On board a floating classroom: kids encounter Thailand's river ecology up close

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A former rice barge is chugging north on the Chao Phraya. And up on the 20-meter converted barge's teak deck are three trays containing a bit of the river itself--samples of a large, leafy water plant--and 25 kids are getting their hands into it.

Most of them. Some boys hang back reluctantly, some girls squeal squeamishly and clutch each other as their classmates pull apart the roots of the nonnative, invasive water hyacinth to reveal the life teeming there. Using magnifying glasses, the fifth-graders identify the tiny macro-invertebrates that have found a home in the plant: beetles, worms, shrimp, crabs, snails, spiders.

It is a simple measurement of water quality. Each species found is given a score based on its ability to live in polluted water, with 1 being species that can survive in the dirtiest water and 10 being those that need it clean. The highest-scoring species the children identify gets a 6: a dam-Selfly nymph. The average score for that section of the Chao Phraya River that day, according to the students' test, is 3.9.

"I think a good amount of life is here, but we can always make it better," concluded John Gilbert, a 10-year-old American. "It's OK for most river standards, but it's not completely clean. It's not like every creature could live in there."

The water hyacinth investigation was just one activity among the games and hands-on study during a two-day trip designed to teach schoolchildren about the ecology of Thailand's greatest river and what they can do to help preserve it. The learning experience is one of a number aimed at various age groups, run by the Bangkok-based Magic Eyes Barge Program, established in 1995 and now under the auspices of Chiang Mai's Prem Center for International Education.

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In January, I got to join the group of 25 fifth-graders from Bangkok's New International School of Thailand. With these children of diplomats, nongovernmental organization workers, businesspeople and journalists, the barge was carrying a spectrum of nationalities--Thai, Indian, Japanese, American, Canadian, Italian, Australian, to name but a few--to take them, if not to the heart of this country, at least a little outside of the glossy comforts of the capital city's wealthy quarters.

In the early '90s, I lived in Thailand for two years, but I was in the Northeast--my river was the Mekong between Thailand and Laos, far away from the Chao Phraya. My own experience with the "River of Kings" was chiefly on the boats that run as public transportation through Bangkok. And so I jumped at the chance for a little immersion, metaphorically speaking.

For the kids, a literal immersion was the undeniable highlight: swimming and diving from the barge while it was anchored in the middle of the river. Canoeing was also part of this treat, a relief from the afternoon's heat. I had left my swimsuit behind, but joined the motorized dinghy that herded hapless young canoeists who strayed too far from our own boat and were carried by the current toward a nearby massive, modern barge, also anchored, and upon which a large dog ran back and forth, barking at the interlopers while the humans aboard worked.

Just another taste of the river community we glimpsed as we cruised along the river, seeing other vessels--barges big and small headed for Bangkok; long, narrow boats big enough for just one or two people fishing; recreational boats--and on the banks temples, factories, and houses grand and humble. "The river is Thai life," said native staff member Pradipath "Paul" Kumluerith, 32.

"It's really sustainability in general that we're teaching," said another staff member, Erin Stanley, a 23-year-old Australian. "Sustainability being the connection of environment, society and economy. So we don't simply talk about the environment the whole time. We're going to say, 'OK, so how's that going to affect the people? And if those people don't have the materials from the environment that they sell, how are they going to get money?'. We talk about the connections."

The barge was meant to be its own little sustainable community. The students were called upon to prepare meals, wash their own dishes and swab the deck. The barge becomes a microcosm of the world, with conservation made a necessity by limited resources on board. Particularly water--hence the three-minute shower rule, timed by the staff. It's a way to get 25 kids showered and ready for bed in a reasonable amount of time, and also a way to drive home the point of water waste that threatens not only the Chao Phraya, but freshwater sources wherever these children may go next.

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For it is international schools in Thailand, with children from typically well-to-do, globally transient families, that are the primary clientele for the Magic Eyes Barge Program, though some school groups and even adult groups have come from other countries. Some Thai schools have participated as well, and the Barge Program helps underwrite trips for less affluent local schools.