For the past three years, Carbet des Sciences has been rolling out the «Watty at School» educational program in schools across Martinique. This program, funded by EDF Martinique and Eco CO2, is completely free for schools and aims to raise awareness among children in grades 1 through 6 about water and energy conservation. This initiative is part of Environmental Education for Sustainable Development (EEDD).
The goal is to raise awareness among children and their parents about the importance of conserving energy and water at school and at home.
«We visit schools, bring our materials, and conduct one-hour workshops. We visit twice during the school year. During the workshops, we explain to the children the eco-friendly habits they can adopt in their daily lives. The kids enjoy it because we offer fun and educational activities; they’re always excited to watch the videos, look at the models, and play little games and do activities. »At the end, we give each student a small kit to help them save money at home—these include energy-saving kits with LED bulbs and water-saving kits with water-saving devices,” explains Katherine Balfast, who is in charge of the program.
Just over 20,000 students were affected over the three-year period; in the 2017–2018 school year alone, that amounted to 84 schools, 483 classes, and 10,136 students.
Every year, a contest is held; this year’s theme was «An Eco-Friendly Action in the Kitchen,» meaning how to save energy in the kitchen. We received about twenty entries (photos, videos, or other submissions). An awards ceremony will be held soon.
If you would like to register your class for this program, please contact Katherie Balfast at 0596 39 86 55 or watty.mart972@gmail.com. .
Kaylan Fagour
