Teck Ghee YEC Environmental Awareness Project - Soap Making Workshop


The YEGs attended a soap-making workshop, on 4th September 2010 from 10 to 11am at Teck Ghee CC organized by the Environmental Interest Group,Teck Ghee YEC.






The aim of the workshop is to provide a platform of outreach to spread the message about the importance of recycling and waste minimisation to students and teachers.


The objectives of the workshop are as follows:

a) To increase the participants’ understanding on the impact of recycling instead of disposing waste cooking oil on the environment.

b) Through a hands-on session, they will discover the process behind the formation of soap.


Ms Lok trying out soap making with the YEGs.








Materials used for making soap from waste cooking oil.







The YEGs hopes to spread the skills they have learn to the rest of the students in 2011.

Community In Bloom Award

Mayflower Secondary School YEG garden was ranked Silver in the Community in Bloom (CIB) Award 2010. Here Mrs Ess is holding the award with two YEGs, Jeremia (left) and Gordon(right)






The YEGs are responsibel for the awards. Credits goes to them




Here are some information about the CIB.
(Source: http://www.thegovmonitor.com/world_news/asia/singapore-community-in-bloom-awards-2010-entries-up-by-45-35340.html)

Community in Bloom Awards 2010 saw a 45% increase in the number of participating gardens this year compared to the previous year.

A total of 279 community gardens took part in the biennial competition, organised by the National Parks Board (NParks) to recognise and reward excellence in gardening efforts by community groups in public and private housing estates, educational institutions and organisations.

NParks received 193 entries in 2008.

Since the awards were started in 2005, the total number of entries has been increasing for every year it was held. Organised for the fourth year, the awards also saw an increase in participation in each category.

There are in total 124 entries from public housing estates (80 in 2008); 23 from private housing estates (17 in 2008); 83 from educational institutes (47 in 2008); 49 from organisations (31 in 2008.
The awards was presented to the 279 gardening groups during the Singapore Garden Festival 2010 at Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre in July.

Mdm Faridah and Mr Mark Cheng also took the opportunity to visit the Singapore Garden Festival where they gather ideas to make improvement for the YEG garden.






Mdm Faridah considering the possibility of expanding the orchard garden in school.

NEA Central Regional Office and Central Singapore CDC invited 3 representatives from Mayflower Secondary School to attend the 6th Central Singapore Public Health Forum 2010 held on Saturday, 26 June 2010 from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.













It was held at the Singapore Islamic Hub, 273 Braddell Road Singapore 579702. The Guest of Honour was Mr Heng Chee How (Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office) and the host was Mr Zainudin Nordin, Mayor for Central Singapore District








Our students learned some interesting facts about littering in Singapore from attending this forum.








Here are their reflections.

Ng Lin Jie

After attending 6th Singapore Public Health Forum, I felt that something must seriously be done to ensure Singapore's reputation of being a clean and green city.

Through this forum, I discovered that 4 out of 10 people in Singapore litter. This is a serious problem as the figure shows that 40% of people in Singapore litter which means that 2 million out of the 5 million living in Singapore litter.

With this statistic, we Singaporean need reflect seriously as this suggest that if we do not have any cleaners, we would be living in the condition worse than that of a squatters or a slum.

Just imagine Orchard Road being dirty. Would anyone still like to shop there?

My friends also litter. They said that it is the cleaner’s job is to clean, so by littering, they are helping the cleaners to keep their jobs.

But do they know that $30million are spend every year to keep Singapore litter-free?

Imagine if we do not hire these cleaners for 10 years, we would have had $300million by now. We could have spend these on heath care or education, which to me are more important.

I learned in this forum that there are more Singaporean litter-bugs than foreigner litter-bugs which means that Singapore cannot entirely blame the foreigners for littering in our city.

We should learn to stop littering as hiring cleaners is only a short term solution. When India become more develop, the workers would be unwilling to sweep the floor for us, just like how Singaporean are unwilling to sweep the floor even in our own country.

Therefore when the time come, we can only depend on our self. As Singaporeans and as human beings, we should play a part in keeping our environment clean as we must realize that we are not the only species that are living in this world. The other species did their part by not littering, with the exception of letting out some poo here and there. Every living thing in this world deserves to live in a clean environment, so we should also play a part in letting this happen.

Jeremiah Chan Kok Li

In order to solve our littering problem, we must first find the source of it before we can rectify the problem.

One of the problems identified is the failure of the parents to instill good habits into their children’s life for example throwing your litter in designated rubbish bins. This is probably because most of our parents born in the 60’s era were brought up with the mentality that it is alright to dispose their rubbish anywhere they like. At the same time, it may not be a culture in some foreign countries to dispose their rubbish properly. As the saying goes “Like father like son”, the children follow after the footstep of their parents, be it good or bad.

Therefore, to rectify this problem, we must first educate the public about the serious health hazards that can be brought about by improper disposal of rubbish and the serious consequences that follow after it in order to maintain a clean and green Singapore.

Dennis Tan

I found today event was very entertaining and enriching. Today's presentation focused on Anti-Littering. It aim was to prevent littering in public places by adding more bins employing more cleaners to clear the litter. However, the problem still persist, therefore, today a new Anti-Littering campaign called "Do your part don't be a litter bug" was launched.

NEA’s target is to Increase more bins and improve the design of bins. For example, ash tray have been incorporated into the design of the bin as smokers have a hard time finding ash trays in various places to throw and so they litter out of inconvenience.

In addition, an even stricter enforcement will be implemented such as the corrective work order and targeted education so as to educated younger generations about the problem with littering.

There was a short debate session involving students from AJC and the theme was "Singapore is clean because of its army of cleaners".

From this event, I feel that the education of the young generations is also vital in changing the mindsets of our young citizens so that they do not become litter bug.

Two Environment Champions from Mayflower Secondary, Loic and Dennis attended the Environment Champions (EC) Networking Session (Secondary Schools), organized by the Raffles One Earth Club and the National Environment Agency (NEA).

The EC Networking Session is a platform for ECs from different schools to come together, network and interact.







During the session, EC were able to share their ideas and best practices with each other, which stood them in good stead as they plan and implement environment initiatives in their respective schools.

Details of the event

Venue: Raffles Institution (Junior College)

Date: 29^th May 2010 (Saturday)

Time: 8.30am to 4.30pm

Loic making a presentation during the networking session.

Dennis turn to make his point.

Our YEGs were at the GreenFest environmental sharing@Ri on the 23rd April 2010 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Our YEGs were there to promote the use of Shoo Mozzie, the 100% organic insect repellent.

Loic speaking to a teacher from the Global Indian International School.

Sharing, networking and just having a fun time.

Our YEGs.

One for the road.

Loic presenting the work of YEG to the participants at the environmental sharing.

Macus, Jeremiah and Loic handling the Questions and Answer session.

Green Day@NIE

The Green Day@NIE was organised on Tuesday 16th March 2010 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at UiD Level 1.

Minister for Education, Dr Ng Eng Hen,planted a tree at NIE just outside the Student Hub on to celebrate NIE’s 60th anniversary!

As part of GreenDay@NIE and in line with 2010 being the United Nation’s International Year of Biodiversity ( see http://iyb2010singapore.blogspot.com/ ), the NIE Green Club presented an array of fun and educational activities which include the following highlights:

- A Reverse Vending Machine for recycling placed at the Student Hub from 15th March to 22nd March. Feed cans, plastic or glass bottles to the machine and receive a sticker for every item recycled.

- Green activities by a group of students from the School of the Arts (SOTA) and Mayflower Secondary School. Mingle and chat with these students to learn more about their green projects.

Our YEGs Gladys and Brenda were there to show case Shoo Mozzie.

Here are their reflection.

I went down to the National Institute of Education with my friend Brenda last Saturday, to promote an organic, eco-friendly insect repellent, as well as updating on what my seniors have done to help reduce carbon footprints in the atmosphere.

In total, we have sold 14 bottles of Shoo! Mozzie on Saturday. I was shocked when some people made the trip down to NIE just to give positive comments about the insect repellent's effectiveness and even encouraged others to purchase the Shoo! Mozzie.

I have learnt a lot from the trip. Schools like School of the Arts, were present too, several interesting posters documenting their Pangolin conservation in progress and sculptures in the making.

Besides the School of the Arts, the Green Club also demonstrated a magnificent way of recycling plastic bottles into flower pots. Furthermore, promoting the development of Kampong quotient and mentioning of Surabaya service-learning trip which took place a few years ago.

Minister Ng Eng Hen graced the occasion that day. Not only did he take his time off to look at the various presentations we prepared, he also planted a tree outside the NIE's Students' Hub.

If I am not wrong, they are going to measure how much the tree have grown in terms of height and volume, in a decade's time. Personally, I have learnt alot from this event, specifically on how to help save the environment.

Prof Vilma, from the NIE and Mr. Jabbar, were a great help that day. Mr. Jabbar taught me how to use this simple device (made out of a protractor, plumb line and a straw put together) to obtain a rough measure of the volume, and height of a tree.

In the Students' Hub itself, I spotted a peculiar machine right beside my booth. Then I realised it is a machine that recycle plastic bottles! And for every plastic bottle recycled, you will be rewarded with stickers. Once you accumulated a certain amount of stickers, you can redeem prizes like an eco-friendly bag.

It was definitely a rare experience, down at NIE, and I have no doubt enjoyed myself there. Knowing how each and every little thing you do might affect the environment, and ways to help conserving the nature is very crucial, especially now, when parts of the world are facing serious global warming cases.

I really do hope everyone will do their part in saving Earth. Such small acts like turning off the air-con when it is not in use and reducing the usage of disposable chopsticks can help save the environment. We should start to realise the effects done to the environment, and start turning back, before it is all too late.

And this is the reply from Prof Vilam

Hi Zuraidah, Jabbar & Green Club, students from Mayflower and SOTA,

What a great showcase of eco-living and green activities! I was very impressed with the layout of exhibits and displays, games and information sharing at today’s Green Day at the Student Hub of NIE. I am very proud of you, Green Club! I am sure the Minister and my colleagues were impressed as well. Thanks for showcasing the meaningful activities the Green Club is doing—recycling plastic bottles into pots, measuring height and girth of trees and promoting the development of Kampung Quotient (Minister passed well, I understand). It was also great that you shared about your Surabaya Service-Learning trip which happened a few years ago.

Thanks very much to Mayflower Secondary School—girls, you did a wonderful job of promoting organic herbal insect repellent and selling Shoo! Mozzie… yaay! Many thanks for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed meeting the Minister and our colleagues. Many thanks, Frances!

SOTA students, Kheng Kin and Shihui—lovely posters documenting your pangolin conservation project in progress, and your sculptures in the making. Thanks for taking photos—we’d love to have them. I hope the students enjoyed meeting Minister and his entourage as well as interacting with our colleagues.

Herwanto and all clubs—many thanks for your unwavering support—for being there. Please thank the clubs for us.

Happy Green Day! Switch off those aircons when you can : ) And never ever use disposables… use the eco-stick : )

SEED of CHANGE

This is an exhibition created by SGI and the Earth Charter Initiative and first shown at WSSD (the World Summit on Sustainable Development) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 2002.



Sixteen colorful panels give an introduction to sustainable development, the role of education and the Earth Charter as a set of values and principles for a sustainable living. Shown in 17 countries by 2006 and available in English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic language versions.


The "Seeds of Change" exhibition is often held by local SGI groups in cooperation with other NGOs, schools or community groups.

Mayflower Secondary was honoured to be able to bring this exhibition to our school as part of the activity for Humanities Week 2010.


The students have time to discuses issues like sustainable development, deforestation and climate change.






A group of students collected reflection from other students after they have visited the exhibition.






Students writing down their reflection about their views on how they can help to save the earth

The Youth Environmental Guardians (YEG) has established a good partnership with Cicada Tree Eco Place (CTEP), an NGO since 2008. For more information about this exciting NGO please go to their website http://www.cicadatree.org.sg/


















The YEGs were at the Environmental Education Advisor (EEA) Networking Session at Nanyang Girl's High School organized by the NEA on 6th February 2010 to promote the Shoo Mozzie which was developed by CTEPand produced by Mayflower Secondary School.





Our Sec 1 YEGs from 1E posing for the camera
























The Guest of Honour was Mr Tan Wee Hock,Director 3P Network Division, National Environment Agency.





Yes the Shoo Mozzie really work.













YEGs sharing with the teachers about their work in saving the environment.


























The YEG also spoke about Chek Jewa and shared their concern about protection it as a nature park.

There's a place in the sun where there's room for everyone...

Where is this place?

Can it be found in Singapore?

How do I go there?

A group of Mayflower Secondary School students visited this place last year.

Do visit this website to see what they were up to.
http://sites.google.com/a/mayflowersec.edu.sg/mayflower-chek-jawa/it-s-a-mangrove-world/mangroves-at-chek-jawa


Meanwhile, another group discovered this beautiful place last Saturday.
For more information about their trip please go to this website
http://sites.google.com/a/mayflowersec.edu.sg/mayflower-sungeibuloh/home

If you like a walk in the park or find a place in the sun,you may like to check out the following two Living Earth Walks organized by Cicada Tree Eco Place.

LIVING EARTH WALKS

Chek Jawa Intertidal Walk

On days when the tide recedes to 0.5m and below for at least two hours, the intertidal flats are revealed. The fascinating animals that can be seen close up include sea stars, sea cucumbers, sand dollars, octopuses, anemones, corals, crabs and many more. Besides these, the beauty of Chek Jawa is that there are six different ecosystems in that small area. Come and discover and learn more about the diverse array of animals that inhabit these unique habitats with Uncle Joe and National Parks Board guides.

(We have booked this limited guided tour conducted by National Parks Board and there will be extra charges for this walk.)

Date:

Monday, 29 March 2010, 3.00 pm

DURATION: 3 hrs.

Trails: Wooden boardwalk. Earth paths, some parts with gentle slopes. Sandbar. Footwear that cover the entire feet are recommended.

Walk fee: $25 per person (adult or child), minimum 6 years of age, excluding the bumboat ride and mini-bus ride to Chek Jawa. The bumboat ride is $2.50 per person one way. The mini-bus ride is $4 return per person to and from the main village. Minimum 15 pax for walk to go ahead.

LIVING EARTH WALKS

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

This wetland reserve is now a resting and feeding spot for migratory birds. But it also hosts a fantastic diversity of native fauna and flora. In the past, the area had several kampongs (villages) with the locals tending to vegetable and fruit tree plots. Many of these fruit trees and traditional herbs still survive and may be encountered along the trails. The people also constructed fish and prawn ponds in the mangroves. These are now used by the birds.

Date:

Monday, 15 March 2010, 4.00 pm

DURATION: 2 hrs.

Trails: Level dirt paths and boardwalks suitable for children, the elderly, disabled or participants using wheelchairs.

Walk fee: $13 per person (adult or child), excluding park entrance fees.

Minimum 20 pax for walk to go ahead. Minimum age of 6 years.

Park entrance fee is $1.00 for adults, 50 cents for children.

Advance registration & payment is required.

Registration:

Email Celine Low at contact@cicadatree.org.sg

For more information on Living Earth Walks, please visit our website: www.cicadatree.org.sg

Asia Humanitarian Forum

On Friday and Saturday, 15-16 Jan 2010, a group of YEGs participated in the Asia Humanitarian Forum(AHF) held at the National Library. "Organised as a public educational platform to promote humanitarian and environmental causes to the masses" (www. asiahumanitarianforum.org), the YEGs were very excited to be part of this inaugural AHF which featured film screenings, green activities, talks and exhibitions by many organisations and NGOs.

As summised by the organiser of this event, "

Many in the world are apathetic and dispassioned about humanitarian and environmental needs beyond their comfort zones. The AHF hopes to fill this social gap. Through talks, workshops, and exhibitions, it aims to reach out to the masses with the urgent message that we are all called to be stewards of Planet Earth and that we need to look out for and attend to fellow world citizens who are suffering from conflict and living in poverty, without social justice, and with little or no access to medical aid. "

For more information, do visit their website at http://www.asiahumanitarianforum.org/

The YEGs also collaborated with Cicada Tree Ecoplace and proudly displayed two photo exhibitions! The first was to share with visitors eco-living and how everyone can practise "green habits" right at their own home!

The second, was to educate the public of the beauty of Chek Jawa by introducing its rich ecology and habitat. They were inspired by Mr Joseph Lai, a member of Cicada Tree Ecoplace who shared this knowledge with them during their fieldtrip to Chek Jawa last year. The YEGs also took great pains to highlight the on-going tussle between the rising call to defend this special wetland and the pressing need of land for development to contain Singapore's rapidly increasing population.

The seniors also patiently coached and practised oral communication skills with their juniors, giving them immense courage to approach members of the public with copies of the "Chek Jawa Chronicles" (painstakingly written by pure geography students) and bottles of Shoo Mozzie.

They creatively transformed themselves into "walking advertisements!"

New members of the Youth Environmental Guardians. They are young, excited and full of spirit.

They confidently approached members of the public and gamely shared the "Chek Jawa Chronicles" with them.




For more information about Chek Jewa please go to this website
http://sites.google.com/a/mayflowersec.edu.sg/mayflower-chek-jawa/
A soft copy of the "Chek Jawa Chronicles" is also downloadable from the website.

For more information about Cicada Tree Eco Palce please go to this website
http://www.cicadatree.org.sg/

The YEGs will also like to specially thank Auntie Sylvian for accompanying them to the National Library as well as giving them tips on how best they can decorate the booth! Thank you Auntie Sylvian!