Our 5th - 8th grade students participated in an interactive environmental forum Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The environmental forum was hosted by Samsung Engineering at Seoul National University and was called “Global Youth Environmental Forum.” The students had a blast!
The second lecturer was Korean film star, Ricky Kim, who was born and raised in Kansas, USA. He spoke to us about life in the jungle and what it's like to survive without our modern day necessities and how important it is to respect the world around us and the energy and sustenance that the earth provides us.
The first morning we listened to three lectures promoting a healthy environment. Our first lecture was about "100 Ways a Cell Phone can Kill You" and our students enjoyed this lecture so much. They learned how much radioactive energy a cell phone has and the ways that disposing of a cell phone can hurt the environment. One of our students from 5th grade, Tami, asked "Is keeping a cell phone for a longer time period better for the environment?" Our speaker told Tami he made an excellent point and that we should start focusing on utilizing what we have and not the flashy marketing gadgets that are today’s fads.
In between the first and second lecture we had lunch in our sessional groups where we met the other international school students who were attending the forum. Or students were split into three groups and mixed with different age groups and students from around the world. The students worked with these groups for the rest of their stay with Samsung.
After lunch we went back for one more lecture from a professor of Yonsei University about the preservation of wetlands in the world. He spoke about how they are a delicate ecosystem that provides us with several resources and animal habitats. He asked that even though there are not bogs and wetlands located in Korea that we remain active for this valuable part of our environment.
The student’s then separated from us for their sessional activities. As we observed from in and out of the classroom the students had a blast! The three groups, over the two days participated in the following activities:
· Watched a movie called "Solar Taxi" which was about a man who travelled all around the world exploring 40 different countries and their environmental wonders.
· Watched Environmental animations on ways to spread the word about caring for the environment.
· An interactive game hosted by Samsung representatives where they asked environmental questions and the students, in teams, recorded their answers on white boards
· Presentation of environmental activities to their peer group of 20 groups. The RIS students who presented were: Burak Saglam, Mutahar Chaudhry, Saud & Abdulrahman Al-Otabi, Jerry Yeh, Joshua Seo, Nora Al-Shubrami, Mohammed Algussa, Amina Chaudhry, and Salma & Tami Al-Hajri
The second morning saw lectures on “Global 180◦,” “Economy and Environment,” “Water is Life” and “Ecology and the UK.” All of these lectures emphasized that we can improve our environment if we do small things every day. Our economic needs, fashion wants and social crazes are destroying our environment and we need to change how we live in order for us to save the earth, who provides us with an amazing habitat.
Samsung also videotaped both days and Savannah Al-Hindi, Mutahar Chaudhry and Tami Al-Hajri took hold of the microphone and asked a few questions themselves! Rock on! Saud Alsaqour and Jeny Kim were chosen to recite a “Water is Life” poem in front of the 400 participants in English and Korean.
The students learned so much from this experience and they are already thinking of ways to make R.I.S. more eco-friendly and improve their environment.
Good job guys!
More Photos about Forum...
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