¨Saving Yasuni ¨is an educational project addressed to world wide schools to promote environmental  conservation awareness. 

This project is being elaborated by eighteen  students in total, from second and fourth grade and two Science teachers, from Tomas Moro School in Quito-Ecuador.  This project highlights the importance of preserving Yasuni National Park intact by leaving petroleum underground and encouraging the use of renewable energy. 

 Students researched and learned about the importance of preserving this unique place untouched because it is a reserve of the biosphere, home of  4,000 plant species per km2, 200 species of mammals per km2, 600 species of birds per km2,  150 types of amphibians per km2, 180 species of reptiles per km2, and 100,000 species of insects per km2. 

 Fourth grade students  in the Unit "Plants", studied food chains, food webs, photosynthesis process, the importance of the air as a vital element in our planet, how plants breathe and clean the air.  

They connected this information to Yasunì easily because  its vegetation  cleans 407 million metric tons of C02.  They learned that there is petroleum  under the Yasuni rainforest and that drilling this oil out could cause severe damage to the tropical rainforest with all of its plants and animals species.  

On the other hand, students from second grade in their Science class are learning about machines, and that is how they learned about the different ways of using renewable energy and they built projects that show this. A group of eighteen students from second and fourth grades,  who volunteered for this project stayed after school, from 2:30 to 4:00 pm. to work in this campaign "Saving Yasuni" since April 25 up to the present date.  This project is student centered because students are infering and drawing conclusions, developing their awareness of nature conservation.

The Primary School Principal as well as the English Coordinator have been involved in the project supporting teachers and students.  Parents were also involved helping their children to research.  We were careful to use materials that do not contaminate for making the posters for the campaign, such as water colors, cardboards, etc.  This is an educational campaign addressed to students in other schools in our country as well as to students all over the world.  The students who participated in this project presented it in our school and also invited a delegation of  students of two other schools in Quito.  Our campaign includes educational conservation messages done by the students, such as:  "Yasuni is a hope for humanity",  "Yasuni is a reserve of the biosphere",  "Yasunì cleans up 407 millions of metric tons of C02",  "Leave petroleum underground", "Instead of petroleum, use renewable energy".

On May 12th, 2011 students from 3rd and 5th year of basic education from Unidad Educativa Tomas Moro, Quito-Ecuador  presented their campaign "Saving Yasuni" to the school community. School directors, staff members, students and parents attended this event where they could appreciate the hard work and effort that these students put into creating this Environmental Awareness Campaign. They gave facts about Yasuni Park. They explained what Yasuni is, its location, why it is a reserve of the biosphere that we must keep intact,  why its' plants clean C02 emisions,  the reason for which we mustn't allow petroleum exploitation, and the proposal:  Use Renewable Energy.  The smaller kids from 3rd year of basic education showed and explained renewable energy models that they all built during the campaign working hours in the afternoon.   At the same time, a powerpoint presentation was shown.   Finally the kids created the lyrics  for a song for Yasuni, using the melody of "The Yellow Submarine".   They also sang "We are the World", by Michael Jackson", while they held signs with  the main messages from the campaign like:  "Yasuni is a hope for humanity", "Leave petroleum underground",  "Yasuni is a reserve of the biosphere",  "Use renewable energy","Yasunì cleans up 407 millions of metric tons of C02"...The audience was very touched and moved by the students motivation and desire of establishing Environmental Awareness in their community.

This campaign will continue until the end of June and as we mentioned before, the messages will go deep into their consciousness and awareness of our planet conservation, protection and use of renewable energy as an alternative for clean energy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

• —http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ialst2ORE —
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKCE6G4ITY8&feature=related
• http://www.napowildlifecenter.com/yasuni.html —
• www.sosyasuni.org/en/index.php?option...id.. —
• IMAGES TAKEN FROM: http://www.google.es/search?hl=es&rlz=1T4RNWN_esEC403EC406&q=yasuni%20national%20park%20biodiversity&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1003&bih=516 —
• GATERLMAN KarlD, 2010, YASUNI The most biodiverse place in the planet, Trama Ediciones.
• —CHERRY Lynee, 1993, The Great Kapok Tree, scholastic.