School Climate Challenge projects (a May 2009 review)

Next is my review on beginning of May 2009 on the four projects done by 4 teams of SMAK 1 BPK PENABUR Bandung. The environmental-themed projects, called School Climate Challenge (SCC) was initiated by the British Council Indonesia. Deadline: today, June 7th, 2009.
Also find in my REVIEW for the 4 projects put into blogs/website for much more complete articles and updates, including WOW! comics, youtube video links on global warming and facebook links:
http://www.bpkpenabur.or.id/en/node/4941
The SCC blogs of British Council Indonesia:
http://schoolclimatechallenge.wordpress.com

REVIEW
The British Council Indonesia, in collaboration with Ashoka Foundation, National Geographic and Pandu Pertiwi, held an environmental project called the Climate Challenge for high school students nationwide. Their website is, respectively, www.britishcouncil.or.id, www.ashoka.or.id, http://nationalgeographic.co.id/ and http://www.caretakers4all.org/.

Since February 2009, the British Council Indonesia has also launched their blogs at http://schoolclimatechallenge.wordpress.com/ and their facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/people/Scc-Indonesia/1531114087. Two of the noble purposes include involving the teenagers—1/3 of the Indonesian population below the age of 18—to take an active role to save the earth and giving the community an economic benefit as resulted by the teenagers’ actions.
The four teams have sent their application form and their proposed projects. Team A and B are supervised by Mr. Teguh Santoso (English teacher), team C by Mr. Hanky Purnama, and team D by Ms. Anna Mey Hasian Sinaga (Geography teacher). In mid-February 2009, the British Council Indonesia committee sent the email, informing the four teams of BPK PENABUR Bandung have been approved to continue their project until early June 2009. Since then, necessary steps have been taken, such as some briefing by the teachers, some data-collecting, an interview (and one coming interview with one of the British Council Indonesia partners above) as well as frequent text messaging (sms) to encourage each other about these wonderful efforts to help save and protect the mother earth, particularly from the global warming and the climate change.1

What have SMAK 1 BPK PENABUR Bandung teams done so far? You can click at http://www.bpkpenabur.or.id/en/node/4941, in which on April 28, 2009, the four blogs/website have existed, namely:

Team A (Brigita, Erlangga, Hizkia, Michael)
http://teenforgreen.blogspot.com/

Team B (Andi, Ben, David and Stephen)
http://forest-mywaymyworld.blogspot.com/
English version
http://english-mywaymyworld.blogspot.com/

Team C (Osgar, Daniel, Merry and Johnny)
http://www.freshearth.webs.com/

Team D (Erlina, Queency, Rolamjaya, Stephanie)
http://paper-saver.blogspot.com

It is interesting to take a look at the contributions made by the four teams. For instance, team A defines what global warming is at http://teenforgreen.blogspot.com/2009/04/definisi-global-warming.html, and suggests the use of the biodegradable matter and avoid, among others, the overuse of plastic bottles, which can last for 70-450 years to be degraded! Wow! Therefore, minimize the use of plastic bottle and (supermarket) bag, and if possible, use the recyclable/ eco-friendly paper bag. Team A further explains about the use of air-conditioning (A.C.) substance, called freon. Some are hazardous to the ozone, some other types are eco-friendly. Click: http://teenforgreen.blogspot.com/2009/04/freon-ramah-lingkungan.html. Hopefully, they have got time after the pre-Final exam to hold some mini research on SMAK 1 students’ use of A.C. in both their house and cars.

Comic from team B, on the other hand, provides great illustration and articles, though it was started in May 2009, after long meditation. It’s a joke, of course. Please browse here: http://forest-mywaymyworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/update-comic.html. It supports the awareness of minimizing the leak of the planetary air. One wonderful thing is that at this team B’s posting of May 9, 2009, they took part of it from Scientific America May 2009, and provided the Indonesian translation for broader range of readers. An exclusive interview with Principal Ms. Boniwidiati Bunjamin revealed the school support for the paper saving as well as the electricity saving until the coming 1,000 tree plantation. See: http://forest-mywaymyworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/interview-with-smak-1-bpk-bandung.html. Team B even went further to elaborate the importance of the reefs to the global warming.

Team C tried to present some tips on helping to reduce the threat of global warming, such as some efficient use of paper, and electricity, a bit similar to those in team A, and suggests a come back of using a handkerchief, instead of spending tissues processed from trees. This way, more and more trees are not cut, and of course, become the earth’s giant lungs. In http://www.freshearth.webs.com/ there is a shocking figure, i.e. the leak pipe of water may spend 200 gallons of water a day at home.

Finally, team D attempted to create a polling of their own on how much paper one used. They also warned us of the threat to humanity as taken from a source http://www.austrianinformation.org/volume-59-julyaugust-2006/2006/9/15/climate-change-a-threat-to-humanity.html. It is such a relief that the teenagers, like those in team D, avoided plagiarism on the environmental article by quoting the source.

Well, June 7th is the end of the competition period. What can you do for those teams, readers? Why don’t you drop by their blogs, and website, and leave some supportive comments in them. Wish the SMAK 1 BPK PENABUR Bandung students to do their best, not for the sake of getting nominated for the top environmental projects, of course, but also for the noble purposes of saving our beloved land. Our Earth!

Teguh Santoso
A Year X (regular class)
Year 11 (accelerated class)
and Year XII CIP English teacher
SMAK 1 BPK PENABUR Bandung (2008/2009)
Blogs: http://sirteguh.blogspot.com