Nature Classrooms works with teachers, schools and educators to connect meaningful, age-appropriate and locally-culturally relevant nature learning with the EVS curriculum being taught in teaching-learning spaces in India.
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Since April 2025, the programme is in collaboration with the Youth for Conservation Action Network (YouCAN) to effectively advance our individual and collective goals for nature education and conservation.
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Nature Classrooms started as an initiative within Nature Conservation Foundation’s Education and Public Engagement Programme in November 2018.
Our Vision
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Bringing nature learning to everyday education with a hope to spark and rekindle wonder, curiosity, empathy and love for our Natural World.
Our Goals
1. Introducing, designing and connecting contextual and meaningful nature learning to education, by working and collaborating with teaching-learning communities and spaces.
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2. Our framework, pedagogy and a diversity of tools and resources that guides a shift from a human-centric and purely utilitarian perspective to one that emphasizes wonder, curiosity, inquiry and interconnectedness with nature.
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3. Developing age-appropriate and locally-culturally relevant nature-based teaching-learning resources linked with the school curriculum.
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4. Collaborative capacity-building training programmes and workshops on ecology, nature learning and conservation education with educators, practitioners and the conservation community.
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5. Designing and contributing to topical research questions in nature education for practitioners in the global south.
Team
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Programme Lead &
Sr. Scientist
​I am a nature educator and conservation practitioner with over 23 years of research and in-practice experience in the conservation sector. I founded Nature Classrooms in late 2018 (started as an initiative of NCF's EPE Programme) to design age-appropriate, locally-culturally relevant nature learning modules, conduct immersive training workshops to connect teachers and educators to the natural world, and to guide them to integrate nature learning as part of everyday school curricula. I love integrating my passion for insects, spiders, and community engagement to rekindle and reimagine nature learning in India. My earlier work stints were with the CIKS, CCI UK, and the Nature Conservation Foundation in various Institutional and Programme roles. I have an MPhil in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge, UK and a Masters in Ecology from the University of Pondicherry, India. My publications can be accessed here and here.
Senior Manager
(Education, Training & Research)
With a background in journalism, I soon found myself drawn toward the education space. I began my journey by exploring how media can be integrated into learning programs for children. This led me to nature education, and for the past three years, I have been actively working with children and schools to raise awareness about our ocean with a focus on waste management and sustainability. I then pursued my Master's in Environment Studies (Conservation Practices) from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment - ATREE, Bengaluru. As a part of my Master's internship requirement, I joined Nature Classrooms as an intern in 2023. Since then I have been developing a Nature-based Social-Emotional Learning Framework, with an intent to integrate an affective approach to nature education. At Nature Classrooms I hope to continue contributing to the goals and initiatives of the program to make nature learning a meaningful and integral part of classrooms.
I completed my Master’s in Wildlife Conservation Action from BVIEER, where my thesis focused on visitor perceptions of the ecological and aesthetic aspects of urban parks in Mumbai using visitor-employed photography. This experience deepened my interest in understanding how people connect with nature and how nature learning can play an important role in building these connections. Today, this interest continues to shape my work at Nature Classrooms. I’m currently designing the Nature Education Assessment Framework (NEAF) — a collaborative, open-source toolkit to assess the effectiveness of nature education programmes in India. Alongside NEAF, I also contribute to developing nature learning resources and support other ongoing work. I hope to continue learning and contribute towards Nature Classrooms’ efforts to make nature learning more accessible within classroom spaces.
Manager (Education Resources, Research, & Comms)
Manager (Education, Outreach & Comms)
Growing up in a small village in the Western Ghats, my childhood was shaped by curious experiments. Like feeding ants to Drosera and watching hornbills soar above our home. Coexistence and sustainability weren’t concepts we learned, but ways we lived. That early wonder led me to the Living with Snakes outreach during my undergrad, and later to working with children through Chinnara Vana Darshana and Kaanu, an online nature course I ran during the pandemic. I went on to complete a Master’s in Wildlife Conservation Action, where for my thesis, I explored traditional ecological knowledge of tubers among the Kunbi community and the threats it is facing. Now at Nature Classrooms, I'm working to bring together my love for nature, natural history, learning, and community to help teachers and educators be more curious and empathetic towards the world around them.
Growing up in an urban city, I was fortunate to have passionate nature enthusiasts introduce me to the birds, insects, and trees around me. As a Chennai girl, I eventually dove deep into studying our magical coastal landscape and biodiversity, realizing these stories of shores, tides, spiders, and trees needed to be shared. From that point on, I've been sure about wanting to actively work towards connecting young people with the natural world. While creating nature and climate education resources, running programs, and co-authoring two books, I completed my Master's in Wildlife Conservation Action from BVIEER, Pune, affirming my commitment to bringing the wild to more people. Now, I'm involved in organizing fellowships for educators across India, developing nature education resources and curricula, and building nature-based ecology curriculum for schools.
Coordinator (Resources, Curriculum Development, Outreach)
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Alumni
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Roshni Ravi
Interns
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Anvita DJ (2021)
Apara Behar (2019)
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Illustrators
Illustrations and Visual Design by Labonie Roy