
ECO-‘SCHOOLED’: THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PART 1
By: Layla of KIS
SDGs: Affordable and clean energy, Sustainable cities and communities, Responsible consumption and production
“No one can change a person, but someone can be a reason for that person to change.”
- Spongebob Squarepants
While our members don’t live in a pineapple under the sea, this quote still reflects the ideals of KIS’ ECO School Club—a student-led organisation bringing awareness to the environmental footprint of the KIS student body and campus. With enthusiasm comparable to Spongebob’s, our members set off last year to learn about plastic and non-biodegradable waste, unsustainable food production, industrial pollution, and more. We gathered during lunch times, after school, and online, to discuss our endless ideas—a guest speaker event? a social media campaign? The list was infinite, but we soon encountered our first challenge: capturing attention.
Our team rolled out with a ton of amazing projects: a seminar with Martin Woolfe, the CEO of Seventh Generation (a company building reusable products), a Vegan Week recipe event, an investigation into our school’s waste bins and systems for recycling plastic, and maintained a steady collaboration with our counterpart Marjala School in Finland. However, we struggled with attracting our audience—awareness campaigns meant taking time out of busy schedules to pay attention, and that was something that not many people could do.
Over time, our group felt our motivation waver—after all, our goal of making a large, splashy difference wasn’t coming to fruition within the time frame we thought it would. Many of our members had other responsibilities of their own, and it was tricky getting everyone back on the same wavelength. But we soon realised that despite our efforts to educate others about environmental issues, it was we that needed to learn the most important lesson in all of service learning: things take time. Our goal was worthwhile, and the most worthwhile things almost never show results immediately. They have to be carried on over weeks, months, or maybe even years, and at times, can be thankless or feel invisible. But if ECO School motivates even just one student to pursue environmental efforts, whether that includes high-tech research, humanitarian missions across the globe, or even just volunteering for a park clean-up one Sunday afternoon, then our efforts will be fruitful no matter what. In the future, I, alongside the rest of my team, will be reaching out to members of our community and those beyond to expand the role and influence of young students in decisions concerning our environment.
- Spongebob Squarepants
While our members don’t live in a pineapple under the sea, this quote still reflects the ideals of KIS’ ECO School Club—a student-led organisation bringing awareness to the environmental footprint of the KIS student body and campus. With enthusiasm comparable to Spongebob’s, our members set off last year to learn about plastic and non-biodegradable waste, unsustainable food production, industrial pollution, and more. We gathered during lunch times, after school, and online, to discuss our endless ideas—a guest speaker event? a social media campaign? The list was infinite, but we soon encountered our first challenge: capturing attention.
Our team rolled out with a ton of amazing projects: a seminar with Martin Woolfe, the CEO of Seventh Generation (a company building reusable products), a Vegan Week recipe event, an investigation into our school’s waste bins and systems for recycling plastic, and maintained a steady collaboration with our counterpart Marjala School in Finland. However, we struggled with attracting our audience—awareness campaigns meant taking time out of busy schedules to pay attention, and that was something that not many people could do.
Over time, our group felt our motivation waver—after all, our goal of making a large, splashy difference wasn’t coming to fruition within the time frame we thought it would. Many of our members had other responsibilities of their own, and it was tricky getting everyone back on the same wavelength. But we soon realised that despite our efforts to educate others about environmental issues, it was we that needed to learn the most important lesson in all of service learning: things take time. Our goal was worthwhile, and the most worthwhile things almost never show results immediately. They have to be carried on over weeks, months, or maybe even years, and at times, can be thankless or feel invisible. But if ECO School motivates even just one student to pursue environmental efforts, whether that includes high-tech research, humanitarian missions across the globe, or even just volunteering for a park clean-up one Sunday afternoon, then our efforts will be fruitful no matter what. In the future, I, alongside the rest of my team, will be reaching out to members of our community and those beyond to expand the role and influence of young students in decisions concerning our environment.