An event to pique children’s curiosity

On 10 October this year, the Alsace Mammal Protection WorkGroup (GEPMA) spent a day at the Vaisseau, the children’s science centre in Strasbourg. The event provided a valuable opportunity to raise awareness amongst young participants and their parents about the European hamster from the Alsace region.

Teaching through games

With a host of games adapted to different age-groups, the GEPMA team had no trouble interacting with and getting young participants involved. Activities included colouring, a giant-sized snake and ladders and for the older ones, board game questions; this was all that was needed to send our players off on an adventure to explore the world of the rodent.

Can it cross the road without being run over? What does it eat? Beware of predators! Answers to these questions about the animal’s survival and more were provided in a breeze; children paid close attention and had plenty of fun too.

Raising public awareness: a LIFE Alister mission

During the conference on 3 October, the third round table discussed the public awareness activities that had been carried out as part of the project. Indeed, between 2015 and 2017, GEPMA (a LIFE partner association) accounted for 118 events and nearly 13,500 participants who had since become informed as a result of all the different appearances that the work group has made during this time-frame, like the one in the Vaisseau science centre described above. These opportunities to talk about conservation of the European hamster and of biodiversity are extremely important, as the issues involved are often rather complex for children (and even adults!) to understand. Moreover, it is well known that children make the best ambassadors when it comes to raising awareness about a cause amongst family and friends.