Earth day 2021
DAIS extends the Earth Day celebrations for a whole week, with a range of activities based on 'SUSTAINABILITY' as the theme.
Every year the DAIS community celebrates Earth day to highlight the need to work towards and create awareness about environmental protection. This year too, DAIS extended its celebrations from 19th to 23rd April marking the event with a range of activities based on the year's theme - SUSTAINABILITY. These activities were planned to engage students from LKG to grade 11. The entire event was student-led, teacher-guided and was designed to create awareness and highlight the need for sustainable living. The online platform provided an effective avenue to reach out to the whole school and convey the message and spirit of Earth Day in an impactful manner through engaging, enlightening and innovative activities!
PRIMARY SCHOOL :
The students of the Primary School engaged with Earth Week through informative and educative videos about the three R's and the impact that children can have on a sustainable tomorrow. The students participated in art and craft activities like creating stationary holders using recycled cardboard boxes and toilet paper rolls and played a game of bingo that helped them understand the need to make small changes in their habits and live sustainably, e.g.- closing the tap while brushing teeth, switching to bucket bath, using both sides of a paper etc. They also learnt about sustainability through a song and dance about Earth Day! Discussions in the primary classes helped students share ideas and opinions about the need for recycling, ways to make lifestyle changes to help conserve our environment as well as simple strategies that can be incorporated in our daily lives to reuse and recycle old household items. As a part of their reflection, students shared anecdotes that inspired them to undertake tasks towards conservation, with one such story being about a man who created a band by making instruments out of the waste in garbage dumps.
MIDDLE SCHOOL :
Students of Middle School learned about renewable and non-renewable sources of energy in a creative way through a Minecraft Lumen Power challenge. They explored this educational tool to learn about the exploitation of resources through mining coal, diamonds and graphite. The activity helped them reflect on the real life impact of human exploitation of the Earth's natural resources on the ecosystem. This was an innovative and engaging activity which sparked discussions on how individuals can create larger impacts on the environment through their actions. Through fun games such as Mad Libs and Taboo, the students learned about the importance of a sustainable lifestyle in reducing the devastation caused to the earth by human activities. The students also wrote poems and reflected on the sessions using Padlet, promising to actively spread awareness and educate people about the need for lifestyle and large scale changes like conserving our natural resources.
SENIOR SCHOOL :
The students of the senior school explored sustainability through invigorating discussions on the UNSDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) and how they would incorporate the spirit of Environmentalism through sustainable action. The students worked collaboratively on making videos for Earth day by writing lyrics, composing music, singing and creatively expressing the need to protect our environment.
They also engaged in activities that lead to discussions and finding solutions towards environmental issues through interactive games such as spin the wheel, mad libs, taboo and trivia which helped to further engage them in raising awareness about sustainability trends around the world. Additionally, they expressed themselves by engaging in activities such as poster making and participating in quizzes which garnered the skills of collaboration and communication to showcase the need for a united front to lead the movement on sustainability and preservation of the environment.
Sustainable Solutions: Appropriate E- waste and Plastic waste:
In order to raise awareness about the compelling need for appropriate waste disposal, the school invited keynote speakers from two NGOs - Mrs. Rintu Rathod from the Food Army, who spoke about plastic pollution and Mr. Ashish Pandey from Ecoreco who shared the issues arising due to E- wastes. The speakers detailed the cause of the issue, how their organization was attempting to tackle it and how students play a key role in spreading awareness on the hazards of these kinds of pollution and wastes.
Power of one- Environmental Summit:
As a concluding session of Earth Week, DAIS and the SAI International School collaboratively hosted the "Power of One Summit", a two day virtual event, on the 23rd and 24th April, 2021. Aimed at raising awareness about the power of every individual in safeguarding the Earth and practicing sustainability, this event was led by students of Grades 10 and 11 from both the partner schools. It was attended by over 24 schools from the South Asia and Gulf Region, and included around 150 participants.
For the Round Square Student Body, this experience was unforgettable. They worked with teachers and students across the school and subjects. They planned and executed a range of activities across all the levels of the school with the aim of spreading awareness on the theme of sustainability creating fun yet novel experiences.
They were successful in inculcating the value of nurturing the planet among their juniors by overcoming all the challenges faced on the online platform of learning. The Student Body, along with the endless guidance and support of Miss Manisha and Miss Pratima worked tirelessly to make this event a success.
The Student Body:
"Just having the opportunity to plan something for the entire school was amazing. Brainstorming activities from Class UKG to Class 11 took a lot of effort, but was so much fun. It was a great way to see the entire school come together to celebrate Earth Day 2021."
- Rajveer Batra (RSSCC)
"It was an incredible experience to be able to work with and cater to students of all ages, and being able to spread the message of the importance of Earth Day in such a unique way was an amazing opportunity."
- Dhaniti Parekh
"Being able to plan and celebrate such an important event with students from across the school was a wonderful experience. Though our aim was to spread awareness about Earth Day and sustainability, we also learnt a lot through this process and were able to progress in becoming better-informed and sensitive citizens to meet the needs of the world today."
- Ananya Mittal
