Students take action against climate change

Recycle, Reuse, Switch off, Turn down and Walk - these are the five main themes of an EU-funded project that Canon P. Pullicino girls Secondary School of Rabat, together with a Portuguese and a German school, have recently embarked on to raise awareness on climate change and the little things we can do to combat it.

During the two-year Comenius project, entitled "Taking action over climate change", the students are dealing with questions such as what is causing climate change, how the ever increasing population, consumption, and global industrialisation contribute to pollution that causes the phenomenon, how it is adversely affecting the world, including Malta, and the small things that everybody can do to prevent it.

Students at the three schools are conducting research together and individually, and every Wednesday morning during school assembly, two students present the findings to their classmates.

The schools are also engaging in activities to help the students realise that everyone can do their little bit to help combat climate change. Besides collecting used paper and recycling it, our school has participated in a seed-sowing activity in our school garden. This was carried out in collaboration with Rabat council who kindly provided us with free pots and peat.

The students have begun craft activities to make recycled paper and objects such as candle holders and woven baskets from used plastic bottles and newspaper respectively. This activity will enable the students to see how easy, cheap and enjoyable it is to reuse products in such a creative and evironment-friendly way.

These objects, together with relevant charts and drawings, will be proudly displayed in the main school area as well as on the school Website to share with the Portuguese and German students.

Our students has conducted a visit to Wied il-Qliegha (Chadwick Lakes) to observe both the rich diversity of plants and trees as well as the unfortunate water and land pollution caused by human activity. Other activities taking place are talks and an exhibition by Waste- Serv Ltd.

Corinne Cilia, project co-ordinator, and Ann-Marie Bartolo, a participating teacher, recently represented the local school at the first teachers' meeting held in Portugal. There they decided on the project's aims and to conduct two surveys among students in each country - one at the start and the other at the end of the project - to evaluate their awareness about climate change.

As an ice-breaker at the project's start the students introduced themselves to each other by sending to the other participating schools boxes containing information about their school, a group photo signed by the participating teachers and students, as well as literature, postcards and souvenirs about the respective countries. All the students were delighted to receive the other schools' boxes.

We also hope that the activity will also increase teamwork among students and improve their self-esteem and confidence.