Year 9 CAS Day 20th April 2007

Whilst others were talking about World Earth Day, ISB was doing.  The whole of Year 9 marked the day by taking part in a range of Eco-friendly projects.

One group was inspired to turn the school’s pond area into a wildlife reserve.  The first stage was to remove all the wildlife that called the old pond home, and store them safely until their new home was ready.  Then they drained the pond, enlarged it, and replaced the old worn out liner.  The whole area was then landscaped with both aquatic and semi-aquatic plants.  Once the pond has been refilled the local inhabitants will be introduced to their new home.  This is a most welcome project, as students form the youngest right up to IB use the pond as a learning resource, and now it is a much nicer place to spend time learning.  We would like to thank Mr. Glover for his time and expert guidance in making this such a successful morning for the students.

With one eye on the future another group were designing and building bat and bird boxes which will be placed in the pond area, in an attempt to further increase the bio-diversity that the school campus supports.  These boxes can then easily be transported to a more permanent home once ISB moves to its new campus.

It was a tough and physically demanding day in the hot sun for the next group who put into practice what had been learnt only the day before at the Government tree nurseries.  They planted the first saplings in ISB’s very own tree nursery.   This task was completed with the generous assistance of RBA.  In about a years or two’s time, these saplings will be ready to transplant to a more permanent home.

The final group of students were inspired to provide a visual reminder to all visitors to the ISB school of the fragile nature of the planet, and the extraordinary range of life it supports.  Students designed and then painted murals on an environmental theme, as well as the ISB Re-cycling centre.

The best part of the day was that the drive and inspiration for these projects came from the students themselves and not their teachers.