Well hello! Look who dropped by to visit one of the Grade 1 classrooms!

Discovering in K1 - Apollo the Scientist

by Rekha Jensen

Today Apollo was a scientist. He started conducting a seed experiment at home and wanted to continue it at school. This afternoon a small group of interested fellow scientists listened as Apollo presented his experiment. After showing his peers what he had done Rosie remarked, “We need to make a hole so they can breathe. If you don’t make a hole they can’t breathe.” To this Apollo replied that he wanted to plant his seeds because, “…plants are pretty smart, so they know when they’re in the soil so they don’t sprout.” Alice explained to Apollo she too had been conducting her own seed growing experiment. She said her experiment had required her to place her seeds (in gel) in a dark place, which she was sceptical about and said to him it didn’t work out well. Apollo agreed and suggested that next time she use a green house. Apollo then exclaimed, “ We have to put them in a sunny greenhouse!”

The group went to our recycling area in search of a greenhouse. It was evident there was a misconception about what a greenhouse was, because the children chose a green box to make into a greenhouse. Mrs Jensen then showed the children photos of real greenhouses around the world. The commonality Alice noticed was the glass (transparency) of a greenhouse.

Apollo suggested the group cut the sides of the box. Gursehaj wanted to fix glass in the sides. As a group the children went in search of glass in the recycling area and found…a clear plastic box. However, they still had a problem…they couldn’t find a lid they like. All the children mentioned they needed space so the plants would could without knocking on to a lid. Mark came to the rescue when he provided the group with a clear plastic box, which Apollo agreed provided a good space to grow.

Apollo and Alice secured the lid, while Gursehaj, Rosie and Mark searched for soil.

The seeds had an “odor” according to Apollo, but that didn’t stop our scientists from planting the seeds. 

Gursehaj, Mark and Rosie took turns to add the soil when Rosie suddenly became very excited, “Yay, the worm will make it grow with pee and poo!” They had found a worm in their soil and were now confident their seeds would continue to thrive. Alice noted that when placing the seeds in soil to place them away from each other…” We need to keep them separated otherwise they would grow too big.” Mark then provided water for the seeds. The scientists then placed the ‘greenhouse’ on the window sill for the sun to help the seeds grow. I wonder what will grow!

Pint Sized Environmental Stewards - they're back!

Ms. Putt's Grade 1 class, along with Ms. Kutschenreuter's Grade 5 class showed their commitment to care for their campus and picked up litter this week.

Many students were surprised by how much was collected. Max from 5NKu said, "At first, when we went out there, we didn't really notice much rubbish. But as we had a closer look, we managed to find a lot. We ended up with four boxes worth."

Some unusual discoveries included rotting flip flops, a coffee mug, and lots of plastic.

Ms. Putt's class in particular is always on the look out for litter on campus and they do a fantastic job tidying up litter that they find.

 

UWC Dover Food Waste into Energy

We have recently begun an innovative pilot project with Singapore's National Environment Agency to collect food waste on Dover Campus.

Instead of being sent for incineration and landfill the waste is taken for Biodigestion and conversion to Biogas Energy at an experimental plant at Ulu Pandan.

Contamination of the bins by other recyclables, wrappings etc puts the project at serious risk as the Biodigester will malfunction.

Please help us by disposing of any food scraps from your lunch in the red bins shown in the video.

And remember to put your yakult containers, juice and milo boxes, P.E.T plastic bottles in the light blue recycling bins.

If we are successful, this pilot project may be rolled out across Singapore...so many thanks for helping us make UWCSEA a leader in Sustainable Development.

Say No to Rhino Horn!

by Angela Turner, Grade 1 Head of Grade

Today Jennifer Fox taught the Grade 1 students a lot about rhinos, their role in their 

habitat, threats to their species and what can be done to protect them. If you would

 like to know more, please attend Jennifer's presentation advertised in recent 

eBriefs and below.

We are ambassadors for rhinos and elephants!

Rhino Revolution - How to save the rhino from extinction

Wednesday, 17 May, 3.30pm, Multi Purpose Hall

Below is an extract from a poster from a recent Royal Geographic Society of Hong Kong lecture, given by anti-poaching campaigner Jennifer Fox:

The Royal Geographical Society is pleased to welcome Jennifer Fox to speak on "Rhino Revolution: How to Save the Rhino from Extinction”. In this lecture, well-known banker, safari lodge owner and anti-poaching campaigner Jennifer Fox speaks on the rhinoceros. Following an introduction to why rhinos are special, including their ecology, she talks of the present poaching crisis and how to stop it.

Rhino Revolution: How to Save the Rhino from Extinction

In the talk, she assesses the present situation for the rhino and other major wildlife of 

Africa, including the elephant. She talks of the very real threat from poaching and why 

action is needed immediately. She discusses what is being done about it on the ground 

in Africa plus, equally importantly, what is being done on the ground in Asia. On a 

positive note, she explains how everyone is able to help and what can be done by 

individuals to make a difference to the situation.

Jennifer will be repeating her How to Save the Rhino talk at UWCSEA on 

Wednesday, May 17 at 3.15pm in the Multipurpose Hall. All are welcome. 

Please join us for this important talk.(RSVP Here. Poster)

Civet Cat Talk in Grade 1

Civets in Singapore

By Angela Turner, Grade 1 Head of Grade

Towards the end of April Grade 1 students had a visit from the 

Cicada Tree Eco-Place. Vilma taught us about Common Palm Civets

 or 'musang' living in urban Singapore. If you would like to learn 

more, you may like to join the following event 

MAD for Musang! for kids with Cicada Tree Eco-Place, 23 Jun (Fri).

Grade 5 at Pasir Ris Beach for a Clean Up

At the end of April, all nine Grade 5 classes ventured to Pasir Ris beach for a clean up. This action connects with their current Unit of Study and was a powerful hands-on learning experience for many students. Not only did the students feel proud of their accomplishments, they also realized how much rubbish finds its way to the beach. Throughout the tuning in process for the upcoming Expo, the grade students watched videos that taught them about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, among other current issues in the environment. Only once the students went out to the beach did they make a very real connection with the urgency of keeping our waterways pollution free. After some classes graphed the items they collected, they were most surprised to conclude that styrofoam was among the most prevalent item littering the beach. Collectively, students collected hundreds of small pieces.

Grade 5 Composting with visitors from NUS

Grade 5 students finished their daily compost collection and shared some how to tips with our neighbours from NUS.

This week, in the garden…

Some of our K1 students have been wondering about creepy crawlies and things that grow. In small groups, the students visited one of our worm farms and they learned about how these special worms break down fruit and vegetable peels and turn it into valuable fertiliser for our school gardens. The worms are Malaysian blue worms and they are used for vermicomposting. Some of the students were very brave and picked up a very wriggly worm and giggled as it tickled their palms. One worm even leapt out of a student’s hand and landed on the ground. Who knew that worms could be so athletic?

The worm farm has a number of layers and the first layer is where we leave the food scraps. The second layer is where the ‘castings’ collect and the third layer is where the ‘worm tea’ collects. The castings and the tea are produced by the worms, after they eat all the fruit and veggie peels that the K2 and Grade 1 students feed them. The castings and tea contain lots of nutrients that our plants need, so we pass these along to the Incredible Edible Garden group to put on the garden beds.

The next stop was to explore the edible gardens to see how eggplants, dill, kafir lime and basil grow. It was great fun to try and guess what all the different plants were. The K1 students were very clever and could identify the banana trees. They saw a banana flower and how it developed into a whole bunch of smaller bananas.

Photos by Rekha Jansen

Earth Hour March 25, 2017

What is Earth Hour?

Around the globe, millions of people, businesses, and landmarks set aside an hour to host events, switch off their lights, and make noise for climate change action. This year Earth Hour is at 8:30pm on 25 March 2017. 

Click here for more information

Click here for Earth Hour in Singapore information

Grade 1 Assembly

Tips on how to water the plants

Grade 3 Water Warriors teaching their classmates

Many thanks to Clare Willis (Grade 3 teacher and budding movie director) for putting together a very informative training video for the grade. 

Grade 1 students, the 3Rs and Worm Composting

Ms. Kutschenreuter is the Primary Environmental Stewardship Coordinator at Dover campus. She visited the Grade assembly and was impressed that Grade 1 students already knew so much about caring for their environment.

The students talked about the 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. They also sang along with the video about going green. Ms. Whitehead's class have been helping with a worm composter and feeding the worms fruit and vegetable peels for the past couple of months. The students were excited to touch some of the worms and intrigued as to how they broke down banana peels into soil. They also learned about ‘worm tea’ and how it helps plants grow.

We're going green... 

Grade 3 Water Warriors helping our Incredible Edible Garden group

As you might imagine, the blazing sun in Singapore can make plants on our campus quite thirsty. While we do get a lot of rain, there are times when our gardens need a bit of extra help. Grade 3 have just started a whole grade environmental service where they water some of the plants in our edible garden patch.

This initiative is a great example of collaboration amongst different grades at UWCSEA. Students in the Incredible Edible Garden extra curricular activity meet every Monday and Wednesday to plant and maintain the garden. The Grade 3 classes rotate on a roster to water the plants on Tuesday and Friday mornings.  By everyone giving a little bit of their time, the plants in our edible garden will thrive.

Today, some members of Mrs. Daniel's class marvelled at how quickly the water disappeared in the pot where the young papaya plant was growing. Who knew that papaya's were so thirsty. Another student was very excited to discover how eggplants grow and was meticulous in making sure she didn't forget to water any of the plants.

Incredible Edible - growing vegetables on campus

This year (2016-2017) our vegetable growing has stepped up a gear. We renamed ourselves Incredible Edible, after the network in the UK which works to promote healthy living through vegetable growing. There are now two Services a week (Monday and Wednesday). We have a determined group of High Schoolers who have taken on this Service for the whole year. They are working as leaders for the Middle Schoolers - 10 students have just come to the end of a two season service, and on Mondays, Mrs Lane leads a group of Junior School students. 

We have two vegetable growing areas - one on the roof by the Heritage Cafe and one by the Science Block. We are learning what grows, what gets eaten by bugs, what is drought resistant and heavy-rain tolerant (Singapore weather is tough on plants!). Students get to recognise problems and how to solve them, they learn how to grow from seed, how to propagate and tend plants - and eventually, how to harvest. 

They work incredibly hard (that's why we call ourselves Incredible Edible!), and are learning to work as a team and to spread the word about these vital skills through running a stall at the Holiday and Community Fair.

Check out our posts on Instagram - our account is #inceduwcsea - please follow us!

Pint Sized Environmental Stewards

As they make their way to the Infant buses at the end of a busy day, Grade 1 students from Ms. Putt’s class stop to pick up any litter they come across. Armed with little buckets, these pint sized environmental stewards are embracing our college mission and doing their bit to take care of our school.

For the past four years, Ms. Putt has integrated this activity into her students’ daily routine and they are an inspiration to the rest of our campus.

Eco Rangers in action.

Eco Rangers are a group of dedicated Grade 4 and 5 students who are passionate about sustainability and the environment. The students in the ECA meet every Thursday to plan and implement a variety of exciting initiatives for Dover campus.  Their actions focus on promoting sustainability, helping the environment and enjoying nature.

Just before the end of Term 1, the Eco Rangers presented in Grade 4 and 5 assemblies, encouraging Primary School students to be mindful of food waste and share the message “take what you can eat and eat what you take.” In collaboration with Sodexo’s ‘Waste LESS Week’, the Eco Rangers collected 130 pledges on the playground and promoted awareness for minimising food waste. In addition, the Eco Rangers appealed to the Grade 4 and 5 students to donate a non-perishable food item to Singapore’s Food Bank, to benefit those in need. Students were very proud to make a difference.

In 2015 785,500 tonnes of food waste was generated in Singapore, which amounts to a shocking 21, 520 trolleys each day!

(Source Waste Statistics and Overall Recycling NEA December 2015).