Development and Application Effects of Education Program on Biodiversity with Endangered Oriental White Stork Reintroduction Program on Elementary and Middle School Girl Students

초.중학교 여학생들의 멸종 위기종 황새 복원과 연계한 생물 다양성 교육프로그램 개발 및 적용효과

Currently, biodiversity conservation is regarded as one of the most important environmental issues in the 21st century. However, The educational approaches on biodiversity conservation is not actively developed. This study was conducted to develop the educational program on biodiversity conservation related with endangered species conservation for improving elementary and middle school girl students' knowledge on biodiversity, inspiring the value and importance of biodiversity, and improving the attitude toward the conservation of biodiversity. Because the biodiversity loss of wetlands such as rice-fields, rivers, marshes has made the breeding population of Oriental White Stork(Ciconia boyciana) endangered in Korea, this subject was very effective for students to learn the cause and effect of biodiversity loss realistically. The education program was conducted to 68 local elementary and middle girl students from 2007 to 2009 and consists of three main activities such as feeding on storks in captivity, sampling living organisms in rice-fields, and designing the future stork living village. The results didn't show a positive effect on improving the knowledge on the biodiversity, but a positive effect on improving the attitude toward the conservation of biodiversity. And the number of taxa that students noticed in rice-fields has increased significantly. In conclusion, this educational program promoted students to concern about and take up a positive attitude on the biodiversity conservation issue.