Elders’ Storytelling and Children Paint their Dreams Activity at Baan Pong Khong School
On Thursday, September 1st, Chiang Khong Conservation Group (CKCG) held an “Elders’ Storytelling and Children Paint their Dreams” activity with 34 students grades B3-B6 at Baan Pong Khong Primary School, Mae Ngoen subdistrict, Chiang Saen district, Chiang Rai. In the morning, the children first came together to sing songs and to share their experiences with the Mekong River before Khru Tee from The Mekong School came to tell stories about the river. After this, the children broke into groups and took a short walk to the river to collect water samples and have a water testing activity led by a group of 10 mentor M5 students from nearby Ban Saew Witthayakhom School, who are part of the Mekong Youth Program.
After lunch, there were some fun and games with the mentor group before the children had a brief recap activity and mapped their community together. Then, they were each given paper and art supplies with which to paint a picture of what the Mekong River and their community means to them. At the end of the day, the mentors, and the teachers from Baan Pong Khong School selected students to present their paintings to the group.
Hands-on training on hologram media for Mekong youth at the Playable Museum
On Saturday, September 3rd, CKCG held another activity at the Playable Museum in Pa Daet subdistrict, Mae Suai district, Chiang Rai, with 36 students from the Mekong Youth Group. These students are from four schools in our working area: Chiang Khong Witthayakhom school, Huay So Witthayakhom Rajamangalaphisek School, Ban Saew Witthayakhom School, and Ban Huay Luek School.
The students joined together with Mr. Weerawat Kangwannawakul from the museum to learn about the importance and history of homemade wooden toys in Thai culture. They then had a workshop with Mr. Kangwannawakul on telling stories through play, and learned how to make a hologram from Mr. Ramil Kangwannawakul using just a cell phone and a small projection device.
In the afternoon, they continued the workshop with a brainstorming session with guidance from the museum staff and the CKCG team on how they can incorporate a hologram into their final presentation media piece for their long-term project-based research with the Mekong Youth Program. At the end of the day, our CKCG team presented 9 awards to the students who had made the most outstanding creative content to summarize their field trip to Ban Muang Chum seasonally flooded forest from the last Mekong Youth Program Nature Camp activity.
