With the world’s population currently at around 7.3 billion people, we have a collective responsibility to recover our planet. We are generating waste at an exponentially high rate; huge amounts of energy, water, food and trash are discarded each day, and we are beginning to see the consequences that our throwaway society is having on our planet through the effects of climate change and environmental pollution.
It may sound like a cliché, but the importance of empowering our children into realising that they can indeed make a very real difference in the world should not be understated. When many individuals make small changes, big things can, and do, happen.
At Phuket International School (PIA), one of the ways that students learn about the importance of sustainability is through their environmental science units during their Middle Years Programme (MYP), which runs from Grade 6 to Grade 10. Students who are interested in pursuing a deeper understanding of environmental issues can then choose to take the Diploma Level (DP) course called Environmental Systems and Societies, where sustainability is an important foundation of the course.
In Grade 8, students take part in a unit that focuses on community stream impact. During their week of off campus learning (a school-wide event that takes place every February), students investigated the impact that humans are having on the Songprak River in Phang Nga. Along with making observations, students were able to test the quality of the river using chemical indicators such as nitrate, dissolved oxygen and turbidity levels, and biological indicators like macroinvertebrate diversity.
Using their observations and findings, students realised the importance of taking care of rivers and the value of sustainability when it comes to fresh water. The students were keen to spread the word on the importance of water sustainability, and they are currently producing media products that include observations, interviews and surveys, to illustrate how vital fresh water and rivers are. They will be sharing their media products with other PIA students later on in the school year.
Grade 10 students are currently studying the importance of reusing material. Our Secondary Principal, Dan Magie and CAS Coordinator, James Forsythe, who were two of the four members of Green Paddlers, inspired them to take action. Green Paddlers kayaked around Phuket in 2013, and recorded their observations concerning trash around Phuket through video. As a result of this motivation, the students are creating products from reusable materials using the following criteria:
(1) The product must be made from reusable material.
(2) There must be a need for the final product.
One example of such a project is that students are making notebooks from previously used, one-sided paper. These notebooks will be donated to a school in Phuket Town called Child Watch Phuket, which educates and takes care of children whose parents do not have the resources to support their children’s education.
Learning is a cyclical process, and one that is most effective when it is meaningful and placed within a realistic context. PIA’s educational philosophy strives to encourage students to become individuals that not only better themselves, but the world around them.
Written by Jalal Tarazi, Secondary Science Teacher at Phuket International Academy jalal.terazi@pia.ac.th
For more information, please email info@pia.ac.th