by Viola Buck
As a school that values sustainability, GESM continues to find ways on how our students can contribute to the solutions concerning our environment, using the skills and knowledge they are learning from school and home. Our school aims to make learning authentic where our children can apply what they are learning to solve problems and be positive change makers.
With this, GESM has partnered with One Earth One Ocean (oeoo). oeoo has produced the 1st solar-powered catamaran that recovers and recycles trash from the oceans and rivers. oeoo aims to free our oceans from pollutants such as plastic and chemicals. We all know that this can't be done just by solely cleaning up the ocean - part of the solution is to educate people about ocean pollution to have an understanding that we have to do our part as responsible global citizens.
The non-profit organisation originating from Germany requested to partner with us for the development of their educational toolkits/materials. GESM being a German school abroad and also being a school that values sustainability is in their top list together with some high-performing Science schools in the Philippines. To help facilitate the process to raise awareness about plastic pollution and the circular economy, oeoo got Asia Society for Sustainable Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) onboard, another non-profit org that focuses on sustainability and impact studies, to put together their educational toolkits.
We are proud of our students and teachers who took part, as the 1st school in the Philippines, to assess and evaluate oeoo's educational toolkits. The discussions were one of a kind having teachers who are Scientists, champions in sustainability and experts in Primary and Secondary education. It was also great to have representatives from Holcim PH to facilitate the feedback evaluation workshop. The most valuable feedback? From our Grade 2 to 6 students. Amazing to hear the thoughts of the younger generation and how they feel compelled to do their part taking care of our planet. Super work, everyone!
