Back to nature

Hunting for shells and larvae, identifying birds, catching microorganisms in a scoop and then examining them under the microscope – activities that would normally be the preserve of biologists were for once thrown open to a group of schoolchildren aged between 10 and 13 one fine sunny day last March. The children were from a secondary school in Mülheim, many of whose pupils come from a disadvantaged background and know each other from the after-school care group.

The day’s adventures were made possible by the five volunteers from the RWE Group who signed up for this RWE Companius winter programme project. They accompanied the group on the expedition, which took them first to the Haus Ruhrnatur in Mülheim, a facility committed to conserving the Ruhr Valley’s native flora and fauna. After that, and after arming themselves with wellies and scoops, the kids and their supervisors set off into the wild to observe, guess, learn and, of course, to play. The afternoon was spent examining the samples they had collected from the river Ruhr and the surrounding meadows under the microscope.

“The kids were thrilled with it,” says Marc Hause, an employee in Group Communications who picked out the project on the grounds that it would involve contact with people and was close to where he lives. A few days later, the volunteers from RWE were delighted to receive little thank-you letters from the children, describing what they had enjoyed most.