37 minute read
Green & Sustainable
The Canadian International School of Hong Kong (CDNIS) is now in the third year of its EcoSmart movement, an effort to improve the school’s environmental efficiency and to raise awareness of environmental issues. We are proud to say that in June 2012, CDNIS was designated an official green school, receiving the Hong Kong Green School Award accorded by the Environmental Campaign Committee of the Hong Kong government. As a result of this designation, CDNIS became a candidate in the schools section of the 2012 Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence, to be announced in December this year. These achievements have resulted from the work of students, staff, parents and school partners. It by no means indicates that we are the “greenest” we could be, nor that we are the most environmentally friendly school in Hong Kong. It does mean that we have achieved a specified standard from which we now need to work and improve, cementing the changes made so far as part of our school character and reputation.
So what now? What do we do next and how do we maintain momentum?
One ongoing contribution to the movement is the upgrading of air conditioning and lighting facilities. systems. Over the next year, energy efficient split-type and central air conditioning units using earth-friendly coolants will be installed throughout the campus. T8 fluorescent light tubes have already been changed to T5 tubes. Though renovations are still in progress, electricity usage for the mid-August to mid-September period decreased 12% compared to the previous year. We continue to have our Friday Lights Out, at which non-emergency and non-essential lights are turned off from 10:55am-1:05pm A related measure is the En-trak Energy Monitoring system being considered. The system, designed here in Hong Kong, and being used by several schools already, allows the tracking and display of energy usage through an online portal. Areas such as classrooms can be tracked separately from common facilities, displaying all the data in charts or graphs for students and staff to use. Usage can be displayed as energy units, expenses, carbon dioxide emission amounts, even pineapple buns, a snack close to the hearts of Hong Kongers. Lower School teachers see its application to math and science units. Upper School teachers see its application in the IB Extended Essay, geography, math and sciences.
The school’s food service provider has also played an important part in the movement. Compass-Chartwells (Compass) continues with Meatless Mondays once a month, uses corn starch-based biodegradable containers for some products, doesn’t sell drinks in plastic bottles and introduced a small composter in October to compost some kitchen waste. They have extended these measures to most of the schools they work with in Hong Kong particularly because they worked well at CDNIS. They are now looking into working with NGOs named Feeding Hong Kong and Foodlinks that collect and redistribute food to organizations that feed the less fortunate.
Perhaps the most far-reaching result was the establishment of the Hong Kong EcoSchools Network, an association of 14 international and local schools working together to give youth a voice in government and business policy. CDNIS worked with Chinese International School (CIS) and Hong Kong Academy to form the network. It meets only a few times per year but thus far has had a strong and measurable impact, most notably on CompassChartwells. The schools in the network that also use Compass requested the same measures used at CDNIS, with CIS switching to Compass because of their adaptability. It thus became viable and practical for Compass to implement similar measures in their other schools, compounding the positive effects the network is meant to create. This year we will work on waste reduction and better recycling with them.
The above scenario illustrates the key to schools having a positive impact on environmental and sustainable development issues—cooperation and community. Schools are tremendous users of resources. Working together, we can produce a sizeable influence on our community and region, both through exchanging ideas for what we can initiate in our schools and by influencing the suppliers of the resources we use. The more suppliers see schools changing their operations, the more they will change their own operations, which results in a larger impact on the environment and sustainability. Can schools in your area start doing the same?
Sustainable Development Coordinator Nasci Lobo is looking to share information and ideas with schools that have similar positions and initiatives. He can be contacted at nascilobo@cdnis.edu.hk
Special Education Network in Asia SENIA 11 will be at Jakarta International School on February 22-23rd, 2013 with a preconference on the 21st. http://www.senia.asia/
The Ideal of Green & Sustainable at Dominican Int’l School
By Mercia de Souza, merenvin@gmail.com
At the Dominican International School in Taipei, Taiwan, the ideal of sustainability that will save our planet for future generations, is taken seriously.
The school sent twenty-six student delegates and nine teachers to the Global Issues Network Conference in Manila in February. This large group of students have all been involved in community service projects run by the school, but the enthusiasm for GIN became a reality when the GIN Club not only grew to the largest club in the school, but Junior GIN, for grade one and two students was established. Sustainability issues became serious business for everyone in the school, as the GIN Club members spread the message that permeated many school activities.
Save-our-earth fever caught on throughout the school. In April, the Student Council challenged students to build their Spring Fair booths with recycled materials. During a recent Masquerade Night event, bonus points were given to booths that made use of recycled materials. As students’ creativity was challenged in the booth building competition, the results were astonishing. They had to think carefully about themes that could be created using recycled materials. Materials had to be gathered and re-used, showing students that one did not need new materials to build an attractive booth. Another challenge was to create garments from recycled materials for the Spring Fair Fashion Show. Students created many different kinds of garments from recycled materials. They also had great fun finding used materials and making something wearable from them.
Albert Cheng who did 92 hours of community service during summer.
The High School GIN members organized themselves into groups that started to research sustainability issues in Taiwan and began to plan related future activities. The Dominican International School in Taipei became the only school in Taiwan and one of a handful in Asia that participated in the International Student Carbon Footprint Challenge, run by Stanford University. Not only the GIN students took up the challenge, but entire classes participated throughout the high and middle school. Teachers who are not directly involved with GIN, also took up the challenge and the event went far beyond the GIN Club and its members.
In the middle school, students began planning a “My Green School” project. The Dominican International School in Taipei has almost completed the first phase of rebuilding the fifty-five year old school buildings. In the new building one will step into into an environment more suitable for the 21st Century and once everyone has moved into the new building, the Middle School project will kick in. Recycling, saving of energy and greening of the environment around the building are part of the project, but “My Green School” will reach much further than that, as administrators and faculty plan for a green environment. The Junior GIN Club was the brainchild of Victoria Winstock, and Tanya Naudé, teachers in the first and second grades. With the help of art projects and experiments they are bringing the reality of global warming and other global issues home, even to the young children in the Lower School.
The GIN Conference in Singapore became a challenge for the eight teachers who run the large GIN Club, as the organizers decided to allow a maximum of ten high school and six middle school delegates from each school. How does one choose ten students from the more than forty high school members who attend club meetings regularly and do community service in areas such as education for all, health issues, consumer safety, poverty relief and combating global warming. The answer was the “My GIN Summer Portfolio” – a booklet given to each GIN High School member, in which outside organizations had to verify the hours worked on a community service project during the summer vacation. In addition, students had to write an essay about these activities. The ten students with the highest number of meaningful service hours, were rewarded with the opportunity to be delegates at the GIN Conference in Singapore.
The Education for All group started to teach English in Kindergartens in outlying areas. Some travelled very far to get to the teaching destination, but they relentlessly kept providing their service. A grade nine student, Albert Chang, did ninety-two hours of verified community service in this group. Others did between eighty and eighty-seven hours. The Health Issues group went to kindergartens to educate children in matters such as flu prevention. The Consumer Safety group interviewed manufacturers of consumer products and even chefs in hotels about food safety. They then produced a video of their findings.
Students who are not going to the conference are currently involved with a project that will make DIS a “Compass School” according to the guidelines established by Alan Atkisson. The majority of these students attended the Manila conference and have become the project leaders that will make DIS a “Compass School”. To organize the indicators, students use “The Compass of Sustainability”—a format developed by international sustainability consultants AtKisson, Inc. The Compass is a symbol of new directions and a symbol of sustainability. North, East, South, West, translate into Nature, Economy, Society, Wellbeing. This project will culminate in a school-wide pyramid building exercise at the end of January. Pyramid is a tool that can be used with groups of any kind to learn more about sustainability — locally, or globally.
Hopefully the students at the Dominican International School, Taipei, will learn the skills to provide a sustainable future for generations to come as the GIN Club goes from strength to strength, spreading the message and leading by example.
Junior GIN experimenting with the effect that oil spills have on sea water.
Green & Sustainable Turning Green at the International Christian School Hong Kong
By Luke Kahawai, kahawaii@ics.edu.hk
Mr. Shawn Bensey, the “ICSHK Go Green Ambassador”, and some of his students working in the ICSHK garden
International Christian School Hong Kong (ICSHK) is a growing educational community nestled in the heart of the New Territories of Hong Kong. As part of the ICSHK “Go Green” initiative, we constantly seek opportunities to educate our student body about the importance of being Green and “building a community that promotes and is committed to the principles of sustainability and stewardship of God’s creation.” ICSHK continues to take steps toward making this motto a reality.
Green Mooncakes At ICSHK we seek to teach our students about the importance of being part of service to the community. Every year ICSHK holds a fundraiser to purchase traditional Chinese mooncakes for the less fortunate. We partner with organizations to distribute the mooncakes during the Chinese MidAutumn Festival holiday. In addition to the purchase of mooncakes, we also use this campaign to raise money for a deserving cause. This year the additional funds raised will go to the ICSHK Go Green fund and a portion will cover the cost of a new composter set to arrive this fall. We eclipsed our fundraising goal by 40%, giving us the ability to fund other green projects around the campus. This campaign is a great opportunity for our students to share God’s blessings with the community around us while giving them an education on being earth-conscious.
Welcome, Rocky! We are happy to welcome ROCKY to the ICSHK family. Who is ROCKY, you ask? Rocky is a lean, Green, composting machine. The A700 Rocket Food Composter or “Rocky” is the newest addition to the ICSHK family of Green initiatives. Rocky will allow ICSHK to process food and organic waste from the school into reusable compost. Additionally, ICSHK plans to develop a Community Compost Program which will allow our students and their families, our neighboring schools, and the area farming community to bring organic waste to the school for composting. The long term goal is to sell the nutrient rich soil that the composter produces to area farms. In return, ICSHK would purchase the organic vegetables produced by these farms for use in the school lunches. ICSHK has partnered with the Teng Hoi Conservation Organization of Hong Kong to get the program started. We look forward to the opportunity to build a long lasting relationship with the organic farming community in Hong Kong, as well as the opportunity to teach ICSHK students about sustainability.
Green Grant In April 2012, ICSHK received a grant of almost US$64,100 from the Environmental Campaign Committee (ECC) of Hong Kong. The grant money allowed ICSHK to install a heat shield on the roof and solar film for all of the windows, allowing the school to reduce its energy consumption and cost. Additionally, a portion of the grant was designated to purchase bicyclepowered kinetic generators affording ICS the opportunity to produce its very own source of power.
The ECC is also responsible for funding the purchase and installation of a mini weather station. This will allow ICSHK to be part of the Hong Kong Observatory’s “Community Weather Information Network” of data collecting facilities. Not only will this allow ICS to provide the community with weather information specific to our area of Hong Kong, but in the future, the data collected from this weather station will make ICSHK eligible for future solar technology grants.
ICSHK Roots and Shoots In its 6th year of existence at ICSHK, the Roots and Shoots Club provides awareness campaigns for ICSHK students and their families. Each year our students participate in beach cleanup events that are organized by the International Coastal Cleanup and Ecovision. Additionally, the school hosts screening of documentaries that bring awareness of global issues like poaching and overfishing.
A Green Future Along with creating awareness and developing standard practices like closing doors to classrooms and hallways and following our “Turn It Off” energy saving program, we also hope that someday ICSHK can develop a community garden and possibly a farmers’ market. We also hope to have live plants in every classroom on campus in the very near future.
ICSHK is committed to making our school a self-sustainable and energy efficient establishment of learning. We are excited about the projects that have been completed and the potential for building “community” in our community. Most of all, we look forward to continuing on the path toward being good stewards of God’s creation.
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Giving Time to Sustainability at ISKL
Though everyone acknowledges the importance of sustainable practices, education, skills, and thinking, often sustainability or environmental coordinator positions are given a stipend and, possibly, a planning period to prepare. The International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL), recognizing the value of a sustainability education for our students, decided to give sustainability the most important of resources: time. In 2010 the board of directors took, in the words of our school’s director, a “bold step” into a future-oriented direction by creating its first full-time position of environmental coordinator. Since then the availability and presence of the environmental coordinator has allowed for a number of initiatives that, under different circumstances, would have been too cumbersome to address. This year, the third of our bold new direction, the position has been transformed into that of sustainability & service learning coordinator, uniting two concepts that are made for each other.
Our first task, once the coordinator position was created, was to recognize the importance of a multi-faceted approach to educating our students. Our school needed a sustainability framework that would address the world’s most pressing issues while simultaneously making them real. We wanted to get students into nature, to find connection, to be inspired, to be challenged, and to appreciate it for what it offers. We needed buy-in from all members of the community. In short, we envisioned a ‘green’ facelift of sorts.
Standards and benchmarks were developed for our new education for sustainable development (ESD) framework, largely based on the United Nations themes for sustainable development. Subsequently unpacked for each division, the ESD standards and benchmarks were shared and infused into the curriculum at all levels and disciplines where natural connections were evident. Training was, and continues to be, ongoing so that all new members of staff and faculty are aware of and familiar with the expectations regarding ESD in the classroom. As of July 2012, 232 different teaching units at ISKL addressed ESD standards, and we are continuously developing new units and lessons with ESD concepts.
The sustainability & service learning coordinator is often seen walking around with a computer case, walking swiftly and with purpose. He enters classes, pulls out the computer, sets up the projector, and challenges students to discuss and deliberate ways to make the world—their own future—a more sustainable one. Whether presenting to IB economics students on sustainable development, chatting with 9th graders about using the three lenses for their i-search projects, leading the MS environmental studies students on a campus tour of our sustainable facilities, or playing recycling games with the prep-junior classes, he is busy making sure that students at all levels are engaged in discovery, analysis, and problem solving. When not engaging students he can often be found collaborating with faculty, administration, staff or, more importantly, students to promote sustainable education and practices. A classroom-based curriculum would not be sufficient in giving students a chance to be educated about the natural environment if it did not also provide opportunities for students to explore the outdoors. Our long-standing Malaysia Week program for the middle school, and recently launched (2009-2010) Global Action Program for the high school, give students the opportunity to head outdoors—into a variety of cultural, environmental, and social settings—and receive an excellent experiential education. Ongoing opportunities—HS art retreats and ES wetlands field trips, for example—provide ample opportunities to engage in powerful education at a local level as well. Just last year ISKL introduced the International Awards Scheme as an additional choice for our students. Though still in its infancy the program recently awarded its first five silver and bronze awards to ISKL last year!
But a sustainable mind frame can only go so far when it is ‘given’ to students in the form of curriculum and/or experiences, no matter how well it is presented. What often makes the difference is the process of working toward a common end, of growing a sense of belonging to the natural world, and a taking of responsibility for making our community better. Last year ISKL became a member of the Eco Schools program. Our HS environmental representative, Samantha Lee, a student elected by her peers, serves as the chair of the Green Council, which is responsible for ensuring that we complete our projects using the seven-step Eco Schools methodology. She is also the one who ensures that we are documenting our progress in a transparent manner. The Green Council is tasked with leading our entire community to promote issues of biodiversity (one of the Eco Schools themes) on campus through such initiatives as the creation of a sensory garden, a stream conservation and tree planting on our campus and community. We are hopeful that, by the middle of next academic year, ISKL will be the first recipient of the Eco Schools Green Flag in Malaysia.
Students are also involved in other tasks as well. This year’s International Fest—arguably the most well-attended event of the year—took another bold step in promoting a ‘rent-a-plate’ program whereby visitors (all 2,000 of them) used reusable plates for all their food needs. The initiative, a joint operation of students, parents, and staff, was based on the idea of eliminating single-use plates, much like the elimination of plastic water bottles on campus as well. These are just a couple examples of the initiatives that happen at ISKL, but indicative of our school’s gradual movement toward not just educating for sustainability but living it.
So what’s next for ISKL? Well, dreams of a new campus in the foreseeable future allow us to be inspired with what we can accomplish in terms of facility planning, open spaces, sustainable teaching spaces, and the like. We will continue, of course, to do everything in our power to transform our students into solution-oriented, forward thinkers. ISKL’s school wide learning results of ‘living ethically,’ ‘collaborating constructively,’ ‘reasoning critically,’ ‘thinking creatively,’ and ‘learning enthusiastically’ might well have been written to support our ESD programming. Service learning, our next step, offers opportunities for students to connect the dots between knowing and doing. In two short years our teachers are now receiving regular support to infuse ESD into their curriculum when and where it is appropriate to do so, while focusing on what they do best: educating our students and holding them accountable to the highest standards. In two short years our students are recognizing the power of sustainable thinking for their future, the opportunities it provides, and the challenges ahead. In two short years our entire community is recognizing the value of sustainable decisions. What a world of sustainable difference in two short years since the establishment of the coordinator position? It would appear that, when moving to a culture of sustainability, investing in time is a wise choice.
Laurence Myers Sustainability & Service Learning Coordinator, ISKL For further information on ISKL-related sustainability updates feel free to visit the Sustainable ISKL blog at http://sustainableiskl.blogspot.com
Green & Sustainable Involving Our Community in Sustainability
By Tom McLean HS Environmental Coordinator/GINManila2012 Conference Coordinator
In February 2012 International School Manila hosted the EARCOS Global Issues Network (GIN) conference (GINManila2012) with the theme Compassionate Action.
GINManila2012 had two key goals: 1. For the conference to be entirely student led 2. For the conference to inspire action
Economy Group Revising Indicators
The first goal was achieved by empowering ISM students with the role of facilitating workshop sessions. In order to prepare for their facilitation role ISM students were trained in the use of the Atkisson Group’s Pyramid of Sustainability. Evaluating the level of attainment of the second goal is much more challenging as how can one account for the impact of such an event on the lives of the individuals who attend it? To a large extent it is impossible but not entirely so.
Taking IT Global (TIG) Sprout Program The decision to award twenty scholarships to the TIG Sprout program was an attempt by GINManila2012 to assist students in turning the ideas generated during the conference into reality. Participation in the Sprout program also provided an opportunity to monitor and evaluate the second key goal of the conference. Of the twenty scholarships that were awarded for Sprout eighteen were successfully completed and the students project ideas are up and running at various levels of development. Furthermore one of the EARCOS Sprout cohort’s projects was deemed strong enough for the student to be invited to join the Pearson Fellowship for Social Innovation. The Pearson Fellowship for Social Innovation is an international fellowship program that supports the most promising social change projects created by TakingITGlobal’s network of youth leaders. In January 2011, the partnership between TakingITGlobal and Pearson Foundation evolved to recognize and support youth-developed projects created as a component of TakingITGlobal’s innovative Sprout online learning experience. a project to address the problem of access to education that he observes everyday in the Philippines. In Daniels words:
“Every day outside my opulent gated village, I witness the dichotomy between the rich and poor as the malnourished, uneducated indigent Filipino mendicants knock on my car window. Even when I offer them food or money, I feel helpless. However with the support of the Sprout e-course (partnership of TakingITGlobal and Pearson Foundation) I am empowered to make a positive and sustainable impact on my community. It has been an amazing six-month journey with a steep learning curve in cultivating ideas and relationships. The Sprout program provides the framework and support from inception (design), development (plan/connect) and realization (assess) through seed grants, one-on-one mentoring, peer support, and online resources. The Sprout e-course program is divided into four modules with orientation, lessons, quizzes and independent work but the key to its success is its constant feedback from the mentor and social innovators community.
The Sprout program has helped me to set my passion into a viable action of “Video for Life” in educating the Filipino grade school students through videos. Through the support of Sprout, I was awarded the Pearson Fellowship of US 1000 dollars grant to jumpstart my initiative of educational video lessons in Filipino to supplement the national curriculum. The bi-weekly videoconferences with my mentor and the strong network of inspiring social innovators have constantly guided me through the SWOC assessment (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenge) in creating my first “Video for Life” on fractions. Since the number of trained teachers in the Philippines is limited, I hope to reach out to a greater population of students through my videos. I plan to continue on this rewarding path and hopefully enlighten the underprivileged students as well as myself. “ (Daniel Um, 2014) View Daniel’s ‘Video For Life’ at http://www.projectpage.info/videoforlife/about-us
Sustainable Initiative Planning (SIP) ISM is currently engaged in a student led Pyramid that tackles one of the school’s mission statements, to ‘Involve our community in safeguarding and sustaining our environment’.One of the student leaders of GINManila2012, Mariella Salazar, is also leading this initiative. Mariella details how this initiative has come about below.
“As head organizers of the Global Issues Network conference, GIN certainly had a lasting impact on us. When the conference high died down, however, we asked ourselves, “What now?”. After a year of preparation, hard work and planning, the conference was now over and while we were greatly pleased with the results of the conference, we wondered how else we could utilize the skills and momentum that we had developed. Myung-In Sohn Explaining of Process
At that moment we realized that while GIN had promoted meaningful change in communities all over Asia, our school itself could become more sustainable through the Pyramid process. It is through this that we piloted the Sustainability Initiative Plan (SIP) a student-led initiative that brings together our school board, superintendent, principals, teachers, staff, students and parents. In previous years, our environment council had implemented small initiatives like Meatless Mondays and recycling tin cans but we found that these activities only elicited temporary hype from our school community. But with SIP, we believe the initiatives that are being developed will have a greater impact as they have not been imposed by a few but organically grown by many.
While we, as a team, envisioned the process, we knew that it could never be implemented without the approval of our superintendent and administrators. We needed to pitch the idea to them! The planning leading up to the pitch was frankly daunting. I was personally worried that they would not agree with having students lead a process of large-scale changes in our school. To my surprise, however, not only did the administration agree to take part in the process, but they also decided to make it a school-wide goal for the 2012-2013 academic year. They felt that this process was essential to fulfilling our school’s mission statement, “Involve our community in sustaining and safeguarding our environment.”
The opportunity to pilot such a big project was certainly empowering for us as students. Although we understood the immensity of the task at hand, the fact that the administrators trusted us with SIP was certainly comforting and assuring. We now understood that everyone in our school community was truly committed to change.
Society group enjoying the a joke.
grouped our stakeholders according to nature, economy, society and wellbeing based on their forte. We watched as high school students and middle school students, began conversing with our superintendent and principals— people we mistakenly thought were “unreachable”. We watched as this diverse group came together in the first meeting to identify desired outcomes of our mission statement, and in the second meeting to develop measurable indicators of progress towards these outcomes.
Our third meeting this coming March will involve the group analyzing the data they have collected and identifying solutions that tackle key leverage points within our school system. Although we are yet to complete the process it is already noticeable that our diverse stakeholders have very similar, compatible ideas. These ideas, however, could not be synthesized and implemented without a forum like SIP. Through SIP, we are able to move as an entire school community in order to achieve our common goal of involving our community in sustaining and safeguarding our environment.” (Mariella Salazar, 2013) Find out more about SIP at ISM at http://sustainability.ismonline.org/
Just the Beginning In his concluding remarks at GINManila2012, Akshar Bonu pronounced that for the conference to be a success the closing of the conference had to be seen as a new beginning and not an end. On this basis, developments at ISM and elsewhere must lead him to conclude that the conference was in fact measurably so.
Old School Meets New School
By Jamie Alarcon Simbulan Energy Conservation Engineer, Singapore American School
Dinoh Jeman (left) and Radzali Dolah, custodians at Singapore American School, use an iPad to access the SchoolDude MaintenanceDirect webapp and stay on top of job orders.(Bryan Quah, Singapore American School Grade 12 Student)
When you combine old-fashioned service with high-tech workflows, that’s your killer app. Working at SAS, in whatever capacity, means that you have to be just as tech-savvy as teachers who blog and students who tweet. While none of the folks at in the facilities and services department are selling apps, they’re using technology more and more every day—sometimes in unexpected ways. And it’s not just the young’uns, either. They say you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, but our veterans apparently never got the memo.
Getting Things Done Head custodian Radzali Dolah, 58, was issued an iPad last year to boost productivity in the field. He uses the built-in camera to take and share photos of things that need fixing, and he’s also able to refer to drawings and floor plans in a pinch. His chief complaint is that while the iPad is very portable, he still cannot bring it to jobs that involve heavy lifting without a bag that makes him “look like a Ninja Turtle.”
One of the tools in Radzali’s virtual toolbox, SchoolDude MaintenanceDirect, has a webapp that he can access on his tablet and phone as well as his PC. Before SchoolDude, Radzali had to wade through hundreds of emails–not to mention hastily scribbled notes that were difficult to decipher and easy to misplace–in order to figure out what needed to be done. The process was about as pleasurable as a trip to the dentist. skills and experience, this means that jobs are scheduled more efficiently and workloads are distributed more fairly.
Radzali, who was a production foreman in the manufacturing industry before coming to SAS, also loves that he can set productivity goals and check SchoolDude to see if he’s actually meeting them. He and the facilities staff have completed nearly 5,000 work requests since SchoolDude was launched in late 2011.
Building Apps Working with technology is second nature to 34-year-old William Ng, who has a degree in computing information systems and oversees the SASCard (the school’s identification smart card) office, the most technologically complex department in facilities and services.
William’s Excel spreadsheets, supercharged with custom macros written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), are apps in and of themselves. He has built tools that allow security officers to check whether drivers’ faces match the photos on their vehicle pass registration documents, and provide SASCard office staff with background information on callers even before they pick up the phone.
William also lends his expertise to simpler projects, like automating taking student attendance at High School assemblies with SASCard readers that can be plugged into any device with a USB port, such as his Lenovo ThinkPad tablet.
Getting external vendors to do what William does, on top of his day-to-day job, would easily cost tens of thousands of dollars a pop. And even then, an outsourced app would not have been built with the same insight into the school’s needs, nor the same understanding of SAS culture and values, that he has. Now, that’s ingenuity.
Changing the Game For security and safety assistant Edward Paul, it’s the ability to automate simple but time-consuming or labor-intensive tasks that has changed the game.
Previously, he and the security officers would have to watch hours of CCTV footage and manually count the number of people or vehicles going in and out of the campus. Now, software like CSGold gives him all this information with just a few clicks.
Technology also allows him to remotely lock or unlock card-activated doors from anywhere he has an Internet connection. That means no more schlepping back and forth with the master key.
The downside is that, with ubiquitous access to the web, Edward compulsively checks his email even when he’s on medical leave or during the daily commute between SAS and his home in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. But, especially with the sensitive nature of his job, he’s happy that he can stay in the
Transforming Processes According to Anthony Wong, director of facilities and services, his department is extremely selective about using the right tool or technology for the job. He cites SchoolDude as an example of a success story. “Clearly, the Dude has enabled the office to not only streamline back-end maintenance processes, but to also empower all frontline staff to manage, execute, and analyze work requests in an accountable fashion. The ease with which the facilities staff has embraced and used the Dude is nothing short of trans“We have a laser-like focus on serving our customers–the students, staff, and community–promptly and efficiently,” Wong says. “Embracing and utilizing technology is a mission-critical part of providing quality facility services. We already have some great software and hardware, and we’re always looking to add more, but it’s our brand of customer service that is the most important weapon in our arsenal.”
Seeing Green at Tohoku International School, Sendai, Japan
High school students helping to build the garden
As some teachers and I were waiting outside for the morning bell to ring last spring, I saw students outside taking responsibility for watering the garden. It was unexpected, but highly appreciated. They took time to water every plant and then showed their accountability by making sure they put away the equipment when they were done. I witnessed students observe plants and nature as well as ask questions about what they were observing. The students around the green area were each engaged with it at their own levels and interests.
Like every good school, Tohoku International School is constantly working to make learning meaningful and exciting for our students. Last year teachers on the elementary team got together and made plans for a way to utilize the space behind our school that was not being used. It was decided we would create five small gardens, one for each class in elementary and one for the secondary students. We also created space for a physical activity and a shaded zone. A few teachers had experience with gardening and they shared their knowledge with everyone else to get us started.
The older elementary students were given the task of planning how we would lay out the gardens. This was a great way to incorporate the geometric concepts of area, perimeter, and measurement authentically. Students also learned about the environment. The grade 1-2 class planted mizuna, a type of leafy vegetable, and were able to take some home for and eat in their salads. The grade 5-6 class turned their plot into They were able to observe how plants start as seeds and how they grow. Over the course of the summer and into the autumn, they could see the plant develop seeds and then see the end of the life cycle. For me, the most impressive learning that happened was the sense of responsibility that was developed. Some students took it upon themselves to start taking care of the garden: including the watering and weeding. It was exactly the characteristics that we, as a school, are trying to instill into our students. The garden has not only been a learning experience for the students, but I found myself learning along the way as well. As we were preparing the soil, one student found a large white larva in the scoop of dirt. I asked around to see what it was until one of the maintenance men, Mr. Sato, told me that he believed it was a kabuto mushi (better known in the English-speaking world as a rhinoceros beetle)… or he thought it could be a different kind of beetle. The only way we could truly find out what kind of beetles they would become was by keeping them in our room and taking care of them. Then with the help of my class, that is exactly what we did. My own class was not the only one involved with this. All classes were able to come in and observe them, touch them, and ask questions about them. I had students and teachers bring in materials about beetles in both Japanese and English so we could talk about them and see if what we had read matched what we were seeing; to see if what we were doing was the right was to raise them.
As with all great inquiry experiences, the garden allowed us to: question - What should the design of the garden look like? Which way should the rows go? What should we plant?, What will grow in Sendai?, think - How will the rows affect the way the plants grow? What would the best seeds be to plant?, discover - When making the garden we found dozens of kabuto beetle larvae that we kept in an aquarium in the classroom, and investigate - The students were able to experiment with how they planted seeds and were able to see the fruits of their labor.
Not only is the garden a great addition to our school curriculum, we also used the opportunity to center our summer school program around the garden. The green area has since expanded to include Bug City, an area that we have set aside to grow free to attract insects (which we also call microbeasts). Bug City has in turn taken on a life all its own. It has attracted so many bugs that it is now attracting birds and we have now a mini ecosystem in addition to the garden areas.
We have just planted the second round of crops. This time we planted a winter vegetable, daikon, or Asian radishes, and the learning life cycle has started again. For many of us, it is the first time we will see diakon sprout and start to grow and new questions will emerge. I cannot wait to see how this space will continue to evolve. One of my favorite parts of education is seeing students take what they have learned and experiment, tinker, and play with those concepts for themselves in their free time. Our new garden gives them the impetus to do that. What a gratifying experience for all involved!
Tohoku International School (TIS) is located in Sendai, Japan. As the only international school in the northern Tohoku region, it has been serving the international educational needs of the community for more than 25 years.
Thomas Hammerlund is currently teaching the grade 1-2 class at Tohoku International School. In the six years he has been on the staff, he has been involved in numerous community building projects around the school.
Western Academy of Beijing Welcomes Back Dr. Jane Goodall, Proud of Its Commitment to Environmental Sustainability and Achievements
On and Off Campus By Andrew Walton, andrew_walton@wab.edu
The Western Academy of Beijing (www.wab.edu) was proud to welcome back Dr. Jane Goodall on November 7, 2012. In addition to taking time to speak to students and guests on her experiences and wishes for the treatment of the planet, Dr. Goodall visited with students engaged in water research, and others involved in various Roots and Shoots projects.
A world-renowned conservationist, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (http://www.janegoodall.org/), and United Nations Messenger of Peace, Dr. Goodall continues to inspire generations of people all over the world working on behalf of endangered species, and encouraging people to do their part to make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment we all share. WAB has been fortunate to have such a close relationship with the Jane Goodall Institute and with Roots and Shoots program. In 1994 the program opened its doors in Asia for the first time at WAB, and in the fall of 1998 Jane opened the first Roots & Shoots office for China, also at WAB.
In 2007, with support from Bayer, Roots & Shoots, and the WAB community, the Green Generation Campaign was born, a project which saw the transformation of the body of water in the middle of our campus known as Duck Lake into a protected wetlands, as well as the creation of the fabulous bridge which now connects the two sides of our campus. True to its original intent,
[The site serves] as a natural youth environmental education base [that offers] opportunities for youth to experience the impact of environmental changes on the ecosystem, to be closer to nature, and to increase their knowledge about environmental protection on topics such as understanding the benefits of large-scale recycling and reusing, the preservation of water resources, as well as the protection of the natural wetland ecological environment and species of wildlife.1
To this day the wetlands continue to be a source for inspiration and educational activities for our students, while both the wetlands and the bridge are simply lovely visual additions to the campus.
In addition to Dr. Goodall’s legacy at WAB in the wetlands at Duck Lake, environmental sustainability is being taught and practiced at WAB’s Miao Liang Environmental Education and Experiential Center, which was opened in 2009. Nestled among the majestic Mi Yun Mountains on the banks of the beautiful Bai He (White River), the Center offers a variety of activities and programs for a diverse range of user groups, and is a perfect base from which to explore the historical and cultural heritage of the area.
The Miao Liang Environmental Education and Experiential Center features environmental technologies like a solar PV system for electricity, solar hot water, dry composting toilets, a “biodigestor” as well as ecological grey water systems. Staying on site for short periods for curricular and extra-curricular programs including environmental science and geography, students embrace the environmentally sustainable lifestyle that this center offers, and reflect on the current and future technologies as we address issues faced by our planet.
“Miao Liang has challenged me and everyone else who has lived the experience to question current practices and to constantly explore ways in which to make our world a more sustainable one. The Miao Liang Environmental Education Center is just another reason why WAB is such an amazing school.” 2
Such learning experiences have extended beyond the grounds at Miao Liang, as WAB’s High School Migrant Group’s ACAMIS Service Award winners can attest. Working with Tsinghua University, who will help with design and build, these WAB students raised money to fund both a water treatment system and a refrigeration plant. The water filtration system, to be built to work on the same premises as the system in place at Miao Liang, will allow people from a small village in the Qing Hai district to drink water originating from a nearby stream, and the refrigeration plant will make storing food much easier.
WAB looks forward to continued partnerships with leading organizations, and to new projects to enhance our campus, our learners, and our planet.
1. Katherine Mitchell, 2008: http://lianxi.wab.edu/node/16. 2. WAB Middle School student, 2012
