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 : )