High school teachers in Greater Jakarta participating in an environmental workshop Saturday, were encouraged to bring the Green Map system to their students, to raise their environmental awareness.

In one of the workshops, volunteers from the Green Map Indonesia community shared their experience of mapmaking toward a sustainable community development with teachers.

The teachers were expected to be able to deliver the system to their students and start mapping out their green surroundings, volunteer Elanto Wijoyono said during the session.

“Students can start by mapping out their schools before expanding to other areas.”

“They can also explore many interesting things they find during the mapping activities,” he said, adding the system could be a more enjoyable approach to learning, combined with other subjects in the curriculum.

Creating Green Maps would make students more responsive to preserving the environment, said Marco Kusumawijaya, another Green Map volunteer.

“With the mapping activities, they can contribute to mitigating the effects of global warming.”

Elanto cited a Green Map a group of students in Taiwan presented to their mayor, which ended up being factored into the development of the city they lived in.

During the workshop, teachers were also shown how to design several types of Green Maps in Jakarta and a number of cities worldwide.

Robert Zuber, a Green Map expert, said the Green Map system brought people closer to things they usually did not notice in their surroundings.

“Why should schools invest in something like this? Well, because schoolchildren are less and less familiar with the place they call home. And if they don’t know about their neighborhood, they will not take care of it,” he told the teachers.

“People living in Jakarta know little about their surroundings because they spend too much time in cars, only travelling to places they already know. They pass the same routes every day without paying attention to what is along their routes.”

He added the process of making a Green Map was more important than the map itself, as it raised the mapmakers’ sense of responsibility toward preserving the environment.

“The Green Map is also a flexible tool, which can be adapted to any subject or curriculum,” he said, adding a physics teacher could use Green Map to chart energy sources for example.

Suganda, a biology teacher at Dwiwarna School, said the Green Map system inspired him to take a new approach when teaching his subject.

“Actually, I have asked my students to map out biodiversity throughout our school, and this system has sharpened my ideas.”

Wati Wardani, a participant from Al Azhar School, said the Green Map system was a very good and applicable method for schools as it encouraged students to be more aware of the environment.

Wati said she would organize a Green Map workshop for her work colleagues before teaching the system to her students.

“The most important thing is how to integrate the Green Map into the curriculum.”

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