| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Summaries

Page history last edited by Stephanie Ratti 12 years, 10 months ago

 




 

Week 9-10-11

Monday April 18 - Sunday May 08 2011
 

Each class summarizes the questions received from other Learning Circle partners post them.

 

 


EFS 1 - Redstone Public School

Summary:

 

                                                  Replacing Old Toilets
                 Do you have a toilet that is at least 15 years old? This is probably the right time to buy a new toilet. If you change to an ultra low flush toilet, not only will you save money, but you can also save the earth and conserve water for the future generations to come. Us Canadians waste water like there’s no tomorrow. But there are so many places in the world that barely have enough water to survive. Switching over to a ultra low flush toilet can provide more water for the future.

                  Old toilets can leak at least 200 000 litres in a year! That’s $200 dollars going straight down the drain! Not only do they leak but, they also use at least 18 litres of water per a flush. But, if you install an ultra low flush toilet, it only uses 6 litres per a flush. That’s only a third of the amount water needed as the old toilet! If you have a family of 4 the old toilet would cost $55 per a day. But if you used the ultra low flush toilet, it would only cost $16 dollars a day! You can save $39 dollars!

                  There is only a certain amount of water the can be distributed over a specific time limit. That’s because water needs to go through many cleaning treatments before it is transferred to your household. After using the water in your home, it goes through precipitation. But, at the rate that we are wasting water, we will eventually use up all the water before it gets cleaned or goes through precipitation. Also, for every drop that goes down the drain waster, it has a chance to become salt water. As we all know salt water can be hard to use because it has so many steps that is needed to clean it before it can be used. Drinking salt water before it is thoroughly cleansed makes you thirstier. Yet because all of our water is mostly saltwater now, we need to save what we have left in the lakes, rivers and ponds. If you switch to an ultra low flush toilet, you can save 12 litres of water which can be used later on.

                 Water is extremely important to us. Without it we would be dead. Water and the sun starts the food chain of life. If we keep wasting water at this rate, the future generations will probably only have 20 cubic metres of water to use per a month. That’s 1 580 cubic metres less than the amount of water we use per a year now! Switching to ultra low flush toilets could make those 20 cubic metres of water for the future into 400 cubic metres.

                 Living in Canada, we could easily turn on the tap and waste at least 20 litres of water. But, have you ever thought about the kids in Africa? Could you imagine walking 5 miles just to get 2 litres of water? The 20 litres of water we easily waste in a day is a 100 mile walk to and back from the nearest well in Africa!

 

 

Water presentation.wmv  

 

Trisha- Global Friends.mov


EFS 2 - Redstone Public School

Summary:

Conserving Freshwater

Save our freshwater habitats! Manage your personal water usage. Wetlands are vanishing; a magic act of the worst kind. Freshwater habitats around the world are disappearing fast but you can help do something about this crisis. Only 3 percent of all the Earth's water is drinkable, and nearly three-quarters of that freshwater is locked away in glaciers and ice caps. Humans are unable to drink saltwater, meaning that we rely on freshwater to provide our daily needs. But we’re not the only ones who rely on this source for life. There are over 45 000 species that live in streams, rivers, and lakes to wetlands like bogs, marshes and swamps but since 1970, freshwater species have seen a 50 percent decline and the number just keeps dropping. There is no substitute for water but there are many simple changes we can make to lower the amount of it we use daily. Even a little act can make a difference to the animals and plants that call freshwater habitats home.

So many wetland species are endangered because the wetlands keep vanishing. Freshwater ecosystems have lost a greater proportion of their species and habitat than ecosystems on land or in the oceans. In parts of Canada, over 70% of the wetlands have dried up meaning that all the animals that used to live there are gone too. Recently, the common otter became extinct in Lebanon and the Cherry Salmon from Taiwan and the pond bat from the Netherlands are endangered. It’s not only the animals that live in the water that are in trouble. Hundreds of thousands of birds use wetlands as a source of food and shelter on their migration routes. In Taiwan, the Black- Faced Spoonbill is also high on the endangered species list. If we continue using freshwater the way we do, we will be living in a world without freshwater fish, such as pink salmon by the year 2070.

Humans use freshwater for so many different things. From bathing to cooking to a source of industrial power, freshwater does it all. 89% of clean water is used for irrigation meaning it takes around 3,000 litres of water just to produce enough food to satisfy one person's daily dietary need. That is an overly excessive amount of water. There are also much smaller human needs that use water. Every time you flush a toilet, a whole 13 litres is used. That’s a lot of water for such a miniscule act. The average person uses 50 litres of water per day. Some changes you can make around your house to lower this number and save this treasured resource include taking shorter showers instead of a bath, switching to a low- flush toilet and hand- washing dishes instead of using a dishwasher. Also, you should water your garden earlier in the morning so that the water doesn’t evaporate and you can use a rain barrel to collect rain water. There are numerous other ideas you can use to save freshwater habitats and every single one of them is a step in the direction of saving a lot of wildlife.

There are already organizations that understand the importance of conserving freshwater habitats. For example; Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is a group dedicated to conserving wetlands for ducks, geese and other waterfowl species as well as plants and insects in the area. The goals for the DUC are to prevent loss of wetlands, restore wetlands, and to improve wetland conditions. There is also an organization called Wetlands International which does the same work but on a global scale. All you have to do to help is support an organization like this in your country. You can even donate money or volunteer your services. Help spread the message. Preserve freshwater habitats.

If we don’t work to conserve freshwater habitats, soon there will be none left meaning that we will have to get fresh water from the sea. It is five times more expensive and harder to produce. But if we start protecting wetlands now, we will be able to save so many wetland species which in turn benefits our ecosystem. Just a little change in your life can help save our freshwater habitats. Conserve your water!

 

 

Global Teenager_Klaudia.wmv

 

Reusable Bags - Jeremy Truong.wmv  

 

Habitat Destruction- Freshwater.wmv

 

 


EFS 3 -Notre Dame De La paix des filles de la Charité

Summary:

 'When you pray, move your feet” once said Vice president Al Gore!

We, as humans are responsible of the damage done on this planet and it is threading us, in our existence, so persons/nations have to assume the result of their acts and try to do something!

And we, as students in NDP, are aware of this problem and it’s affecting us, in our hometown Kobayat, and in Lebanon, this is why we are trying to be a national model of an Eco-friendly school and try to talk about pollution wherever we go in order to convince more people around us to adopt an Eco-friendly attitude toward earth.

 That’s why we posted our question, with a main goal in head: Initiate more people to adopt “certain” waste management program which might be the way to end/attenuate our main pollution source.

We started in our school with lot of research about the benefits of recycling, simple way to do it, how to convince students to start ecological clubs at their schools, we learned from our mistakes after 2 years of waste management, and how to make money out of it, we also discovered the danger behind chemicals in batteries and what can cause to our health.

We also learned how to plan activities, debates, movie screenings about the topic and how can we be more effective in our “war” against pollution.

And being part of this LC gave us loads of information, and reading your answers rang lot of bells! (Places where we should put the wastes and we discover that we must never incinerate waste because it liberates a huge quantity of CO2 , work on prezi’s, do a flash mob …)

-      Create interesting contest for students or young children. We suggest that the school can design an advantage card for each student and set a points system

-          Students can get 1 point for every 10 used battery brought to school or a bag of paper waste

-          Organize more workshops about waste management

-          Watching more movies about global warming (which is a very impressing experience !)

-          Try the best efforts to involve municipal councilors in our waste management program, which might evoke public feelings and would give some pressures for the municipality of the town to adopt eco-friendly policies.

-          Organize a Green rally paper with students from all the schools in the town.

-          Make an eye caching video that promotes our the waste management program to show it wherever we go using the techniques we learned at school (iMovie, Prezi …)

Finally we should not forget how important is to help other schools to build their own Eco-club so that we have more feet moving  while praying !

 

 

 

 

 


EFS 4 - HBS, Hajj Bahaa Eddine School

Summary:


People are working hard to raise their standards of living without caring about pollution and depletion of earth recourses. Energy is being wasted randomly and illegally. Environmental literature became absent among people. Governments and students (future generations) must cooperate with the help of social organizations, parents and school authorities to reduce the impact on the environment by designing plans for this and implementing them. We, as a school, were thinking of several ways to start saving the environment and thought that we can share some ideas to be done in schools around the world. Although countries and traditions differ but the problem our world facing is the same. Starting from here, we can come up with solutions or suggestions for our school to be ecofriendly and energy savvy. Members in our school are taking some steps that are considered to be not enough for making the school an ecofriendly one. For this, we raised the question to share good ideas and try to implement some of them. All Answers were close and similar except for some new ideas raised by ESF7, ESF8, and ESF11. We thank all schools for their suggestions to reduce energy wasting and at the same time conserve earth recourses from depletion and maintain high standards of living. For sure, we benefit a lot from your answers and will try to present it to school administration, teachers and students in the school.

No one talked about smoking in schools. Maybe, this is happening in some schools of lebanon where teachers smoke in special rooms for smokers. I think this should be prevented at all to make the school more ecofriendly. On the other hand, some students see their teachers smoking and like to imitate them without knowing the risks. For many reasons, smoking should be banned in schools.

 

This is a summary for the similarities and differences among answers:

 

  •  Similarities:

        -          Environmental awareness every day morning.  

             -          G.O.O.S paper (Good On One Side). Scrap paper for things like brainstorming,  

                        planning and math calculations.

             -          Use technology rather than paper for learning. Instead of writing on papers, use laptops. This is called the ‘Paperless Classroom’. Use online websites to assist                            students and give them assignments.

             -          Use kinetic energy, solar panels, and wind turbines to liberate heat and electricity, instead of using oil, fresh water, and fossil fuel that waste energy and deplete                           earth recourses.  Governments should make this obligatory.

-          Turn off your lights, computers, and heaters/air conditioners during the breaks or when they are not used. This can save great amounts of energy.

 

-          Use rain water collection and a purifier so we can drink and wash our hands using the filtered water. Recycle water; replace the faucets by taps that turn off                automatically. Use detecting sinks that turn on when you wave your hand in front of the sensor.

-          Food waste is allowed to compost turning it into soil fertilizers.

-          During lunch time, bring lunches in reusable containers. This is called: ‘litterless lunches’.

-          Make school clubs that promote eco-friendly actions among students. Create a project in which the older students are asked to teach the younger ones about the            environment

-          Set students, known as the eco-cops (police), that go to every classroom to inspect how clean and tidy they are, during breaks.

-          Walk, bike or buy an eco-friendly car and use saved money for personal luxuries. Introduce these rules to your class.

-          Turn off unneeded lights and other electronics, use compact fluorescent light bulbs

-          Start a protest about saving the Earth in your school.

-          Each teacher as he/she leaves the room must close the windows, because if this is not done, a lot of heat gets wasted at night.

-          Plant tall trees and open the windows. Plants can help cool the air, so you don’t have to turn on air-conditioners during the day except for extreme weather. Use            ceiling fans that consume less electricity than that of air conditioners

-          Going upstairs and downstairs on foot instead of taking elevators can save more electricity.

-          Give second-hand books or uniforms to students who need them. Share things such as old clothes and reference books to be used again. This is because the process of production uses lots of energy and resources.

 

 

  •   

 

  • Differences: 

 

-          Design a kind of small farm next to your school, where some animals and plants are located. In the ‘farm’ department, some students learn to take care of the land, animals and help creating a nice environment.

-          Use paints that don’t emit toxic gases and use wall systems and furniture made with non-toxic materials. This improves air quality in the classrooms.

-          Provide enough ventilation and keep relative humidity below 60%. This stops mold growth. Mold leads to serious health problems, especially in children.

-          Improve sanitation in the school.

-          Batteries that are thrown away produce most of the heavy metal. These metals are toxic. They can be harmful to humans. 

 

 

 

 


EFS 5 - Sg.St.-Canisius

Summary:

First we would like to thank everyone for answering our question. It helped us a lot in finding ways of saving energy at our school. It is now up to us to implement it.

After studying the different answers we have found the following ways of saving more energy at school . It is interesting to see that the solutions given by the  participating schools can be divided into different groups,  namely ‘energy saving solutions’,  ‘recycling solutions ‘, ‘energy generating solutions’ and ‘mentality solutions’.  No we shall give the main examples mentioned by our partners.

 

Energy Saving solutions

Example

Explanation

Making a water saving model

In this model you have water that cleans and while filtering is also generates energy.

Trapping rainwater

This water can be used for toilets or use for draining the garden.

System shutdown/light control systems/moving sensors

Turn off all electrical devices/make devices that turn off computers, lights or other electrical machines.

Make use of energy-saving light bulbs

Substituting energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) for standard incandescent bulbs will save on average up to 6,000 megawatts of electricity each year.

Make use of skylight and windows

Provision of light.

Plant more trees.

By planting more trees in the school’s neighborhood you will have more shade, no use of electric vents, clean air and lesser pollution.

 

 

 

 

 

Energy generating solutions at school

Example

Explanation

Geothermic energy

Here we could make use of the earth warmth.

Solar energy

Here we use panels to generate energy.

Wind energy

Here we can make use of wind energy by setting up wind turbines.

Kinetic energy

Students moving up and down the stairs liberate virtual energy that can be exploited. This energy is said to be kinetic energy and can be converted to electric energy to produce electricity instead of burning fuels and polluting the environment to receive it. A nice example is to make panels on the stairs to create energy.

 

 

 

 

Mentality solutions at school

Example

Explanation

Set-up a student group

This group will be specialized in  finding energy-wasting tools. Next to that, they open the discussion with others.

Turn off lights, close doors and fix water faucets, use own tableware, bikes, public transportation, elevator use only for injured.

These examples seem small and minute things, but all in all saves a lot of energy. First you have to be aware of these examples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recycling solutions at school

Example

Explanation

Compost

By decomposing plants or waste you can recycle organic material. This saves a lot of energy and you can use the compost for other things.

Bottle depot

The reuse of bottle decreases the amount of waste.

Organize a competition to sort out garbage.

This will involve many students to become aware of their trash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our conclusion is that there are many great solutions to save energy. Especially the little solutions are easy to implement and have major impact on our mentality. One relevant point is that saving energy spares a lot of money, which can be used for other objectives, like saving the environment.

 

 

 

 


EFS 7 - Elde College

Summary:

 

We would like to thank everybody for there answers. The flashmobs we received were very nice and so were the pictures. So thanks a lot. Everybody took their time to make a flashmob. There are a lot of differences between the flashmobs. Like:

- A dance setup and an airport flashmob;

- A flashmob on the play ground of the school;

- A flashmob on a square in the town, where they are singing.

- A dancing flashmob within the school.

 

 

 

 

 


EFS 8 - Libanon Lyceum

Summary:     Is there a possibility to convert energy released from kinetic energy, into electric energy?

We received lots of answers from different schools: they all came down to the following suggestions 

The students at Redstone thought this was an interesting question and they replied that it  was possible to use the movement of walking up and down the stairs by students and teachers in order to collect energy into a generator to create electric energy for the use of powering laptops and small electronic devices.You could ask yourself whether it will be cost-effective. Stationary bikes are another example of how to use kinetic energy for charging laptops and small electronic equipment.

Using magnets and coiled wires are considered less damaging for the environment than using uranium for example. This can be reached by using the electricity of a windmill or a watermill. We should think more of using these kinds of kinetic energy in order to prevent more global warming. We should also consider using the sun light and water rather than other kinds of energy so we can help to prevent that nature becomes worse and we can create a better future for all of us.

Kinetic energy is moving, so you can use a dynamo placed at a place where things move, like a door or a bicycle. With the movement of opening the door or riding your bike you can store energy and use it for charging small electrical equipment.

 

 


EFS 9 - National Taichung Girls' Senior High School

Summary:

 

In recent years, people have been exploiting natural resources while they are almost exhausted, resulting in lots of natural disasters such as heat waves, glacier melting and sea-level rising. And now, global warming has become perhaps the most important world issue. This is the reason why we want to focus on the topic of green buildings. We want to know how to make our school into a more eco-friendly place.

 

We organized the answers we got from other schools into this table:

 

 

Categories

Measures

Greening

  1. Plant trees.

  1. Build a natural garden.

  2. Hang green plants on to walls.

Green Building

Design

  1. Large windows (to bring in enough sunlight)

  2. Glass roof (to bring in enough sunlight)

  1. Solar panels (to generate electricity)

  1. Insulated building (to avoid the loss of heat in winter)

  1. Windmills (to generate electricity)

  2. Black curtains (to absorb sunlight and reduce the inflection of sunlight)

 

 

Green Habits

  1. Switch off lights when you leave.

  2. Turn off any electric equipment after using them.

  3. Recycle.

  1. GOOS (Good on one side) paper/Print on both sides of a paper.

  2. Use lunchbox instead of paper bags.

  1. Go to school on foot ,by bicycle ,or by public transportation

  1. Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevators

  2. Work in nature.

  3. Cook local food.

  4. Vegetarian diet.

  1. Prevent fast food lunch.

  2. Healthy snack

  1. Stop using Styrofoam tableware.

 

Green

Alternatives

  1. Use steam to warm up instead of using heaters.

  2. Use the air-conditioners controllers (turn on the air-conditioners with our own money in the cards)

  3. Use smaller garbage cans (prevent people from producing too much garbage)

  4. Use laptops instead of papers in Technology class.

  5. Use the saving water toilets and faucets.

  1. Use rainwater instead of running water to flush the toilet (can use barrels to collect rainwater).

  1. Use Energy-saving bulbs.

Others

  1. Post signs (e.g. Turn off the lights during recess, lunch and the end of a day)

  2. "Adopt" the street your school is located on and set one clean-up day for the street every month.

  3. Tell your friends and family about your green building project.

  4. Spread the green issue to every member in school.

  1. Design energy-saving marks or water-saving marks.

 

  1. Idle-free zone(convince driver to stop idling while they are waiting or away)

  1. Make an energy station to generate electricity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EFS 10 - Fenghsin Senior High School

 

Thanks for the contribution from our partner schools.   We have collected very useful information for our questions:

 

  

 

 


EFS 11 - Fwushan Junior High

Summary:

 

 

The answer from EFS1

1.we give announcements of save water.

2. our electric sweeper uses less water.

3.Our eco team gives announcements every morning to inform people to save energy and water.

The answer from EFS2

1.we use motion detecting sinks. Using motion detecting sinks helps because they will shut off, automatically after a short amount of time.no unnecessary water will be wasted

2. At our school we do not have any special signs to remind people to use less water. The students at our school know that we need to use less water,

The answer from EFS3

1.our the best solution is to awareness people about using as less water as they can: turn off the tap when not in use. 

2. we can recommend them to reuse the water.

3. we can do awareness campaigns in schools.

The answer from EFS4

1. Bring a water bottle to school to avoid using a drinking fountain that can use more water than a person drinks.

2. Find out if your school uses low-flow or water-reducing devices on faucets and toilets.

3. Find out if the plants around your school need to be watered a lot.

4. Put mulch (protective covering to reduce evaporation)

around plants to conserve water.

5. When washing hands, don’t let the water run while soaping up your hands.

6. If you see water coming from unused water faucets, shut them off.

The answer from EFS5

1. we are working on a plan to reuse rainwater and use that for flushing the toilets.

2. we can use one button for one shower and not one button for three showers because we can save water.

The answer from EFS7

1. we could flush the toilets with rainwater instead of fresh water.

2. We also have to use less chemical cleaning products.

The answer from EFS8

1.We have therefore made ​​a small prototype of what such a sign should look like this. 

2.we nevertheless save water in two manners, namely with the taps and the showers

The answer from EFS9

1. In our school, we use several devices for saving water.

2. We have a special device that is put in the outlet of the tap to help reduce the amount of water because the design makes the aperture smaller than usual.

3. We have a special sign which is composed of a green heart and a blue water drop, reminding people that we should bear the importance of water saving in mind and try our best to make our environment greener.

 

The answer from EFS10

1. We can collect the rain water in the rain seasons, and make good uses of it.

2. we can suggest that school might use the used water or the rain water so that pure water can be saved.

3. People should always check out the water pipes in their house.

4. Besides, there is a water meter for each household. The family can check how much water they use at any time and try to reduce the consumption of water. 

The answer from EFS12

1.To remind people to use as less water as they can, water conservation logos can be seen on each wash basin.

2. In the middle of the sign is a smiling water drop. The arrow holding the water drop means the importance to recycle and reuse water. The blue color is like clean water. The logo reminds us if we cherish water resources, we will have clean water forever.

 


EFS 12 - Jhengsin Junior High School

Summary:

 

From the answers, we get four major methods to recycle food waste: using food waste to make compost, feed animals, make hair dye, and make soaps. Making compost or fertilizer is the most popular way. Five of the schools do it, but the ways are a little different.

 

Ways to make compost

 

materials required

steps

notice

EFS1

food waste and a container

1. Gather all food waste into a bin or a container.

2. Once the bin is full of food waste, empty the bin onto the location you chose.

3. Mix the compost with the soil in the garden.

1.No meat or dairy products

2. Empty food waste into the outdoors to avoid the smell or bugs.

EFS2

Vermicomposting

food waste, worms and a plastic bin

1 Put some shredded paper and water into the bin as a bed.

2 Put worms in the bin.

3. Put some food waste into the worm bin.

4. Five months later, the worms digest the food waste, and turn it to rich soil.

Green bins collect compostable materials from homes.

EFS3

food waste, a Tupperware bowl, and a shovel

1 Use the Tupperware bowl to keep the food waste.

2 Dig a 2 to 3 feet hole in the yard and dump the food waste in it.

3. Six months later, the worms digest the food waste. The soil will become rich.

1. No bones from steak, fish or poultry.

2. Mark the spot with a stick, and don’t touch the hole for 6 months

EFS7

Green bins collect food waste from homes to make compost.

EFS10

A tightly sealed barrel whose faucet is installed on the edge of the barrel bottom, left-over, a heavy thing

 

1. Put soil about 6 to 7 centimeters deep into the barrel.

2. Cover the soil with food waste. Keep doing these two steps for several times, and close the lid tightly. Put a heavy thing on it.

3. Three or four days later, the liquid fertilizer can be used to water flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

Steps to make hair dye, and make soaps.

 

materials required

steps

hair dye

potato peels and water

 

1. Put potato peel in water and keep boiling it for one hour.

2. Strain it and let it cool.

3. Rinse this to your hair after shampooing and it will gradually darken gray hair.

green soap

1. waste cooking oil

2.NaOH

3.water

4.honey or sugar

5. 2 pots

6. molds

1. Put NaOH into the water and stir it with a spoon.

2. Heat the oil to about 50.

3. Mix the water and the oil. Keep stirring until it looks mushy.

4. Pour a little bit of honey in it.

5. After it looks well mixed, pour it into the molds and seal it up with the cover or cling film. Wait until it become hard. 

 

 

 

We also get many useful tips to reduce, reuse, and recycle food waste

 

1. Prepare a moderate amount of food for every meal. 

2. Put the new food in the back of the refrigerator and the old food up front.

3. Make a shopping list. Don’t buy the one you don’t need.

4. Don't throw food away. Fruit that is just going soft can be made into fruit pies. Vegetables that are starting to wilt can be made into soup, it is still delicious.

5. Use up your leftovers – take leftovers from dinner to work for lunch.

6. Donate but don’t let it go to waste. If the food is still in good condition, contact people who are in need and see if they can use it.

7. If you do not finish all the dishes, you can store part of them in the fridge and have them finished next time.

 

In our opinions, these are all very good and creative ways. Some are very easy and practical; some might take more extra work. Which way is the best? There is no easy answer for it. It depends on different situations. However, one thing is for sure. That is the more ways we know, the more chances we can save our earth. Just do it!

 

 

 

Comments (3)

Bob Hofman said

at 1:35 pm on Jun 20, 2011

Eliane Metni said

at 11:45 am on May 18, 2011

Well done everyone with your summaries and your work through-out the circle! I have learned a lot from reading your answers and summaries

Bob Hofman said

at 6:29 pm on May 15, 2011

Hi Stephanie and students from Red School, just LOVE to see these video's in the summary pages.
Would it be OK / doable to upload them to YouTube so we can share them with the world? Soo worhtwhile
As well as all the contributions on the summay page... you guys did an amazing job :-)
Now preparing the news letter!! Greetz to all, Bob

You don't have permission to comment on this page.