Community engagement and education is a vital part of Mara Elephant Project’s approach to mitigating poaching and human-elephant conflict. We love to be involved in educating the future in not only the Mara region of Africa, but also the United States. We want every child to know at an early age the costs of losing such a keystone species to our world in hopes that they will spread the word and help us save the African elephants.
Allisonville Elementary School in Indianapolis, IN is an International Baccalaureate public school in the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township that has again and again won for its excellence in educating future generations. Every May the students in the fifth grade are required to create an Exhibition project as their final big project before heading to middle school. Exhibition is about finding a crisis affecting our world today, learning about that crisis and taking action.
“I think Exhibition is important because it’s completely student driven. It encourages kids to take action and do something to make the world a better place. As we teach these concepts we also teach the students what it means to be globally minded and an active citizen. The sense of pride and ownership they get from the action piece of the project is always an invaluable learning experience.” Josh Bolles, Fifth Grade Teacher, Allisonville Elementary School
Fifth-grader Ethan Patterson chose to feature Mara Elephant Project as the centerpiece of his Exhibition project about the ivory trade and elephant conservation.
“I think elephants are cool and I learned a lot about why it’s important that we don’t buy ivory.”Ethan Patterson, Student, Allisonville Elementary School
Ethan used www.maraelephantproject.org to help research his project and learn why elephants are so important to protect. He was really surprised about the high cost of ivory and the connection to funding terrorism. He was also very interested in learning about the PIKE (Percentage of Illegal Killed Elephants) numbers. He said the PIKE data on the MEP website really helped him understand just how many elephants are being poached and was surprised to learn they could be extinct by 2025 if he doesn’t take action and help. He learned that every 15 minutes an elephant dies and wanted to convey that reality in his presentation.
He pledged to take action by passing out information cards about MEP and asking for donations. He was able to raise $100 to donate!
MEP is happy to support local communities in educating our future generations about the illegal ivory trade and to teach them the importance of preserving the African elephant. Thank you Ethan for your $100 donation! Every dollar counts! You’ll also be happy to know Ethan received a top grade from his teacher, Mr. Bolles.
