The Ecology of a New Campus

 

A few weeks ago Dr. Hudson announced that clearance and demolition work on the new campus site at Ampang Hilir is already underway. The new campus will feature 25.7 acres of purpose-built campus that will be a beacon for quality international education. It will be not just a school, but also a shining example of sustainable practices in energy, water and resource use. The campus is being designed with Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI) Platinum rating in mind. From an “exceptional education meets sustainable design” standpoint it is exactly where want to be in the coming years if we’re building a future based on responsible global citizenship. 
But such developments, no matter how visionary, do not come without cost. One such cost is that of the natural assets that currently exist on the site that, understandably, need to be demolished so that the new campus can be built. There are approximately 250 mature trees existing on the site. There are also numerous small homes and their corresponding garden spaces along with the animals that find refuge and food there. So how does a school with a sustainable consciousness co-exist with the fact that nature will be impacted for our school’s expansion? 
To address that, we have several simultaneous conversations going on that will, hopefully soon, become reality. A survey of the new campus space has identified seven frangipani trees that will be removed, maintained and then replanted onto the new campus. Mr. David Perrau, the Director of Project Operations, indicates that 14 trees will be re-purposed on our new campus by turning them into sculptures and or utilitarian elements (e.g. tables). This use of place-based resources will be augmented by the use of bricks of present homes that can be utilized to highlight aesthetic appeal of the new campus and reduce waste. Beyond that we are currently in conversations with the Global Environment Centre, a reputable NGO, to create an “adopt an acre” type program that will replant a substantial number of trees over a five-year period in an area of high ecological importance. ISKL has participated in tree plantings at The Raja Musa Peat Forest over the years but the partnership currently in process would be larger in scope. It will take a while for our planting to reach the carbon sink capacity of the mature trees on the campus, but planting that many trees at the Raja Musa Peat Forest would allow for an expansion of land that has major ecological benefit, from acting as a water sink for KL and providing a home for many species or animals and plants. 
Once our new campus opens the ISKL community will, no doubt, feel its pulse and recognize the sustainable nature of its design and function. It will serve as an example of the interaction of building space and learning experiences and will feature things such as solar energy, recycling, composting, reuse of water, cooling slabs, passive light maximization and green spaces for study, observation and appreciation. We envision a harmony of building, learning and sustainable design. We expect students to partake in behaviors that, supported by design, will limit the impact on the ecology of the space while simultaneously forming an excellent resource for integrated study. But we will also have a new school “forest” where students can study how it grows, how it works and an example of how schools can change the world. With good planning - which has characterised everything about our new campus - the relationship between the history of our school and the regeneration of natural ecosystems could be the perfect fit. And who knows? Hopefully, with the passage of time, those trees (and any trees planted after that) will grow large enough to be of greater carbon benefit than even the beautiful space we will soon call home.

Starting off with New Programs!

Hello to one and all from the Sustainability & Service Learning Office. By now, hopefully, a semblance of routine has found its way to your home. The new year brings a great many new initiatives/events on the sustainability and service learning front and, as is not customary, this article will do it's part to communicate what our students and community are up to in this regard. 

The second day back for our teachers was taken, in part, by training in service learning modalities and concepts. Cathy Berger Kaye spent four days with us providing training to all our faculty and a select group of student service leaders. It was a great initiation to what we hope will be an action-packed year of sustainability and service learning. 

The year also brings with it a new Middle School program in which we hope to engage our students in independent community involvement through the use of the service learning process. The program, nameless until our students find an appropriate name, will focus on documenting and highlighting things our MS students are doing outside the realm of their classrooms but that are none-the-less learning experiences in their community. 

At High School we are welcoming a new course: Global Issues, Local Solutions. The course is intended as a venue for students to pursue action-based learning to address sustainability issues. The course, coupled with the re-introduction of a Global Issues Network club should pave the way to a greater opportunity to address authentic learning. 

We are also taking our first baby steps to creating a Global Issues Network (GIN) program in the MS too. Though in the past we've participated in such events at other schools we are planning to host our first Global Issues conference (on a small scale) in February, largely based on our Global Issues classes. 

On a sustainability front we have created an Operational Sustainability Committee this year which will include all sorts of stakeholders, from our finance department to our facilities to cleaning staff, cafeteria vendors and transport office.  The idea, of course, is to bring everyone "to the table" so to speak, and identify ways that efficiency can be increased while ensuring operational sustainability.  

Our elementary school too won't be left behind. Typically service learning is alive and well at Melawati, but this year there are higher expectations of service learning in all grade levels. 3KD, in particular, will be using "water" as a consistent theme and participating quite extensively in the Eco-Schools programs, of which ISKL is a Green Flag school. 

Wow. That's a lot of new things starting up. Add them to an already extensive list of happenings, and you've got yourself a busy place. More to come as the year continues!

The Numbers and the Heart: 2014-15 Wind Down

Those fortunate enough to be at graduation last week will have listened to the excellent graduation speech by Michael Ortiz, a HS math teacher (who will serve as IB Coordinator next year), who focused on the "hidden curriculum" of what really matters in growing and learning. His point, regarding how much that matters is not often documented is an ever-present one. Like most things both education and life can only be 'defined' in part with numbers and data and the like. Much of it, though, lies in less-definable elements such as the heart, disposition, growth, where evidence can be much different. So too, is the case with ISKL's sustainability and service culture. 

The numbers will say this:

Indicator	Ampang	Melawati	Change from 13-14 (Total Amounts)
Water (m3) *	+ 0.5% (12,519 m3)	-37.8% (11,763 m3)	-21.7% (24,282 m3)
Electricity (kWh) *	+ 3.9 % (2,158,352 kWh)	- 8.0 % (984,657 kWh)	+1.6% (3,143,009kWh)
Paper (# of copies/prints) *	-0.6% (2,272,284)	-15.5% (689,050)	-4.5% (2,961,334)
Carbon emissions from ISKL flights (tonnes of CO2)			- 16.0% (1200 tonnes)
Recycling (kg)			+3.5% (11,027 kg)
Composting (kg - estimated)			+14.6% (17,045 kg)

They will say that, overall, ISKL has done a reasonably good job in moving toward being a more sustainable school. They will say that Melawati fared better than Ampang in that regard. They will also tell us that we recycled more, we composted more, we used less water (and fixed some leeks). But they won't talk about the heart, the disposition or the growth of our students. 

For that one needs to speak to children and ask them what they've learned. One has to see what they've accomplished. To recognize that during the course of the past two years over 100 service related initiatives have been taken on. Students have assisted with relief efforts in disaster affected areas and/or difficult political circumstances. In the process our students have learned about the challenges of being change makers. They have worked with communities in numerous less-developed areas and, in doing so, recognized how much "stuff" they have in comparison to others, but also that material things matter less in different circumstances that they might have originally thought. They have provided support in building homes for those who cannot build their own and recognized what is truly important in shelter, family and community. They have assisted with refugees and learned that the world is not always easy for people who have done no wrong. They have worked on bringing back the environment and realized how difficult it is to do so when monetary priorities imply that nature is less beneficial to an economy and, by extension, to a society. And yet, despite these seemingly massive obstacles, they still work and plant and teach and build. 

These are the "unwritten" learnings that our environmental indicator data cannot reveal and are hard to gauge. But they are there and they are necessary. For if we want out children to grow and be empowered to make the world a better place, to be the global citizens we want them to be, then all these things - the data and the learning - are important to set the course to a more sustainable present, and future. 

What a wonderful year it's been!  Our children are one year older, and wiser still. They are more capable of making change and, as the Melawati Way puts it, ".. taking care of each other and taking care of this place". Have an enjoyable summer, everyone!

Children & Nature, Together.

 

This week was a good one for going out. The weather was warm, but not overwhelming. The rain was on holiday. Around a small bend, below the Klang Gates reservoir, a small stream was starting it's journey past the first few houses and onward to the Klang River and beyond. It was the perfect time to get kids outdoors - our third graders to be exact. 

This was their second trip there, to the clean waters or the small stream. The groups were smaller than previous visits and this gave it a different feel. It was the feel of being visitors, not tramplers. It was the feel of seeing, not being seen. It was quieter and friendlier and more authentic. 

The students were joined by a number of parents (thank you!) and their teachers, participating in Earth Echo's World Water Monitoring Challenge which allowed them a bit more time to analyse, observe, discuss and assess the state of this small habitat from a scientific perspective. The students took water temperatures, tested for sulphates and phosphates and pH and all that fun stuff, entering their data into their worksheets.

Miraculous things happened. They were awed by the dragonflies. Talked about the fish darting this way and that. They put their feet in the water and removed things that didn't belong there. They observed the woodpecker knocking away at the tree above them. They noticed the color of the water (or lack thereof). In short, they were engaged in nature, pure and simple. Even when they were not "on task" they were part of it. 

Richard Louv, a renowned writer about children and nature who wrote Last Child in the Woods, highlights the positive relationship and long-term benefits of children in nature. Among other things his research (and blog) highlights, time and time again, both the immediate and life long benefits of child-nature interaction. 

Louv would have approved with the experiences of our grade 3 students this week, but perhaps not as much as the the children themselves approved. They seemed well adapted and very content in this environment, and happy too. As it should be. 

Sustainability "by the numbers"

ISKL's sustainability initiatives are many and varied and are often publicized as they involve the essence of our being: Our students. What is perhaps less publicized (though the data is available on the Sustainable ISKL website) is the environmental indicator data that we use to inform decisions going forward from a structural standpoint. The latest data, from last semester, reveals the following:

• Through January 2015 we have used the 2,100,000 kWh of energy on our two campuses for this academic year. This is nearly identical to last year's energy use (59% of last year's total with 58% of the year metered).
• December 2014 we have used 1.916,000 sheets of paper on our two campuses for this academic year (49% of last year with 50% of the year metered).
• Through January 2015 we have used the 16,100 m3 of water on our two campuses for this academic year. For Ampang this includes a large increase (68% of last year's total with 50% of the year metered)

A quick check on the EPA carbon equivalencies calculator (here) will indicate that our school's energy use for this time period generates carbon emissions equivalent to 519 tons of landfill waste and would need 37,130 seedlings grown for 10 years to sequester the same amount of carbon. 

Those might seem like high numbers, but they are part of a downward trend . Since 2009, when our environmental indicators started being tracked (somewhat unofficially), our water and paper use have come down by close to 30%. Energy has been rather consistent but this too is viewed as a success given that our school population has increased markedly (along with programs) in that time and we have increased our reliance on and use of technology. 

But, as with any change, the easier adjustments have been made and we are coming to the proverbial plateau.  As the light at the end of our new campus tunnel starts to shine a bit brighter it is a good time to recognize the collective power of design, technology and human behavior and make the necessary adjustments for a more efficient future. 

What is perhaps more exciting is the involvement of our students in the analysis of data, future projections and the offering of a plethora of possibilities. Students. Data. Facilities. Community. Interacting for a future we all want.  

Putting the "Eco" in School

It's not often the breeze picks up so it's perhaps a bit hard to recognize the green flag that sits along side our school flag on each campus. It's our "Eco-Schools" green flag. When it waves it's a clear sign that we do much at ISKL to study, appreciate and support local efforts at sustainable development. 

Thankfully our campus involvement and learning is much more steady than the wind so it's only a matter of looking around to see learning taking place. This week alone a number of classes participated in various activities intended to foster the understanding of sustainability in a local context. 

The grade 6 service learning classes are busily working on action related to global issues. One class has identified the issues or water and health in the context of the flooding on Malaysia's east coast. Their goal is to engage the MS community in supporting the flood victims, and especially children. The other class is focusing on the health issues related to mosquito borne illness, namely dengue. 

Grade 7 had a number of visiting experts on Wednesday in what will hopefully become an annual affair: The grade 7 Ecology Symposium. Speakers will be visiting (and on Skype) and not only presenting what they and their organization do but also asking students to participate in role playing as if they are the speaker in action. Analysis of appropriate decisions is a powerful result of this, increasing learning a good deal. 

Finally, our grade 3 classes completed their "tree planting" project. Since November they have measured the space left open by the reconstruction of a new wall and studied plant species appropriate for the space. On Monday they planted 24 plants which, with some on-going love, attention and water, we hope will adorn the campus for many years to come. 

It's wonderful to see children understanding, connecting dots and growing in such meaningful ways. Whether the wind has picked up or not, whether the flag is waving or still, our students are true Eco-Schools exemplars in action!

Before we go... we're planning for next year.

Every day that passes one can hear the buzz in the hallways. It's the anticipation of a long vacation with little interruption and less worry about formal learning. Next week will bring with it a sudden quiet to the place. The first people, undoubtedly, will be getting ready to head home within hours of that final bell.  But work here continues over the summer.

From a sustainable front we are happy to know that a new off-grid solar powered set of fans (and charging plug) - financed by our Annual Fund donors - will be set up at the front of our campus. Both practical and educational the station should be ready to go when we all return from the summer. 

The hydroponics garden too, which was recently constructed by our Green Council, is slated to get a bit of a "fix up" with the installation of a water catchment area as well as some minor adjustments to the system, including the expansion of the spaces available for the plants to grow. By the time we return in August we hope to have a system that will be bearing fruit (or vegetables, actually) including lettuce for our cafeteria and act as an example for vertical gardens which was, after all, the intent of the Green Council's initiative. 

We will also be organizing early-August training for our Green Council to make sure that 2014-15 starts off right out of the starting blocks. The JUMP Foundation is coming in the very first weekend of school (August 8-9) to conduct leadership, action planning and facilitation training for out 15 Green Council executive members. We are aiming high for this group and hope to ensure that they have all the tools to do a great job next academic year through empowerment, skill building and reflection. It's the kind of capacity building that makes a big difference. 

So, while we are all roaming about and visiting family and friends, it's good to know that ISKL continues to establish both physical and human capacity. Have a wonderful final week!

Snippets of Sustainability & Service

As the year winds down from a sustainability and service learning standpoint we it gives a chance for respite - though there is still much happening - to recognize that the statement "less is more" is sometimes fitting at ISKL. In the past couple weeks a number of small activities and events have taken shape and are shared below:

• Grade 2 conducted some research on water use during tooth brushing by measuring water running continuously and only for rinsing. They found that by keeping the tap off until rinsing saved, on average, 85% of water!
• Grade 5 did some research of their own, focusing on ISKL's environmental indictor data (found here). Their responses revealed in-depth analysis of our school's energy, water, waste and air miles usage.
• A HS EAL asked the Sustainability Coordinator to come in and discussed a possible solar lap top charging station, its logistics, funding, etc. They will soon be writing a proposal for next year's Annual Fund. 
• The MS has just added a Grade 6 elective on Service Learning, which will be offered for the 2014-15 academic year. 
• A small group of grade 4 students decided to focus on hunger and reforestation, combining the two in a food drive and sapling/plant give away. The food goes to a local soup kitchen while saplings and plants are planted in our gardens and terraces!
• The Interactive Garden at Melawati is receiving lots of little visitors! During breaks students are seen there engaged in the sand pit, the tic-tac-toe area and looking at the flowers that are now in full bloom. 
• The HS Environmental Science class conducted water testing at several spots on the Ampang campus. 
• PJCC has undertaken planting of carrot, tomato and watermellon in the past few weeks. Largely the little sprouts are growing very well and we intend to transplant the watermellon into the Prep garden beds next week!

There are many more of these little snippets one could share, but often they take place inside classroom or in short walks into gardens. They are, as they should be, authentic moments of learning away from the limelight and off the scripts of articles. They are where learning really takes place: In the minds of children (and adults).

Real World Green Thinking

By the time Earth Week concludes on Friday, it will have included a compilation of nearly 20 different events from nature outings to sustainable initiatives, from awareness projects to academic outcomes. It will also have highlighted two speakers who were powerful in their message:  Green isn't about tomorrow. It's about today and the "real world" is already moving in that direction. 

Ruben Cortes representing an organization named Earthship Malaysia spoke last week to our MS students before they departed for Malaysia Week. His speech, lauded by everyone in attendance, was about building housing in such a way as to minimize energy and water use while using locally-sourced recycled materials. His participation in the Earthshop program recently took him to the Philippines where the Earthshop crew helped build a community center in a small village that was decimated by Typhoon Hainan.  The simplicity or the architecture was impressive and left a theatre full of middle schoolers and their teachers in awe of such possibilities. His point was simple: Sustainable building practices are "here and now" not tomorrow or the future. 

CK Tang, of Veritas Environment, who is involved in the planning of our new ISKL campus spoke on Monday to our HS student assembly about the vision of a zero carbon, zero waste, zero water community, highlighting the powerful interconnections between the many factors in being "green".  Though more analytical and detailed, his address none-the-less inspired the crowd, particularly with his ability to bring it all together - from waste to energy to algae and solar - in an impressive crescendo of how zero-carbon/zero-water/zero-waste communities are being designed and built. Of course, it would be hard not to be tickled silly by the fact that our new campus offers a fairly substantial step toward reaching that goal. 

By bringing representatives from Earthship and Veritas ISKL was hoping that our students will recognize the power of sustainability in career opportunities, real life technology, and urban development and their effects on personal choices. It was a chance for them to see sustainability from the perspective of the practitioner, and that makes a big difference. 

When the MS students were about to embark on their travels around Malaysia they were asked to "leave the place better than you found it". When the HS students left their assembly they were asked to partake in helping our campus be as sustainable as possible. When our students graduate from ISKL we know that a significant part of their "exceptional education" is generated through such high expectations.

Earth Week Next Week!

Over the past few weeks we've been busily working "behind the scenes" to ensure that things are happening for Earth Week, which starts this coming Saturday, April 19th. For a good overview of the the week please feel free to visit the page here. But here are some of the highlights parents should know about:

A Few Highlights for Parents:

• Saturday
• The 3rd Annual KDE Loop Clean Up will take place on Saturday, April 19th at 9:00 am. Meet in front of the KDE entrance.
• Community Recycling at the Ampang campus from 9:30 to 11:30 am
• Broga View Hike (carpooling) - Meet at the Ampang Guardhouse at 8am (Cost: RM 70 per person)
• Sunday
• Climbing for Everyone!  For novices, experts and everything in between. For the young and young at heart. For individuals and families alike! Join the HS Cliffhangers for a half day of hiking fun!  Bus leaves at 8 am from Ampang bus area and returned before 1 pm.
• Tuesday
• Earth Hour. Between 8:00 and 9:00 am we're turning off them electronics and heading outdoors (if weather permits)! 

Week-Long

• Ampang
• Bring your own water bottles (and dishes and utensils?). In an attempt to tackle our water shortage problems, and to avoid the waste of water (and hygiene problems) or waiting for water supply to be re-started, we're asking all our students to bring their own water bottes. Paper cups will not be provided during Earth Week. Besides, it's a good habit to have!
• MS Malaysia Week. They're going out into the wild... exactly where young kids should be. Braving the elements and enjoying what nature has to offer. Education. Fun. Engagement.
• Melawati: 
• Trash Free Week!  We invite everyone to participate in going trash-less for the week. Combine that with healthy, natural snakes and you've got a real winning combination!
• Stay away from plastic bags! Our Grade 4 "Service for the Better" group is promoting the elimination of plastic bags. Please do what you can to support this worth-while initiative. 

There's more, but this are the things that we thought parents should know about. We have special events for students and announcements and quizzes and the like. Again, if you'd like to take a closer look, look no further then here. 

Of course, the true conversations are ones that could (and should) be taking place at home.  With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just having released their latest report there is much to talk about!  

Have a safe, happy, wonderful and sustainable Earth Week!

Missing Water, Dirty Air and Opportunities for Personal Growth.

The haze outside must be way over 100 with little seen even across the street. Add the water rationing situation and we are experiencing first hand what we often talk theoretically about in terms of global issues. Except now we're no longer talking about smog in Beijing or water limitations in Africa that we see on YouTube. This is here and now. 

The silver lining is the singular opportunity to experience water shortages and dirty air (though still nothing severe or chronic) and the learning that these difficulties lend themselves to. Parents as well as teachers should take this opportunity to partake in conversations with their children/students. Not to complain about it, but to step outside of it and look at it from a global and local perspective. 

For example, the water outage on Tuesday prompted a stop-gap purchase or paper plates and plastic single use utensils as an immediate solution. It did provide opportunity to eat, but also added waste. This, in turn, resulted in frank conversations about alternative solutions such as the bringing of personal containers and utensils or interacting with our vendors to promote the preparation of foods that will not generate excess waste. There are probably as many solutions as there are creative minds and we might need a more systematic approach if the water shortages continue for long. 

Similarly, the haze offers itself to some deep and powerful conversations within the social studies and humanities classes school-wide. It also offers an excellent opportunity for the discussion of the connection between economy, environment and society at school and at home. Recognition of connections both in terms of the "global issues" and in terms of local and/or personal solutions provides tools to increase our knowledge and skills with regard to dealing with such issues.

This is how growth takes shape. So even if we're stuck with the current problems, we might as well get started on understanding and solving them!  

Re-natural Learning Spaces

Part of the job expectations of the Sustainability & Service Learning Coordinator is to allow our community to become involved in the development of natural spaces, particularly for learning. A big component of that is the recognition that a school is not merely a building. It can serve as a very powerful learning tool, particularly with regard to sustainability. 

This past December break the grounds staff of both campuses were working on two projects in this regard:

On the Melawati campus the project was the creation of an interactive garden, initiated by Prep Junior teacher Lisa Nazim. An Annual Fund donation allowed the construction of the foundation and, over the course of this semester, the students in the Prep classes will be helping to plant appropriate plants that will highlight natural sights and sounds and smells up close and personal. It will take a while to reach the ideal set up, largely due to the learning component of the project, which is the direct involvement of our 4 and 5 year olds. But once up and running it should be a perfect model of the marriage of space and learning!

On Ampang the break brought with it the building of a learning space (balcony) over the central stream in the back parking lot. On several visits by environmental experts this area was identified as an ieal on-campus water-based learning space. For anyone taking a stroll to that area (does anyone do that?) we've allowed an area for water quality measurement and observation. The space, if all goes to plan, will be adopted by our 7th grade Earth Science classes as part of the River Ranger program in the Klang Valley. The HS environmental studies classes will establish an action plan on how to best 're-naturalize' the space through the addition of plants that will give the area a more natural look, and hopefully invite insects and birds to the space. The parking spaces might also benefit from more natural shade. 

People who are eager to see things finished immediately might find the process a bit frustrating. But learning, particularly with nature, has to be done in time. Certainly the marriage of learning and physical outdoor space is no simple task. But we hope that with the engagement of students in planting, identifying and supporting existing micro-ecosystems, and participating in water quality testing, there is much to be learnt in slowing down the process to real time, natural time. It's as beautiful as sitting back and watching things grow... young minds and natural splendor simultaneously.