#50 – The Honor Code: Changing From Inside Out
American School of Brasilia, Brazil
Room 749
Essential question:
Can mutually agreed upon character values provide a safe and inclusive school environment and can these values transcend the school context creating a generation that is better equipped to respond diplomatically and peaceably in times of crisis?
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Workshop Description:
The essential question considers the possibility that change towards more peace in the world begins internally and in our communities; thus, the workshop we will be presenting will focus on the process of the creation and introduction of a student written honor code. We will share the positive changes that EAB’s Honor Code has already had on our student body as well as the immense potential for implementation of honor codes through partnerships with other schools. The presentation will be activity based, starting with a sticky note brainstorm in which students share their assumptions regarding the purpose of an honor code and list the most valued character traits that should be included in an honor code. This will be followed by a brief PowerPoint to introduce key components in student honor code creation, based on our personal experiences. Students will then collaborate using whiteboards to discuss the benefits of universal value agreements and how they apply in real life situations such as peacekeeping diplomatic conflict resolution. We will also share examples of other schools’ honor codes and provide take-home handouts with our Honor Code will close off the workshop.
It is our hope that after leaving our workshop participants will be determined and inspired to implement moral values in themselves, in their school communities through an Honor Code, and in the world beyond.”
Plan for Sustainability:
“As Ghandi said, “”Be the change you want to see in the world.”” The purpose of the honor code at EAB is to start with ourselves to make a change in our own school community that will extend into the local community. From the foundations of the EAB Honor Code in student-led collaboration, we believe that the Honor Code has the potential to take root at the American School of Brasilia and educate the student body to behave with respect and integrity. Although it is relatively new in the school, efforts to integrate it have already started: plaques and posters throughout the classrooms and hallways serve as reminders, and students commit to uphold the Honor Code before every graded assessment as a signal of the trust that faculty and students have based on the values in the Honor Code. These plans are only the beginning for implementation within EAB. For example, there are plans to integrate the Honor Code values into activities such as athletics and other school activities. Our group will continue to evaluate the honor code and make changes to improve its implementation into the fabric of our school.
In order to expand its scope beyond EAB, the Honor Code student group is working to establish partnerships with other schools in Brasilia with the hope that after presenting our Honor Code and sharing the differences it has made among our student body, they too will adopt a similar strategy and recognize the importance of sharing a unified code of values. We believe that when students themselves create their own honor code, they will take it seriously and will incorporate the values of the code their whole lives, and these individuals will take part in a world as educated and respectful adults with compassion and integrity, who will work for diplomatic resolutions in times of conflicts, work with integrity in times of corruption, and with compassion in times of crisis.”
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#51 – Maritime Safety and Pollution
Lincoln School, Argentina
Room 734
Essential question:
How can pollution in bodies of water affect our planet?
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Workshop Description:
How can pollution in bodies of water affect our planet?
Plan for Sustainability:
We will be keeping our project sustainable by essentially having a beach clean up every year. The way this will keep our project sustained is because every year at our school there are hundreds of new students, therefore we will be raising awareness to new people all the time. People come and go so hopefully we can get people that leave our school continue the project in their new one.
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#52 – The Happiness Project
Colegio Franklin D. Roosevelt, Peru
Room 742
Essential question:
How can we develop happiness in the 21st century?
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Workshop Description:
Our group name is Kusikuy, which means happiness in quechua and we chose this name because we want to embrace our community. Our name pretty much sums up our goal: we want people to learn techniques to lead a happier life. We have executed various amounts of research and have come up with the most important aspects one needs to consider in order to live happier. For example, we are going to teach mindfulness, the importance of “flow”, how to train our brains in order to make our actions change our thoughts and simple tips to reduce anger, stress, etc. We are planning on implementing projects to show people ways to achieve happiness. One of them is going to the albergue Frida Heller and talking to the children about the importance of being happy, having a spark of hope and smiling. We will as well be using Laughter Therapy on this visit and have activities which are smile boosters. On the other hand, we have carried out talks (and plan on giving more) to our community about mindfulness. We believe that having a positive outlook towards life and learning how to be happy is one of life’s incredible gifts we all deserve.
Plan for Sustainability:
We are sure that our impact will be sustainable because let alone our good intentions, our purpose is to make our community and world happy, so we will stick to our plan and pursue our mission. Happiness is a mystery which has been tried to get solved since ancient greek philosophers lived, and it is our duty to keep on with this journey. We will create a club for people to join so that we can later on carry out more projects and we’ll continue doing research and interviews. We will establish long term connections with the kids we meet will, always saving a day every couple of weeks for them so that we can bond and make a stronger impact. We will also create a youtube channel, where we will post mindfulness videos, happiness tips, interviews of philosophers, inspirational videos and more. Kusikuy will not stop its journey, we will continue working on our knowledge and make sure that we can make an effect on our community.
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#53 – Leaving It Green
Santa Cruz Cooperative School, Bolivia
Room 746
Essential question:
What can SCCS do to create a greener environment for future generations? How can we change the word TRASH and replace it with OPPORTUNITY?
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Workshop Description:
Leaving it Green is a project based on the belief that the smallest changes can spark positive ideals towards having a greener environment and essentially, making the world a clean, filled with life, greener zone. Additionally, our team wants to transmit a message to everyone in the hope that people in school principally, should take care of this gift and pass it on, where everyone, including future generations can learn to appreciate the Earth. Leafing it a green is a project that will incorporate recycling into the school, replace people’s perspective about wasting things they think of as TRASH to a perspective that is clean and conscious about the importance of becoming a greener school.
Plan for Sustainability:
Several schools that had green projects in last year’s conference inspired us, therefore we became enthusiastic and motivated to do the same; upgrading our school to a greener institution seemed like a great opportunity. To make this project sustainable we will install color-coded bins that are impermeable, therefore making it difficult tor close to impossible to change to take out something that is locked in the ground. Besides that, we gathered committed members, including a junior to make sure that our project will be continuing next year with us seniors. At last, we created a permanent membership with a recycling company that will not only collect the wastes collected, but will actually pay us for it and although we do not make it for money, it was a great surprise to know that. We are very excited to make our school a better, more eco-friendly place.
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#54 – Color Run
Lincoln School, Argentina
Room 744
Essential question:
What would you do if you had an opportunity to study but none of the resources?
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Workshop Description:
Goals of this project include organizing a Color Run race for the Lincoln community to raise funds for Todos Juntos and SACS.”
Plan for Sustainability:
We plan to hold an annual, school-wide color run in order to raise resources and awareness for both our project and the issues that lie at its core.
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#55 – Plastic Elimination
American School of Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Room 745
Essential question:
How can the elimination of plastic affect our community and beyond?
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Workshop Description:
The use of plastic has been a controversial issue our modern society because of the negative effects that this convenient material possesses. We have been abusing the planet and the over production and use of plastic is a perfect example of how our technology based society has been destroying our ecosystems by favoring practically over sustainability. Many are not aware that the effects are not only environmental, but also social and moral. Plastic production is harming many poorer populations around the world, and that is being overlooked. It is such a current worldwide problem that needs to be solved, starting from small acts such as our project of plastic elimination in our school.
Plan for Sustainability:
We will continue to eliminate all forms of disposable plastic on campus and then work on extending our outreach beyond the campus.
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#56 – Tetra Trash
Colegio Alberto Einstein, Ecuador
Room 737
Essential question:
Why is it important to classify trash in the correct way in order to reduce it?
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Workshop Description:
Our group is called Tetra-Trash, it was form with the goal of creating awareness in our school community of how much Tetra Pack is consumed in our institution, and teach our piers how to dispose of waste effectively.
Plan for Sustainability:
We became the first school in our city to ever work together with a state organization named EMASEO, which is in charge of street cleaning, and proper collection and classification of domestic and industrial waste. This project allowed interaction between our school authorities, the school cleaning department, students and the city council through EMASEO.”
In this workshop we will show the process we implemented to reduce the amount of common trash in our school by discarding Tetra Pack separately, and the very positive results of the project.
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#57 – Food Consciousness
American School of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Room 743
Essential question:
How can we, as both a community and as students, change the way we view the consumption of food in order to change both the impact on and our attitude towards the environment?
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Workshop Description:
The aim of this workshop is to raise awareness towards the actions that occur “behind the scenes ” of our food consumption in relation to what impact these processes have on our surrounding environment. This workshop will explore the process of manufacturing our daily food items from ground to shelf and explain how the life cycle of our favourite cereal is far less charming than deemed. How much water is used to sufficiently nurture a regular crop of wheat? How much deforestation occurs in order to provide space for cattle? How much energy is used to transport food items though each part of the manufacturing process? All these questions and more will be asked and answered using interactive activities and in depth presentations and explorations.
Plan for Sustainability:
Our project is to try reduce the amount of food our school consumes in relation to how much food is wasted daily. We will also aim to reduce our carbon footprint by exploring options such as Meatless Mondays or simply reducing the amount of meat options in the cafeteria. Our project will also include exploration into the ideas of locally sourced food items and will aim to expand the usage of harvest from the school garden. Finally, we wish to reduce the amount of food wasted as a large food waste shows our cafeteria produces more food than needed, showing signs of eventual unsustainability; therefore our project also aims to produce ideas as to where this food waste can be reduced and ideas as to how we can reuse this food waste (recycling, food drives and so on)
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#58 – Green Printing
Our Lady of Mercy School, Brazil
Room 735
Essential question:
How to print consciously?
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Workshop Description:
Our project entitled “Cut paper, not trees!” consists in establishing a green printing routine in our middle school students towards the reduction of paper used monthly.
Since March 2015, the team has been tracking students’ paper consumption by thoroughly analyzing monthly reports from the software PaperCutTM. These data were presented to our students and staff members and individual goals were set monthly in order to develop a more conscious printing practice. A list of the 10 most important printing practices was compiled and transformed into a customized poster. Copies of this poster were displayed in the every classroom so as to constantly remind students of the green practices they should follow to accomplish their goals. Feedback on students’ performance was reported on noticeboards and role-models identified and awarded.
At the end of our project presentation, the audience will be will be entertained by an ice-breaker on following instructions and then engaged on a hands-on activity related to ways of reusing leftover paper.”
Plan for Sustainability:
By stimulating green printing, we reduce paper and ink consumption and consequently financial costs to our school community. We are substituting white paper to recycled paper, which is more expensive but more ecologically friendly. More importantly, we are doing our share preventing deforestation and preserving biodiversity.
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#59 – Eco Gardening
St. Francis College, Brazil
Room 720
Essential question:
How can we provide environmental education outside school?
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Workshop Description:
1. Explain our project and what we have done so far with the children at the public school
2. Play two videos about sustainability
3. Play the video about our project
4. Plant beans (in small coffee cups- individual) to further explain how it was done with the children at the public school and so that the audience can understand what/how the students felt throughout the project”
Plan for Sustainability:
We have been working at a public school trying to start build a garden at the school. Every week for 3 months we have been going to the school, and now to sustain the project the will will ask for help from the school teachers. The gardening teacher (also the biology teacher) at the public school is constantly working with us in order to help maintain the project. She gives us updates on what is happening with the garden and the children, and she will continue having after school activities (which were incorporated into the Biology curriculum) with them so they can maintain and continue to improve the garden.
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#60 – Bringing Joy to Sick Children
Chapel School, Brazil
Room 733
Essential question:
How can we bring joy to members of our community who are not as fortunate as we are?
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Workshop Description:
Our project was created to bring joy to kids who have cancer. We gather simple ideas like colouring, dressing up and take this ideas to a place called Casa Ninho. Casa Ninho takes cares of kids with cancer, and by going there we are putting smiles on the faces of those kids.
Plan for Sustainability:
Our intention when creating the project, was to have something that would last a long time, as we are juniors, we only have two more years in school. Our plan is to attend Casa Ninho and continuing helping for the next year, we already have dates to meet planned. In order for the project to continue after we have graduated, we are calling younger kids who are interested in the project to come along with us. Our goal is to gather as many people as possible so the tradition can continue.
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#61 – Social Media and Global Ambassadors
International School of Curitiba, Brazil
Room 738
Essential question:
How does Social Media impact positively a social movement, and in what different ways can it be used? How can we accomplish that with the Global Ambassadors program?
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Workshop Description:
In our workshop, we wish to introduce both the Global Issues Network Ambassadors Program and the work the GINterns have been doing with social media, to spread the word about the power of these tools in the GIN community. We will begin by introducing the ambassador program, explaining what it entails and how it will help both GIN as an organization and each student grow. After that, we will begin talking more about the social media aspect of this same program, and explain how the techniques presented in the GINterns social media presentations can be applied to any project. Finally, we will end off with an interactive activity on leadership building skills, to help distinguish leaders and give them an idea of what they might be doing if they apply for the program.
Plan for Sustainability:
To make our project more sustainable, we wish to promote a culture of leadership and development within the people attending our workshop and interested in our programs. Like this, we foster the creation of leaders who will go on to creating a better world for everyone, while keeping the project ecologically sustainable since we are doing all through the tools of the internet and social media.
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#62 – Poverty Alleviation
American International School of Kingston, Jamaica
Room 730A
Essential question:
What responsibilities do we have to others in the world?
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Workshop Description:
In this workshop our intention is to illustrate the difference in the quality of life of people between above the poverty line, and below the poverty line and how people and children can be left behind in society. This activity will demonstrate in a very real way just how a lack of resources will impact the quality of the education being delivered to students who attend schools that receive very little funding from the state or the private sector.
(Put a line of tape along the ground and ask each player to stand along the line (shoulder to shoulder). we will have three colors of index cards, such as red, yellow, and blue. There should be more yellow (or whatever color you are substituting for yellow) cards than any other color and only a few blue (or the substitution) cards. For example, if there are 20 participants, have 2 blue cards, 15 yellow, and 3 red. We then proceed to ask them questions about life (not relating to the player or his personal life). For example, if you have a red card then your family has 1 car, take one steps forward. )”
Plan for Sustainability:
“As a first step towards our goal of alleviating poverty, we focused on Jamaica, our home. We found there were several schools that lacked supplies due to low government funding and parents earning minimum wages. As such the school has urgent needs and we saw this as a fitting project to undertake. We especially seek to create a secure future for our vulnerable population, ensuring that children are not denied quality education due to a lack of teaching and learning supplies. Research has shown that education has been one of the major steppingstones for people of low economic backgrounds to lead a decent lifestyle above the poverty line.
As a team, we targeted a preschool within our own area and questioned the supplies that were needed to deliver quality education. Many teachers had requested whiteboards and whiteboard markers, as well as coloring books and markers, paper, play dough, toys and chalk. Other requests included toilet paper, hand soap and hand sanitizer. Please keep in mind this was a preschool where the earliest education for a Jamaican child begins.
In order to gain the necessary items on the list we had initiated a school supply drive to gain the help of the student body and staff of A.I.S.K. The school supply drive continues to be a success. As a continuation of this plan we will constantly supply the necessities for the preschool and initiate a coin drive for the purchase of these supplies. We will also target corporate Jamaica to make lump sum donations to our cause. ”
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