Recycler, the Rapping Robot, poses with primary school children.

　　A funky robot which dances and raps is doing the rounds in primary schools across England teaching children about the importance of recycling.

　　The campaign, courtesy of Recycle Now (http://www.recyclenow.com/index.html〕and Waste Watch,( http://www.wastewatch.org.uk/) features a state-of-the-art rapping robot called Recycler and a local education officer.

　　Reduce, reuse, recycle

　　The robot goes into schools and raps to youngsters under seven in a special interactive show about the three Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle.

　　After the performance, which takes about 45-minutes, each child receives a fun book to take home so they can share the recycling message with their families.

　　Involvement and participation

　　"It works magically," says Wendy Jenkinson, the programme manager for Waste Watch. "It's not just a robot or an education officer but an interaction of the two and the involvement and participation of the children makes it work."

　　The 2007 tour, which has already received good feedback from schools across the country, started with St Leonard’s Primary School in London.

　　Environment Minister, Ben Bradshaw, went to the event which saw the Recycler rapping to pupils and teachers giving them handy tips on how to put the three Rs into practice at home and in the school.

　　More enthusiastic approach

　　The whistle-stop tour has also been to St Matthew's Bloxam Church of England School in Rugby, in the West Midlands, where deputy head teacher, Sukie Paddem, has praised the programme.

　　"It's an exciting way of teaching the children about recycling," she explained. "We can tell them about it but having a robot here was far more enthusiastic way of getting the involved."

　　Recycler robots have been working in primary schools for more than 10 years delivering the three Rs message to almost 78,000 pupils.

　　Year of green action

　　The programme adds to the many activities in the UK designed to make youngsters more aware of green issues.

　　Many different types of material and events have been created for schools as part of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) 2006-07 Year of Action on sustainable development for schools.

　　Films and online events

　　Recently, Al Gore's award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth was sent to all secondary schools in England as part of an educational pack about climate change.

　　And in June the online conference Doorways to Sustainable Schools, will take place allowing pupils to explore sustainability issues with schools across the world.　　 (Source: British Consulate-General in Chongqing)