Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre

TRAINING PACKAGE - ENERGY SAVING AND CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION

Training Package on Energy Saving and Carbon Emission Reduction aims to help you learn more about the need for energy saving and carbon emission reduction by introducing the relationship between energy and climate change. The topical worksheets can be used as take-home exercises for students (suitable for Primary 3 or above) or can be done at our centre by using our library resources.

Worksheet:
Energy Efficiency
Energy Crisis
Calculating how much carbon you produce and ways to reduce it

Please email us the completed worksheet to get the correct answers.

We offer free demonstrations of the training as our Centre’s outreach programme. The remaining teaching materials (PPT and extra readings) will be provided after the demonstrations. Interested parties can contact our staff for an appointment of the outreach demonstration.

Centre Visit

Centre Visit
Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre does not have exhibition on environmental protection and climate change only, animals like birds and amphibians are often found in surrounding environment. If you would like to know more about Centre’s information and wildlife at Lung Fu Shan, please download the worksheet of centre visit.

Please email us the completed worksheet to get the correct answers. Centre Visit Worksheet

Thematic Tour – Butterfly

Aberdeen Country Park is easy to access and a good place for butterfly-watching in our bustling city. Produced by the Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre, this 8-minute visual tour brings you to discover the wonders of Hong Kong’s butterflies and appreciate the beauty of the butterflies.

Video

Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour

Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour
Just a short distance from our noisy urban area, Lung Fu Shan possesses a very high biodiversity. Produced by the Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre, this 30-minutes visual Lung Fu Shan Tour takes you on an epic journey to the natural environment: From animals like butterflies, birds, amphibians and reptiles to plants like trees, shrubs and herbs; From the story of “Victoria City” Boundary Stone to the history of Pinewood Battery. Now you can enjoy our Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour by just sitting at home.

Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour (part A)
Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour (part B)

After watching the “Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour”video, you can complete the Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour Worksheet, your understandings on the natural and cultural capitals of Lung Fu Shan will certainly be enhanced!

Please email us the completed worksheet to get the correct answners.
Lung Fu Shan Nature Tour Worksheet

MAKING COMPOST AT HOME

You can also make compost at home now by using simple ingredients which are usually regarded as “waste”! The 15-minute video demonstrates steps for making compost, from the basics of making a compost bin to the proper application of compost. Basic concepts and elements of making compost will also be included to help you make compost at home easily.

Video

LIFE-CYCLE @ A CLICK: FROG

Frogs belong to the family of Amphibians, usually with a life span varies from a year to nearly twenty years. They are also an example that has metamorphosis in the life cycle. However, they differ from butterflies as they only have three life stages without an inactive pupa stage. Frogs remain active during metamorphosis. Since different life stages occur at different habitats, we have to visit the right place at the right time of the year in order to observe their development. Brown Tree Frogs (Polypedates megacephalus) are widely distributed in Hong Kong and they are also one of the regular visitors of the Eco-pond in Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre. This time, let’s learn about the Brown Tree Frogs and let them show us the life cycles of frogs.

Brown Tree Frog		Brown Tree Frogs are nocturnal medium-sized frogs. Their well-developed suction discs at their digit ends help them live on trees. The colour of their smooth bodies varies among individuals. It varies from dark brown to pale yellow. Some of them may have bands on their hind legs or an X-shaped marking on their backs. Their tadpoles are brown in colour with some lightly-coloured individuals, the white spot at the snout (tip of head) is their diagnostic feature. Adult Brown Tree Frogs have very strong adaptability as they can reproduce even in conditions with little water and their lives rely relatively little on water sources compared with other frog species. Nevertheless, their tadpoles have to live in water. They can be found in habitats of different elevation in forests, cultivated areas or ponds.


Egg		Female Brown Tree Frogs usually lay their eggs on branches or rocks right above a water source. One female lays about a few hundreds to a thousand eggs in each egg mass, but the number of eggs laid depends on the fat storage in the female’s body. When a female is laying eggs, the male whips the eggs with its hind legs to make the whole egg mass into foam and fertilizes them at the same time. Unlike most other frog species, the eggs of Brown Tree Frogs are not kept in water. The foam-like egg mass keeps the eggs moist and protects them from predators found in water. The incubation period of the eggs depends on the environmental conditions. Usually, the eggs hatch in about a week and the tadpoles will fall and live in the water below.

Tadpole with hind legs		Newly hatched tadpoles do not start eating right away. Initially, they solely rely on their post-hatching yolk for nutrients. They start taking algae and fallen leaves as food several days later. The tadpoles keep on growing for two months before metamorphosis. During metamorphosis, the hind legs would first be developed, then the front legs while keeping the tail for the whole process. This stage is called “froglet” with four legs and a tail. The breathing and digestive systems in tadpoles are very different from those of an adult frog. During metamorphosis, tadpoles replace their gills with lungs that can breathe in the air and replace the original gut that suits digesting plants with one for digesting insects. During this stage, the tail is slowly absorbed in the body. Subject to the surrounding temperature, food supply and competition, the timing and duration of metamorphosis differ among tadpoles. The process lasts for a month to a year. So you may find some tadpoles remaining in water for the winter while some become froglets and live on land by that time.

Amplexus		The complete disappearance of the tail marks the finish of metamorphosis. Now the body of the frog is well-prepared for living on trees, starting their lives on the land. By the time between April and September, male Brown Tree Frogs start calling to find their mates. They call in a series of quick rattling sound. When the females hear and come nearby, the males will stop calling and grasp the female from the back. This special posture is called “amplexus”. Sometimes, amplexus can last for ten hours or more. The females then carry the males to search for a place suitable for laying eggs near water. The Eco-pond in Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre is one of their choices. You can find milky white egg masses of different sizes there in the summer. The pond will be very teeming later on. The froglets get mature and leave one by one but the adult frogs will come back again in the next summer to mate and reproduce.

		Frog Life Cycle (video)

Research Report

To observe the life cycle of frogs, we need to find their life stages in the right season, at the right time and place. As they have strong mobility and various habits among species, it is difficult to observe them for a long period of time. Therefore, we can obtain information about a species from different sources besides personal observation, such as documentaries and nature science magazines. After watching the above video on frogs’ life cycle, we can pick a frog species of interest and try to conduct a research on their life stages. There may have surprising findings when you compare different species! Suggested species: Common Toad (Bufo melanostictus) and Lesser Spiny Frog (Paa exilispinosa)

Research Report (Worksheet)

Research Report (Sample)

Life-cycle @ a click: Butterfly

Butterflies are insects that undergo a complete metamorphosis. Their life cycle includes four morphologically different stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most butterflies found in Hong Kong are low-altitude species. In general, butterflies in Hong Kong have 2 to 6 generations over a year. The lifespan of each generation is about 1 to 3 months. Some over-winter generations are the exceptional cases which can live longer than 6 months. Now, let’s take Tailed Jay (Graphium agamemnon), a common species in Hong Kong, as an example to investigate the life history of butterflies. For more details, please click Butterfly Life Cycle

Star of the Week:

Yellow-crested Cockatoo

Self-learning Classroom

Self-learning Classroom – “Common Birds and their Call”

After reading the presentation on “Common Birds and their Call”, how much do you know more on birds?

Quiz on bird call and their features

Bird Watching and Wildlife Photography Etiquette

Bird Watching and Wildlife Photography Etiquette

online_resourses

Environmental Campaign Committee Websites Take New Look
The Environmental Campaign Committee (ECC) has recently revamped its website to provide comprehensive resources on environmental protection. Videos, photos and latest information on ECC activities are also available on the website. At the same time, ECC has also launched an informative and educational thematic website for schools and students. The website provides not only information on all ECC school programmes and activities, but also a lot of handy resources on environment education for use by school administration, teachers and students. Please visit http://www.ecc.org.hk and http://school.ecc.org.hk for details.

Visual Museum of Taiwan Agriculture – Taiwan
http://video.coa.gov.tw/index.php

National Geographic
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/index.html
In this website, the videos are divided into several categories including animals, environment, kids, etc. In the category of Animal, it is sub-divided into amphibians, birds, bugs, fish, invertebrates, mammals, and reptiles. Each sub-topic contains several videos describing different interesting animal facts such as living style, feeding habit and mating process, etc.
For the category of Environmental, there are video topics on energy, environmental threats, global warming, and habitats, etc. These clips are concentrated on conservation issues. For example, the energy parts introduce alternative energies related information. The part of “environmental threats” includes clips that give information on deforestation, state of the Earth from different angles and water pollution. “Global warming” part includes clips tells facts on climate change. The “Habitats” parts introduce the conservation facts of different habitat such as freshwater, desserts and rainforests.
There is a section “animals and pets” in the category for kids. Inside the section, you can choose different groups of animals. Each part contains several video clips showing fact of animals’ interesting habits.

Discovery – Animal Planet
http://animal.discovery.com/videos/untamed-uncut-animal-fights/
It shows the top playlist of Discovery - Animal Planet. The playlist includes clips of “untamed and uncut” clips which describe attack and fights, rescue and bites of different kinds of animals.

Discovery – Planet Earth
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/planet-earth/
There are 34 clips of Planet Earth highlights, showing the most exciting scene of each of the animals.