Our school participated in the “School’s sustainability challenge” where Environmental systems and societies (ESS) students of our grade (Grade 11) had to make a video on measures taken by our school to promote sustainable development and show ways in which it has contributed to our environment. “Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Some sustainable practices include using solar panels, windmills and doing crop rotation. As a school, we aimed to make a video which will not only spread awareness to localities and other schools but will also motivate youth and other citizens to work towards their mother nature and protect it for their future generations by showing and educating them the methods which can be used.
As a group we listed down the things that we wanted to include in the video like talking about the school’s structure and the reason behind it, using the waste food as a fertilizer by making it a compost, generating electricity from solar panels and got them approved by the senior authorities. We were then divided into two groups, one group was responsible for making the script and other was responsible for organizing a debate competition and being the actors in the video. We also wanted to highlight the efforts made by the early years and primary years students so we coordinated with different teachers and as evidence took various photos and videos of students working for our environment. Finally with the help of the IT department we combined all the data and evidence to create a video for the challenge.
Learning outcomes I came across while performing the activity:
LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
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. 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 plants. 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 that I ever took a particle step for the sustainability of resources and I came across a lot of new learnings and skills. All the tasks required their own set of skills like planting seeds itself required skills like digging a perfect hole which is not too deep and placing seeds at a particular interval. I came to know about the workings of solar panels, understanding the working was very difficult as it is a complicated process and for that, you need to be a good listener so that you can well understand what the teacher had to say. This activity helped me to concentrate on some of my unknown skills and interests. I didn’t just limit my experience and knowledge to myself, in fact, I decided to share it with my family and friends too so that we all collectively have a greater impact on the beloved nature. I influenced them to maintain a proper kitchen where there are two different dustbins one to trash wet material and one to trash dry material. Waste segregation is promoted as it makes garbage much easier to recycle. Effective segregation of wastes means that less waste goes to landfill which makes it cheaper and better for people and the environment.
LO 3: Initiate and plan a CAS experience.
A lot of planning was required in order to make a great video. We were supposed to do many tasks like arranging a debate, a quiz (both for smaller grades), cast in a video, shortlist all the sustainable events our school has planned and find photos and videos related to sustainability. Accomplishing so many tasks required a lot of planning to be done and we all had to work collaboratively, because of so many tasked we divided ourselves into pairs and assigned tasks based on the knowledge each individual held, with such a planning everyone was able to complete their task before time. Coming early twice and sometimes thrice in a cycle was a routine for almost 3 weeks and helped us do most of our planning in addition to it working in our free slots and visiting KG farm to study its sustainability also helped us plan such a great experience. We all were very enthusiastic while working on this activity which was the main cause of it turning into a success. Towards the end, we had to plan the order of the video to make it as appealing as possible and in this task we were supported by our ESS teachers.
LO 4: Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences.
For most of us, it was very difficult to come early in the morning regularly as we felt sleepy and lazy at times but we had committed at first that we will do whatever the task involved and due to our commitment school took part in this challenge as it was a student-led task. To keep up our words we used to come early and used to plan ahead. We used to book an appointment with the IT team and discussed how we will shoot a particular thing. Not only this to record the video we used to visit KG farm which is outside our school premises in the sweltering heat and shoot for hours. We had to miss our ESS slots to make the video and used to get drained while returning. While doing this task I realized that it is not easy to commit things and to be persistent. However, it shows our dedication and determination towards our work.
LO 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
The issue is lack of sustainable development practices for which we are responsible. We are using natural resources way too much and depleting it. If this continues there won’t be sufficient resources left for the future generations. Hence, it is our utmost duty to save our nature for better living and for personal growth. Looking at the video we have made, I feel proud of our school that it has taken so many measures that lead to sustainable development. It will not only contribute to our environment but will encourage more people to work towards it.
LO 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.
Acting sustainably is something that the world should adopt because this falls in the ethics of humanity, as we are no one to exploit the gifts nature gives us, using them to an extent from where it can re-generate will be the best option as humanity is heavily dependent on nature and a slight change would cause a lot of harm to the existence of humans. Working unsustainably causes into several global issues like global warming, increase in the amount of greenhouse gases, increase in the water level, melting of the polar ice and waste deposition throughout the world, etc, with so many problems attached to it one should take care of its surroundings and take efforts to save it. It was very ethical for us to work on this project cause it has a global significance to it. We wanted to spread awareness amongst people and teach them how to work ethically. Just like how we take care of our home we need to take care of our surroundings, the smallest effort will cause a huge difference.
The activity consisted of tasks like throwing leaves in a pit so that it decomposes, planting saplings, picking up manure for better growth of plants, etc, such tasks demanded a lot of courage as it was very disgusting to do still such activities were conducted by each one of us cause this would spread awareness and would bring a change in people’s thinking and ethics.
This CAS experience turned out to be a great one as it reflected my responsibility for our environment while leaving me with great experience and new learnings.
Link to the video–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VHre1SEx24
