In spite of the current global pandemic, Fairgreen International School is keeping students busy throughout their remote learning experience.

The first sustainability-focused school, located in The Sustainable City, is continuing to implement a curriculum that incorporates sustainability in all its forms, with a variety of virtual e-learning projects to celebrate Earth Day.  Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22, which demonstrates support for environmental protection.

With a focus on sustainability embedded into its curriculum, Fairgreen is providing virtual fun-filled ways for their students to design, create and build, whilst supporting the wellbeing of the planet and educating them to be future leaders.

Create a Piece of Land Art

Land Art is a form of art that uses natural resources to make artwork. The famous land artist Andy Goldsworthy is a committed environmentalist whose artwork is made from natural material that either exists temporarily in the world until it is washed away by rain, blown away by wind or erodes gradually over time. Fairgreen Art Teacher Sarah Clarke has asked her students to create their own land art using whatever natural materials they can find in their gardens, such as stones, fallen leaves, flowers or twigs (nothing picked or cut from living things) or using natural materials they may have within their homes, such as food grains, shells, flowers, plants. Students are thinking about textures and colours and considering pattern and balance in the composition of their designs.

Set Up a Home Composting System

To address food waste and to encourage people to grow their own food, which is a focus of one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ‘Responsible Consumption and Production,’ Fairgreen’s STEM Teacher Aimee Thomas tasked her students to come up with a project addressing food waste. Many have chosen to set up their own home composting systems to organically fertilize plants. Students researched how to set up their home composting systems, began to utilize their systems, and even started planting and growing food from the scraps and cuttings coming out of their composting systems.

Campaign for an Environmental Cause

Fairgreen’s MYP students have been focusing attention on topics that address a variety of Sustainable Development Goals. They are looking at the importance of maintaining biodiversity; studying human defence systems to infection and the development of drugs and vaccinations as responses; and learning about the process of biomagnification and how toxins in contaminated air, water, or food affect a variety of living organisms as these contaminants move up the food chain in progressively greater concentrations.

Students have chosen to highlight one of the issues they are learning about that affects the Sustainable Development Goals by creating posters, starting online campaigns with friends and family, or recording video arguments. The project is their way of campaigning for an issue that really matters to them, such as the protection of animals, the need for the development of drug treatments and antibiotics, the importance of vaccinations, or why it is so important to reduce pollution in the environment.

Make a Bug Hotel or Build a Bird Feeder

Recognizing the role insects play in our ecosystem, Fairgreen students created bug hotels as an environmental awareness project. They learned how bug hotels can help develop the ecosystem of a garden by helping to attract a wider range of insects and wildlife. Using recycled materials found in their homes, students made prototypes of their own bug hotels to feed insects and provide a safe home for these creatures. In the same spirit, students designed and built bird feeders using recycled materials and placed them in their yards or on their patios to improve the environment for local birds.

“It’s a perfect time to reflect upon how we’re living on Planet Earth, and what we can all do better to preserve our natural resources and raise awareness of environmental issues, especially those at the heart of disease spread and control. We love that our students care deeply about sustainability-focused issues and that they feel accomplished producing work that contributes to improving our world,” said Mr. Graeme Scott, Director, Fairgreen International School.

As the region’s first fully sustainable school, Fairgreen’s educational programme is driven by academic achievement and innovation, offering a curriculum that incorporates sustainability in all its forms. The school’s campus in Dubai’s Sustainable City provides the ultimate learning environment for future generations to play a leading role in building a sustainable future. Designed to have a minimal environmental impact, the school is powered by solar energy, recycles water for agricultural use, and utilizes the community’s biodome for health and wellness learning experiences. For further information on Fairgreen International School, visit www.fairgreen.ae