A Report on the celebration of World Environment Day

5th June 2015, in Sri Venkateshwar International School, Sector-18, Dwarka

 Celebrate the biggest day for positive environmental action!

Environment has become the most discussed issue, the world over. The day of reckoning that stares us, in the not so distant future, is real and cannot be ignored anymore. The world that we inherited is being senselessly destructed by a few vested interests and being pushed to the verge, unless a concerted effort is made to reverse this unpleasant path, it is hurtling in.

Nature has laid out an amazingly sensitive ecosystem. It is a finely balanced one that is incomprehensibly complex and needs to be respected in totality. It has a unique repairing mechanism which displays its resilience upto a certain point. Beyond this point the changes can be real and irreparable with catastrophic consequences. It is evident that we are hurling towards this point at a senseless speed. The only solution is to reverse this trend immediately. It is only then that we can give a world that is as beautiful, as when we inherited it, to our future generations. We at SVIS, have endeavoured to drive this point home amongst our students through various activities as mentioned, so that they grow up as responsible members of this ecosystem.

 Class I to V

Developing a nursery/ herbal garden in the school with the seeds or plants brought by the students themselves.

Sow a seed, sow a new life………………………..

Everything that lives on earth has a life cycle. A garden teaches children how a plant comes to life through germination. For this a fun activity on Germination of seeds was organized for primary class. Our young members were taught about plant life, that a plant starts its life as a tiny seed, the conditions required by a seed to germinate. Children sow seeds in disposable cups and after the seeds sprouted they took them out and created a primary orchid.

Identifying and listing of animals like Squirrels that play a crucial role in producing new plants.

“Plant a tree, plant a tree, so that…………………

Next generation can get air for free”

Considering the damage deforestation has brought upon our environment, we took this wonderful initiative to teach our children about tree plantation and germination. Besides children being aware of the process of planting seeds ourselves, we focused on natural pollination. We weaved a story using flash cards & took children for a nature walk where we interacted with them about pollens seen on flower buds and birds or butterflies being their natural carriers. Students immensely enjoyed this new learning and also got inspired that while travelling they too can scatter and spread seeds of eaten fruits on the non-green patches of soil. They understood the role and importance of other species like squirrels, birds, butterflies etc. in conserving and propagating our environment. So we summed up by taking a pledge to conserve our precious flora and fauna…

Slogan writing on ‘Save Your Planet’

“We celebrate all the gifts of the world and nature available to us. We recognize our complete dependence on its bounty. Sri Venkateshwarites acknowledge the need for good stewardship to preserve its fruits for future generation”. The school celebrates with great aplomb and enthusiasm, Slogan Writing Competition for classes III-V. Meaning slogans were designed and put up all around focusing on the importance of tree and how they are the lifelines. The productive work so produced by the students help in spreading the light of awareness amongst all. 

Classes VI- VIII

 Poster – making on the theme ‘Save Energy, Protect your Environment’

On 8th July 2015, SVIS organized a Poster Making Competition for the celebration of Earth Day. All children of Grade VIII participated with great enthusiasm. They exhibited their talent through their art work. The theme for the competition was “SAVE ENERGY, PROTECT YOUR ENVIRONMENT”.  The students expressed their ideas through color and writing, many of them using black for polluted earth and blue and green colors to represent eco-friendly land, accompanied with relative captions and slogans. It was a great opportunity to watch these young minds trying to create their ideas of a better environment on paper.

An elocution competition (3 minutes per speaker) on: Renewable Sources: the energy sources of the future

The Inter-House English Elocution Competition was held with great enthusiasm and zeal on Wednesday, July 8th 2015.  There were 24 participants in all with four from each house. The topic of the elocution was ‘Renewable Sources: the energy sources of the future’. The Elocution not only showcased and strengthen the communication and oratory skills of the students but also helped them understand the importance of renewable resources. The participants were well prepared and the flawless rendition signified perfect diction, intonation and expressions. The competition gave a lot of encouragement and confidence to the speakers and all present there .The event was culminated with a few words of encouragement by the Principal Ms Nita Arora followed by the results. Education is not only academics but it goes much beyond academic excellence, it is the overall development of a child .The competition gave such a platform to the children by enhancing their speaking skills and by giving them an opportunity to speak confidently in public.

A group activity to create some new things out of waste

 With the intention of creating awareness on waste management action for conserving the environment through reusing and recycling, Eco Club at SVIS organised an activity “Best out of waste”. Recycling and reusing the valuable waste material can result in development of fantastic and usable products rather than putting these waste materials into the landfills, various innovative and creative ideas can be put together to being something new and useful. It also helps in generating the awareness and building the attitude to take up activities in real world, enables the students to give this creativity & innovation a shape, reduces the destruction of forest & other eco – system, helping the society and nation in conserving our nature, keeping our planet a much safer place for coming generation and developing the sense of using ecosystem.

Classes IX-XII

 Essay writing on ‘Role of Wild life Sanctuaries in Conserving Wild life’

The SVIS students of standard IX-XII enthusiastically expressed their views on Role of Wild life Sanctuaries in Conserving Wild life on June 25, 2015. The essays of the students demonstrated the concerns and queries of the students regarding the conservation of wild life. Many essays entailed the awareness of facts and figures too. The wild life conservation efforts in India were impeached by many in their essays. The role of wild life sanctuaries in protecting the endangered species of flora and fauna was stated significantly. The goals to keep the species continue living were expressed unarguably with clear moments of truth and relevance. Few essays displayed emotions and aggressions which clearly bring out the emotions and concern towards the environment. It was an illuminating and learning session for the students.

Organizing a seminar on ‘Natural Disasters, their Prevention and the ways to Combat Them’.

“We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge; so many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.”                 -  Petra Nemcova

Natural disasters need no introduction! Some of these pompous earthly creations emanate from the skies and bear the name of meteorological disasters, while others are hydrological, taking birth from the river waters. Their first cousins have formally been termed climatological and geophysical. ‘Prevention’ of cataclysmic events, like earthquakes, tornadoes and lava erupting from the inferno are beyond the capability of humans. What is feasible is the creation of plans through which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards & cope with disasters. Disaster management does not avert or eliminate the threats; instead it focuses on creating plans to decrease their impact. Communication, training & preparedness for the emergency help to mitigate the devastation caused by such calamities. Thanks to the exponential expansion of human intellect over the past century, we can combat epidemics. Drugs that counter pathogens should be made available to even the most vulnerable of the society, which are usually the poor and marginalized. Most diseases arise due to contact with wildlife, via road building and agricultural expansion. In order to reduce the risk of an outbreak, we should minimize contact with the wild world. 

Organizing a debate on ‘Organic farming is better than Conventional farming for our environment’.

The debate on the topic ‘Organic farming is better than Conventional farming for our environment’ was organised for class IX on July 9, 2015. Students participated with great enthusiasm and expressed their views with utmost confidence. Students brought forth the message that the organic story is larger than just the healthy benefits of clean, nutritious foods. Organic farming, whether tomatoes, grapes, cotton or flowers help protect our environment- it’s that simple. And at the same time they gave us food for thought as well.