“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” – Robert Swan. With this quote in mind, we took up the challenge of “School Sustainability”. In this competition, the main aim was to make a video of our school showcasing how as a school we are operating sustainability and what measures in the school premises itself are taken in order to save/conserve/protect our environment. With rising concerns seen worldwide this aimed to bring a hope and a spark in minds of millions who still aren’t operating in a sustainable way. We made a 3:00 minute video which was later published and posted on different social media sites, like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube.
LO 2:- While making the video, we had to go through many challenges and had to spend our school slots on making the video too. Not only that we even came early for over a week and recorded different places where sustainable measures are used such as KG farm, School’s terrace. The most challenging part was to bifurcate and select places in which we could show how sustainably we are acting. We had to visit KG farm thrice and even had to carry out activities such as digging the pit by ourselves, planting new seeds in the soil, composting dried leaves(Shown in the video too). It really became tedious and tiring for us to plant a new seed accurately so that it grows properly and doesn’t hinder the growth of its neighboring trees. The decomposed material was smelly too and without any masks or hand gloves provided we had to pick it up and throw it into the pit dug by us. But at last, it was fun to cover the seeds with soil and then provide water to it. We felt proud to act sustainably and provide life to many small plants, with a little of our hard work.
This was the first time I was involved in such a social activity, where I gained knowledge on how to decompose food, and how even a proper sewage system results in acting sustainably. I felt it is important to learn and experience these types of life learning skills because sometimes it just gives you a spark in your mind and makes you think about it over and over again. After seeing how dry waste and wet waste is treated differently in the decomposing machine. Even at home, I made two dustbins one for the dry waste and the other for wet waste. So even today when the person who comes to collect waste from our dustbin comes, he smiles at me and thanks me for keeping both the wastes differently, because somewhere down the line I am also making his job easier. It was difficult for my mom to keep two dustbins, but now everyone at our home is used to it, and we always treat both the wastes differently.
LO 5:- This was a group task, where we 6 people together had to make the whole video. For me working in a group was never a difficult task. Because I always believe that while working in a group we all can put efforts on the field we are good at. As a leader, for me, an artist is as important as a researcher until the time both put in their best efforts. Secondly, I possess leadership skills. Hence, to showcase them and enhance them, working collaboratively works best for me. Even for this video, we worked as a group. Ma’am and I divided the tasks and gave it to those who could complete it. We fixed meeting dates and made sure that every time each member of the group is present at the meeting. By keeping a check on everyone, putting constant efforts, and being a leader and giving them an agenda to follow in every meeting, I made sure that our group makes a fantastic video.
LO 7:- Awarness and recognising the consequences of choices and action is really important. Technological advancements and a exponential growth in anthropological wants have left us in a pretty bad state. Through this video we wanted to create an awareness in students, teachers and other viewers about how important and how it is our moral ethics to live a sustainable life. Personally, by making this video it helped to change my own ethical values. Earlier I used to throw waste materials in any dustbins not realising to segregate dry waste and wet waste. Hence, through making of the video I realised my ethical responsibility and after realising the fault in my actions, I started to make other people aware too. I started asking my friends to segregate waste separately, I wrote a mail to my society’s president to install two different dustbins and It was quite surreal to see how within days the president had installed two separate dustbins.
The main difficulty I faced was that there were some members of the group who used to come late in each meeting and did not complete their tasks on time. I saw this as lack of productivity in the group so took a step to give those students a warning. After giving them 2 warnings, I then complained to our teacher who later gave them Observation logs and after that, they also started contributing properly. My actions/contribution in solving this problem was that I understood the intensity of the problem at right time, and as soon as I saw that the problem is getting out of my hands, I told my teacher who could take proper steps.
As citizens, it is important for us to realize that we all should ponder upon the fact that industrialization, globalization has brought significant and massive drawbacks to our environment. It is we, the youth, who have to take strong steps today, to live a better life tomorrow.
VIDEO LINK:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VHre1SEx24