Middle School GIN2016 “EnGINeering Our Future

MS GIN CONFERENCE 2016

EnGINeering Our Future: Middle School Global Issues Network Conference at Shanghai Community International School - Hongqiao Campus

Seven months of planning was realized when more than two-hundred fifty Middle School students and their advisors from twentythree international schools across Asia arrived at the SCIS Hongqiao Campus ready to “enGINeer” their future. This diverse group of change makers gathered for the 2016 Middle School Global Issues Network (GIN) Conference. GIN is an international network of students whose mission is to empower young people to collaborate locally, regionally and globally to create sustainable solutions for global issues. The network is mostly based on Jean-Francois Rischard’s, novel High Noon: Twenty Global Problems, Twenty Years to Solve Them. ticipated in different workshops, all students experienced the same design process which can be applied to all current and future projects.

Our conference theme was “EnGINineering Our Future”. The aim of our student led and organized event was to provide a platform for like-minded middle schoolers to connect, to exchange knowledge and to learn tools for meaningful action through, peer workshops, hands-on sessions, social networking events and other fun activities. Locally based inspirational keynote speakers challenged both students and teachers to go beyond the obvious, to be innovative, and to work together to understand and develop sustainable solutions for global issues both during and after the conference.

Prior to the conference, GIN teams engaged in global issues projects at their own schools. During the conference, each GIN team led a “Peer to Peer” workshop as experts sharing solutions to the issues their projects addressed. Students not only learned about different projects but also had opportunities to reflect on what they learned and ways they could apply their learning in the future projects.

One of the highlights of the weekend was our five-hour hands-on “EnGINeering” workshops. During these practical sessions, participants designed and constructed up-cycled fashion, aquaponics gardens, large scale bamboo play equipment, small scale energy efficient homes, and “viral” water awareness campaigns. While students par

As a part of the conference’s zero waste theme, Green Accommodation was offered to reduce transportation emissions. Students and chaperones stayed at school, immersing themselves in the experience and making new friends. Also, activities such as: Swap Shop, Tee4Tee, Sustainability Fair, teacher workshops and social networking events for both students and teachers, were offered. Throughout the weekend, stories about our passion for global issues and ideas for collaborative post-conference actions were shared.

Organizing this event was a tremendous undertaking. The experience infused our entire community with a collaborative spirit and challenged us to “walk the talk”. We were humbled by the commitment of everyone who made this event possible. Having more than three hundred students, teachers and volunteers together, connected by our belief in sustainable solutions for global issues, was one of the greatest moments. We understood that we can work together, do projects together, get help from each other, and most importantly, teach each other how to engineer our future together even if we were not in the same physical location. The weekend ended with everyone buzzing from the excitement of the conference and looking forward to putting their learning into practice in their communities.

By Lisa Chui, MYP Art Teacher/GIN Facilitator; Richard Forbes, MYP Humanities Teacher/GIN Facilitator; Hilda Meijer, MS student, GIN organizer; and Tina Santilli, MS Principal