Humans and other living things are all owners of nature. However, due to selfishness, humans have damaged the interdependence relationship between themselves and nature. Through this research project, I have gained valuable knowledge about protecting the environment. I hope I can start taking initiatives and promote the concepts to more people. Therefore, we arranged promotional activities in school. For 1st and 2nd grade students, we promoted the knowledge through picture books. For juniors, we focused on promoting environmental education through experimental activities. For seniors, we emphasized on thinking about the environmental impact to all living things and promoted the idea of taking initiatives and influencing more people to join and protect the environment. A person may have limited influential power, but through promotions, we will be able to unite more people and exert much stronger influence on others.

My first in-class promotion was held at 2nd Grade’s Yi Class. Although I had practiced many times at home, I still got nervous and felt that time passed by much slower when I stood in front of the entire class. In the second presentation, we went to junior class with a more relaxed mentality. I was able to speak and share information about SOW more naturally and smoothly. The final presentation was held at my own class, as the audience was my classmates who I’m very familiar with, I had completely overcome the psychological barriers and was able to have better interaction and performance. Although I partnered with different teammates for each in-class promotion, I was able to gain different experience by communicating and brainstorming with each teammate for each presentation. I truly hope that after our promotional presentations, all students can start taking actions to take care of the environment and protect the beautiful planet.

For the promotional presentation to 1st and 2nd graders, my partner and I had chosen the "A Fantastic Flight in Taipei" picture book. It is a fantasy story about how humans have turned a world where animals and humans used to live happily together into a dirty environment that is unsuitable for living, and the protagonist is very worried about where the animals will go. In my opinion, SOW’s role is similar to the story’s protagonist, sharing the happiness and sadness with plants and animals. In junior and senior classes, we acted as SOW’s ambassadors to introduce the glorious NGO to other students. Starting with making presentations, setting up questionnaires to preparing for a photographic exhibition, the team had worked collaboratively to achieve our goal. In particular, we used luminescent material on our photos and brought nature to life, which was a very creative idea!

After we learned about SOW and participated in various activities, we collected our thoughts and reflections, organized our notes, and rehearsed for presentation. For lower grade students, we planned to convey environmental concepts with show and tell by picture books. For higher grade students, we prepared presentation slides and questionnaires. From the promotion campaign, not only I had learned more about environmental issues, but also improved my presentation and communication skills. Through Wilderness Cross’s team effort, we had promoted environmental knowledge to students and urged them to start paying attention to environmental issues. We should work together and show our love for the earth!

When we were promoting SOW values and events, I discovered that while most students like to participate in outdoor activities, due to lack of environmental education, they do not know how to protect the natural environment. For example, they need to learn how to reduce man-made impact to the environment when we go hiking and camping, as well as not to feed and interfere with animals such as squirrels in the park to avoid causing disruption to the food chain. These concepts do not require too much time and energy, but can be very effective in terms of protecting the environment. The best moment of the promotion presentation was when students expressed strong interest in the beach and mountain clean-up activities we had participated in. I was very happy to see many students showing interest in participating in future environmental activities to make a commitment to better our environment.

In order to let all students have some basic understanding of environmental protection, we went to lower-grade classes to promote environmental education through a picture book of "The Magical Journey of a Sea Turtle Egg". The story is about the life cycle of sea turtles. It takes the reader through the dynamic life of sea turtles in the 30 page book that is suitable for all ages. Combined with an interesting story and our performance, as well as quiz contest, we successfully captured lower-grade students’ attention and interest. I think this is a picture book that is worth reading.

2020 was a difficult year for the world. The outbreak of coronavirus has led to many people realizing the interdependent relationship between humans and the natural environment. It made Wilderness Crossing’s SOW promotion much more meaningful during such difficult times. We brainstormed to come up with creative presentation ideas to capture more attention. It may be an interesting picture book about the ecological environment, an exhibit showcasing a heart-warming picture, or an in-class presentation to share our experience with SOW, etc. Nine of us have worked as one, and we believe the effort we have put into promoting environmental knowledge will leave a footprint in others’ hearts.

Environmental protection has become a hot topic globally. Although most people have environmental awareness, not many elementary students are aware of the Society of Wilderness, which was our biggest challenge. So, we came up with many ideas such as event videos, quiz contests with rewards, and picture books to introduce and promote SOW. After our introduction and promotion, the students had learned about the immediacy of environmental protection, and became aware of SOW and its volunteers who have been devoting their effort in protecting our environment. We are very happy and pleased with the result.

We promoted SOW with picture books for lower-grade classes and questionnaires for high-grade classes. As I’m not good at expressing my opinions and making speeches in front of others, the promotion was a very challenging task for me and I was very nervous. However, seeing everyone’s enthusiastic reactions and interest in participating in future environmental activities, I think it was definitely worth the effort!