This post was written by a student for the school newsletter about a project I was working on with the girls that was particularly exciting:
Over the last couple of weeks, a group of five students from years 7 to 10 in the ACEE club have been girls communicating with the Apeejay School in New Delhi to compare our community carbon footprints. We connected over a series of Skype calls, and talked with students in tenth grade. This experience was a fantastic way not only to learn about another country’s carbon costs, but through our combined research to experience another race’s culture and way of life.
In our first meeting, we exchanged details about what our school is doing to reduce not only our carbon footprint, but other environmental costs as well. The Apeejay students told us of a fantastic machine they have on their grounds that turns any waste paper they have into fresh recycled paper, ready to be used again. We were really amazed by this. In return, we told them of our solar panels, which this year will prevent around 8760 tons of carbon from going into the atmosphere. Each of us was amazed at the measures each school went to in trying to prevent carbon usage. After discussing some normal household practices that utilise carbon, we decided to come up with a questionnaire for our communities, so that we could gather data regarding average carbon footprints. The focus of our next meeting was to talk a little more about our schools, and pool our questions to come up with a generic quiz that could be used. Some of our questions were focussed on areas such as; the amount of meat eaten, the number of aeroplane trips taken each year, and we even threw in a question to try and gain an understanding of the community’s knowledge of how their electricity is generated. We will meet again next week to talk about our results.
So far, this project has been a great way to connect with students our age in another country, and to discuss a hugely important global issue. Through this, we learnt from each other about not only the big facts and figures, but also the small things, like what it is like going to school in India. I think a lot of us were surprised about the similarities that we shared. I definitely hope that the link between our schools will continue, and that we will be able to share with each other in the future!
Over the last couple of weeks, a group of five students from years 7 to 10 in the ACEE club have been girls communicating with the Apeejay School in New Delhi to compare our community carbon footprints. We connected over a series of Skype calls, and talked with students in tenth grade. This experience was a fantastic way not only to learn about another country’s carbon costs, but through our combined research to experience another race’s culture and way of life.
In our first meeting, we exchanged details about what our school is doing to reduce not only our carbon footprint, but other environmental costs as well. The Apeejay students told us of a fantastic machine they have on their grounds that turns any waste paper they have into fresh recycled paper, ready to be used again. We were really amazed by this. In return, we told them of our solar panels, which this year will prevent around 8760 tons of carbon from going into the atmosphere. Each of us was amazed at the measures each school went to in trying to prevent carbon usage. After discussing some normal household practices that utilise carbon, we decided to come up with a questionnaire for our communities, so that we could gather data regarding average carbon footprints. The focus of our next meeting was to talk a little more about our schools, and pool our questions to come up with a generic quiz that could be used. Some of our questions were focussed on areas such as; the amount of meat eaten, the number of aeroplane trips taken each year, and we even threw in a question to try and gain an understanding of the community’s knowledge of how their electricity is generated. We will meet again next week to talk about our results.
So far, this project has been a great way to connect with students our age in another country, and to discuss a hugely important global issue. Through this, we learnt from each other about not only the big facts and figures, but also the small things, like what it is like going to school in India. I think a lot of us were surprised about the similarities that we shared. I definitely hope that the link between our schools will continue, and that we will be able to share with each other in the future!