
The trend was set by Sekolah Alam Ciganjur in South Jakarta and School of the Universe in Parung, Bogor, West Java, which were both established in the noughties.
They have emerged to accommodate the trend of bringing children closer to the environment, using nature as a learning medium.
The existence of these nature schools echoes global concerns about current environmental problems, especially climate change.
But they have also become an alternative for parents who seek quality schools, besides international schools or national-plus schools.
Sade, for example, applies a curriculum of character building and a curriculum of leadership to complement the national curriculum.
Wulan, one of the school’s founders, said each curriculum has its own target outcomes.
“In the character building curriculum, for example, we try to promote the students’ team work spirit and problem solving,” she said.
Together, the three curricula intend to stimulate the students’ best potential.
Sade was established four years ago in response to an education system that alienated students from their surrounding environment.
“We want to bring students close to nature as we believe that human beings were created to lead the universe,” said Wulan, who also teaches there.
To achieve this goal, nature is used as the chief learning medium, with 60 to 70 percent of classes conducted outdoors.
During mathematics, for example, students learn about angles by identifying various angles in leaves and plants found in the school’s gardens.
In social science class, students explore various Indonesian cultures and their traditional food.
“Students, for example, conduct a survey about the taste of the West Sumatran food by interviewing people.
After graphing statistics, they know that Sumatran people prefer spicy food,” said Wulan.
In natural science class, they also learn about the weather from the actual conditions.
When it is cloudy, for example, teachers will ask students to identify how they feel and how to respond to the weather.
“So they can apply their knowledge about the weather,” said Wulan.
“People often think our school is informal, but the learning process is very structured,” she said.
The school, which now has seven classes from kindergarten to fourth grade of elementary school, runs from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. everyday.
The evaluation system is also conducted as required by the education agency. The school issues report cards every six months as in other schools.
However, it also has its own evaluation through portofolios given in mid-semester terms and narrative reports issued at the end of the semester.
Andriyani, a mother of two students, said she was satisfied with the school’s education system.
“I think the target of bringing the children closer to nature has been realized,” she said.
“When my son learned maths on conversion, he was asked to measure how much water we used in our daily activities at home.
“It made him realize we waste a lot of water every day and he was aware that we should reduce water use,” she said.
His children also asked her to separate garbage into organic and non-organic categories, as they learned at school.
“I am not worried that they can’t catch up the requirements of the national curriculum,” she said.
However, she said that her children might need adaption once they continue their study at other schools. (lnd)
