Students put environment studies into practice

Mahidol University (MU)’s Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies recently joined forces with Banpu to organise “Power Green Camp 8”, a youth camp aimed at teaching students how to tackle environmental conservation.

The seven-day camp was held last week at the Learning Centre Building in Nakhon Pathom on MU’s Salaya campus. Its 70 high school participants were selected from around 900 applicants nationwide. They worked in teams on various activities, including an exhibition at which the teams produced displays exploring solutions for environmental conservation. The displays were also entered into a contest which was won by a bio-diesel-fuelled device created to remove hyacinth weed that seasonally blocks Thailand’s waterways. The invention won the top prize.

Banpu Corporate Relations senior director, Udomluck Olan, said the company had been performing CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities over the past three decades to improve the community’s well-being and environment. The camp, Udomluck added, aimed to encourage student participation in environmental conservation, as well as develop their teamwork skills.

Asst Prof Jongdee To-im, assistant to the Dean for Physical Systems and Environment at MU, said most student participants learned about Thailand’s flood crisis and the integration of cross-border water management. Their activities focused on teamwork and active learning, such as calculating the extent of the nationwide flooding. The camp participants also got a chance to join a discussion about cross-border water management in which they learned from experts about real flood problems and solutions, such as the major floods in Nonthaburi’s Pak Kred district, she said.

Marisa Tonglong, a Mathayom 4 student from Udomdarunee School, Sukhothai province, said the camp served as an opportunity to advance in her studies, because it touched on topics that were taught in Mathayom six. The practical knowledge they learned at the camp could also be applied to real-life scenarios, she said. 

Thanathon Krobsanit, a Mathayom five student from Nonthaburi’s Nawamintrachinuthid Horwang School, said students had the chance to make new friends and learn to save water by using water-saving products.