The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN), in partnership with the Kansas State University (KSU) and the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), held the 3rd session of the Trainers’ Training for Integrating the School-plus-Home Gardens cum Biodiversity Enhancement Enterprise (SHGBEE) in ATPs and Mini-ATPs in Cambodia on 5 January 2022 via the platform Zoom. The event’s main objective is to boost the capacity of teachers and local government offices by developing a core team with the added information, skills, and understanding for properly disseminating the needed concepts and values to students in the CE SAIN target schools for the Agricultural Technology Parks (ATPs) and mini-ATPs.
Participants and organizers of Session 3.
The e-training took off from the recap of one of the participants followed by a pre-session self-evaluation that gauged their knowledge of the topic. The session covered the Module 3 under the Guiding Concept of the School-plus-Home Garden (S+HGP) which focused on Biodiversity Enhancement and Environmental Sustainability. This was facilitated by Dr. Leticia E. Afuang, Professor from the Animal Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences and Museum of Natural History, UPLB. The lecture was followed by an open forum and breakout session. The participants completed the workshop templates which contained profiling of schools and action plans. The session concluded through the reflection and synthesis presented by Dr. Blesilda M. Calub, Technical Coordinator and Facilitator, University Researcher IV from the Agricultural Systems Institute, UPLB. Dr. Calub underscored the action plan from the workshop outputs which reflected the willingness of the participants to promote biodiversity conservation and enhancement in various manners which include integrating more topics on biodiversity conservation in the subjects that they are teaching and developing teaching materials to increase student knowledge on local biodiversity.
Dr. Afuang delivering her lecture for Session 3.
Teachers, principals, officials and representatives from CE SAIN, Raksmey Sophanna High School, Samdech Euv High School, Institute of Community Development, Sor Kheng Chanteu II High School, and Chea Sim Tbeng Meanchey High School, all in Cambodia, were the participants of the training that will run until 16 February 2022.