Abstract:

One of the problems that faces teachers at various educational levels in Lebanon and the MENA region is the scarcity of local examples and case studies to illustrate various topics and concepts taught in a biology syllabus especially in the environmental and ecological fields. These are often illustrated by material from western textbooks. Although locally related material might be found in sources in print and on the Web, the printed literature is either inaccessible for the lack of libraries, or indigestible to students and teachers because it is usually in the form of research papers, not in a form that could be used educationally. Some online material might very often be amateurish and lacks academic and/or scientific credibility. Moreover, many biology syllabi in Arab countries have problems dealing with the concepts related to evolutionary theory. The Natural History Museum at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, aims to provide local/regional information that would be of educational value for teachers and students, not only in Lebanon, but in the Middle East and North Africa. This would be in the form of web pages containing articles, graphics, images, videos, maps, virtual reality, virtual field trips and virtual labs etc. to enhance and augment the teaching and learning experience within the MENA region at the school and undergraduate university level. The material will be provided in three languages, Arabic, English and French. It will cover topics related to terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems; adaptations of plants and animals to local environments; conservation of endemic and endangered species; population interactions of local species e.g. mutualism (e.g. pollination, seed dispersal, mycorrhizae), competition, predation (including venomous and poisonous species), and other population interactions. Emphasis will be placed on local ecosystems such as deserts, saline lakes, water resources including ground (fossil) water, geographic ecology with particular emphasis on the impacts of climate change. In this paper, we will discuss related educational problems and how indigenized educational material could be used for Lebanon and a few other MENA countries.

Keywords:

Natural History Museum, Ecology, Biology, Environmental education, fauna, flora.