esfalp_v_-_web_small.pdf - European schools for a living planet

eforehand and prior to the event, had changed allour Facebook cover photos to Earth Hour promotionalpicture. The event continued in the afternoon when theteam set up basketball hoops connected to the bins anda board for the students to stick their rubbish on to createRecycling Collage in the mall. The students showedgreat interest in the basketball game, aimed at encouragingthe students to recycle papers. Many studentsalso stopped by to stick their rubbish on the RecyclingCollage board. While participating in these activities,students were told by our members about the importanceof recycling and its benefits. The Green Team alsomet regularly and has started trying to find longer termsolution to our school’s recycling issues and other wasteproblems.ACHIEVED OBJECTIVESRECOMMENDATIONSCreate a narrower objective and perhaps startsooner in the year.The green team’s main objective was to raise awarenessin our school and possibly change the habits of thestudents to be more environmentally friendly. Our goalwas to educate students about the concept of ecologicalfootprint and our environmentally unfriendly behavioursthat we should change. The team has successfullyachieved this aspect by involving all the students andteachers with our events. By participating in our firstevent, the students and teachers were able to reflect ontheir habits and recognize the importance of reducingtheir ecological footprints.The team has also achieved our next objective which wasto run and increase participation of a student led recyclingprogramme. A committee in our team has workedwith school administrators to change a flawed recyclingsystem in our school and introduce proper paper binsinto each classroom. The team has also started organizinggroup of younger students to collect papers from theclassroom during breaks and lunch which is a student letrecycling programme that we aimed to create as one ofour objectives.BIGGEST OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECTAfter calculating ecological footprints of many students,the teams has discover through interviews that peoplestarted paying more attention to their daily behavioursand began identifying their habits that they could changeto reduce their ecological footprints. Many students alsoshowed interest in our display of individuals’ ecologicalfootprints which made them think about their ownfootprints.Behavioural changes occurred with recycling habits.After a presentation about recycling to grade 7s and 8s,although the changes were short term, they made an effortto use our school’s recycling bins and separate papersfrom normal rubbish.WHAT WENT WELL? WHAT WENT NOT SO WELL?..Dividing roles and accomplishing the objectives set atthe beginning went well. The team members were ableto work together and help each other to bring the piecestogether for the event to work. The problem occurredwith the tight schedule as our events took more time thanwe had expected.IMPACT ON THE SCHOOL’S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMA group of Green Team members visited the schooldirector to discuss the effectiveness of recycling bins inour school. We have agreed upon providing each classroomwith special paper bins and re-evaluating currentrecycling bins. We have the full support of the schooland already a lot of changes are under way.Projects Report 5