Bangkok students take on global warming

This excerpt comes from the essay Together we can save the world, written by Chayanisa Sanehluxana, a 13-year-old student from Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning. The essay won the school's "Defeat Global Warming with Wisdom" contest.

 

The school project helped her to understand the environmental causes of global warming, through the "learning by doing" method.

Surat Thanprasertkul, the teacher in charge of the project, said project-based learning is a key approach the school uses to educate the students.

"We use the theory of Constructionism initiated by Professor Seymour Papert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] Media Lab, which, we believe, can create a lifelong learner."

At the school, students from different ages learn together through a variety of projects. They are divided into three major groups including Kindergarten, New Learners and Intermediate Learners. Before the school closes for holidays, the students and facilitators will brainstorm on what they want to learn and research for the next semester. The facilitator will group students who have the same interests together and plan for activities to support the learning process.

''Students learn every subject from the projects they are interested in. Since our school has three semesters, the students will do three projects a year,'' she said, adding that students will learn where to get data, how to select useful information and analyse it.

 

 

Ms Surat explained that the school has facilitated the learning process based on the ''three R's'': Recognise, Research and knowledge Release.

Students learn to recognise environmental problems and the importance of saving energy from the workshops and field trips to mangrove swamps. Then they pick out topics that interest them and conduct research in the classroom, while teachers act as facilitators.

In the ''doing'' process, students will learn directly from experts and bring what they've learned to the group to discuss with other students with support from the facilitators.

''While they are performing activities, students learn the basic management skill of PDCA: Plan, Do, Check, Act, which is widely used in business,'' she explained.

In the learning process for the global warming project, five secondary students were selected to present their research at the Globe International Conference, organised by the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology. To demonstrate their understanding on the subject, the students were asked to present the knowledge they gained to other students by producing a media and slide presentation.

 

With their integrated knowledge, the students also invented things to save the environment and prevent global warming, such as a garbage tank, art from recycled products, a model city with a pollution elimination system and environmental games.

They also studied carbon dioxide (CO2) credits, the impact of temperature on Bangkokian's emotions and CO2 emissions from private cars and public transportation in Bangkok.

Two of their inventions, the public submarine and the jumping frog bag were winners in the Honda Asimo Super Idea Contest 2008.

 

The public submarine is an alternative transportation proposal for Bangkok. It uses clean energy called biomass that won't add more pollution.

''If we can make it real, my submarine can reduce the use of petrol and reduce pollution in the canals because the biomass will produce oxygen which will be partly released into the canals,'' said nine-year-old Ratchata Chatabut about his invention.

The other prize was given to Patraporn Thongplengsri, 13, who was inspired to invent a jumping frog bag to help students and others who carry heavy things. The bag is designed to jump with water energy which will later produce electricity.

''There will be emergency buttons in front of the frog so we can call parents when there are safety problems and there's also space for a first aid kit in case of an accident,'' Patraporn said, smiling with pride.