The event began with a school clean up day to mark the beginning of a week of activities through community action in their own neighbourhood. The international school students spent the morning picking up and sorting rubbish in the Nong Hoi community. They also participated in a second clean up on the Ping River the following morning on Saturday September 21st as part of World Cleanup Day.
Throughout the week of Sept 23-27th, the educational focus was on topics related to climate change. Teachers from all subject areas integrated themes of climate change into their lessons. For example, students in English class were looking at newspaper articles related to climate change and considered the reliability of sources, examples of informative language, and the effectiveness of persuasion. In Maths lessons, students worked with word problems around greenhouse gas emissions, while in geography learning was focused on the potential for increased food shortages, as global temperatures rise.
In science, lessons were devoted to researching and preparing projects for a Climate Change Ideas Fair on Thursday afternoon. The Fair explored climate change from a variety of angles ranging from the causes and impacts to political action and the Paris Climate Accord. There was a strong focus on individual and collective actions of the school community.
Finally, on Friday some of students and teachers participated in the climate strike at Thapae Gate where concerned citizens from across Chiang Mai joined together to demand action on climate change.
Many other lunchtime activities supported our students learning throughout the week including: a vegetarian potluck lunch for students and teachers, a clothing swap, a moment of silence for the lives lost to climate change, lunchtime sign and poster making for the strike, No Power Hour where no lights or air conditioning were used in the school to highlight the need for changing lifestyles and the collective effort that will be required.
Student representative council also organised a time capsule featuring a contribution from each class in the school. These included student pledges, songs, hopes for the future, and commitments for personal action to be buried in a tree-planting ceremony and to be dug up in 2030.
Together, the school hopes these events will result in students being well-informed about this pressing global issue. It wants to highlight the need for collective, as well as individual action, and inspire change in the school community and beyond.
