Editor’s NotEDear Eco-Schools Champions,

On 29 March at 8.30pm, the world went dark to take a stand against climate change. Yes, the world’s largest environ-mental ground-up movement—Earth Hour— is back in superhero proportions! Joining forces with WWF’s Earth Hour is our first superhero ambassador, Spider-Man! As Spider-Man has famously said, “With great power, comes great respon-sibility”. #UseYourPower and go beyond Earth Hour to inspire positive change for the planet! Find out how on page two.

Eco-Schools in Singapore turns one this April! As a special celebration, post your birthday wishes on Eco-Schools Hangout and we’ll pick the best three to feature on our website and in the next issue of

ECo-sCHooLs VoiCEs

wwf.sg/for_schools

MARCH

2014

NEWSLETTERSINGAPORE

IN PARTNERSHIPWITH

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© WWF-Singapore

Eco-Schools Voices! For more details on this and other exciting news, head over to the Announcements Section.

After the intensive climate change work-shop last November, we’re sure you have planned a flurry of exciting activities in your school for Earth Hour! Send a brief write-up of your projects to edu@wwf.sg and we’ll feature it in the next issue.

Hope you had fun in the dark!

Rabi’ah and ValerieWWF-Singapore

On the last Saturday of every March, hundreds of millions of individuals from all over the world will take a stand in their fight against climate change. Have you taken yours?

WWF’s Earth Hour has come a long way since 2007. From one to over 7,000 cities. From one country to seven continents. From two million to hundreds of millions of people!

Started in Australia as a campaign for action on cli-mate change, we asked individuals to switch off their lights for one hour to show their commitment for the planet. Today, Earth Hour has grown into a global

WHat’s BuzziNg?usE Your PoWEr to saVE tHE PLaNEt

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We hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves with the awesome line-up of performances for the Earth Hour event at The Float and the appearance by the cast of The Amazing Spider-Man 2! Stay tuned in the next issue as we feature the highlights of various Earth Hour celebrations around Singapore. If you have celebrated Earth Hour in your school, send some photos over to edu@wwf.sg!

YOU have the power to reduce your car-bon footprint and encourage your friends to do the same. How will you Use Your Power to make a difference for the planet today? Tell us at Eco-Schools Hangout!

Turn up your air-conditioning by 1 degree

Switch to LED lights

Use fewer plastic bags

Take shorter showers

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Take action by pledging for these four key actions:

movement which is celebrated all over the world and people have moved beyond just switching off their lights. They go beyond the hour and take simple actions to make a positive difference for the planet!

Together with our superhero ambassador, we are asking you to become superheroes for the planet too!

YuHua sECoNdarY sCHooL’s sEEd ProJECt

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Nadia (1E4), participant of the SEED project

“In Week 10, the whole cohort of secondary one students was involved in the SEED pro-ject. We were given clear instructions by the eco-school student leaders on how to make the potted plants. There were three types of seeds to choose from and I decided to go with

Hear directly from the students involved in the SEED project as they share with us how their seed of love for the environment is growing in the school!

Lee Wei Xian (1E4), participant of the SEED project

“This is one of the most enjoyable activities that I’ve participated in in this school term as I can work with peers and interact with them. The potted plants can also beautify our plain garden after it has fully grown. This is my first time planting wheat and chives, and I am excited to know how the fully grown plant will look like. Thanks to all the eco-school student leaders and teachers who planned this event and allowing me to learn more about being eco-friendly!”

Jia Poh, eco-school student leader

“After months of planning the SEED project together with my eco-school student leaders and guidance from our teachers, I feel very satisfied that we managed to carry out what we have planned. I feel that this project is very fun and meaningful as we got the op-portunity to make our own colourful pots of plants from used plastic bottles and old socks. We were even encouraged to decorate it and thus, students exercised their own creativity. We were also allowed to plant the seeds of our choice!

The SEED project enables students to experi-ence the hard work that farmers go through on a daily basis when they are doing the pro-cess of germination of the seeds. Thus, this project inculcates values such as teamwork, patience, gratitude and discipline in all of us. As an eco-school student leader, I am able to share my passion with my schoolmates and also guide them along the way. I also shared the tips on how to take good care of their plants with them. Overall, I enjoyed the whole process of the SEED Project from the brain-storming to the planning and lastly to the implementation stage.”

© NADIA (1E4) / YUHUA SECONDARY SCHOOL

Potted plants placed near the canteen

© NADIA (1E4) / YUHUA SECONDARY SCHOOL

A close up of Nadia’s growing potted plant

the wheatgrass seeds after much research on all of the plants. Look at the different potted plants that my classmates and I made!

We will be using these plants to decorate the school grounds. I learnt so much from the SEED project and I never realised that I was able to make my own potted plant and take good care of it. Wish me luck that my plant will continue growing!”

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Do you love seafood? I’m sure many of us do! Chilli crabs, tiger prawns, sotongs are some of the local Singapore delights that all of us love. The trouble is, our oceans and seas are being seriously overfished. So much so that unless action is taken, some of our favourite fish may disappear forever.

WHat’s tHE ‘FisHY’ issuE?

The world’s oceans are important because they produce 70% of our oxygen, influence weather systems, support economies and feed people! Seafood has been a source of food to billions of people worldwide, as well as a source of livelihoods.

However, approximately 85% of the world’s oceans are being overfished. In other words, people are taking out far more fish from the oceans than can be replaced by those remain-ing.

If we continue to exploit the oceans, species of marine creatures that are currently fished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048. That’s not all. We not only affect the fish that we eat, but also billions of other creatures that live in the oceans, like dolphins, marine turtles, seabirds, sharks, and corals that die due to inefficient, illegal, and destructive fishing practices.

© Jürgen Freund / WWF-Canon

Fisherman with tuna catch in Philippines© Jürgen Freund / WWF-Canon

Can you imagine a world without colourful sea creatures, like the clownfish?

WWF has been working with organisations such as fisheries and restaurants to offer environmentally friendly seafood that has been obtained in a responsible manner, and we need your help to raise awareness about this ‘fishy’ issue! Here’s how you can be part of the solution:

“Sustainable”: capable of being main-tained at a steady level without exhaust-ing natural resources or causing severe ecological damage.

Word check

Sign up for our Sustainable Seafood Work-shop in May to learn more. Don’t miss out on the chance to be in-volved in WWF-Singapore’s World Oceans Day celebration! It’s going to be huge and super awesome, so mark your calendar for June 8 and stay tuned for more details!

Look out for retailers and restaurants participating in the Sustainable Seafood Festival from June 8 to June 15.

ECo-sCHooLs siNgaPorE turNs oNE

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Just a year ago, WWF-Singapore sowed the seeds for the Eco-Schools Programme in Singapore and now, we are beginning to see budding growth! The Eco-Schools Programme is an inter-national programme that has been around for 20 years. It was introduced in Europe in 1994 by the Foundation for Environ-mental Education (FEE) to empower students to be the change our sustainable world needs by engaging them in fun, action-orientated learning.

By introducing the programme to Singa-pore, we hope to help students like you realise your potential to be leaders for a more sustainable world. Over the past year, we have been steadily working to-wards that vision.

As a special celebration, tell us what you enjoy most about being in the Eco-Schools Programme on Eco-Schools Hangout Community Page and we’ll pick the best three to feature on our website and in the next issue of Eco-Schools Voic-es! Stand a chance to win a WWF Stone Notebook, a notebook made entirely out of stone. Yes, you read it right – stone, not paper! The post that gets the most number of likes on Eco-Schools Hangout will also be selected, so get clicking away.

© WWF-SINGAPORE

Representatives of the 8 eco-schools at the launch in 2013

Why is the WWF stone Notebook so special? This notebook is 100% tree-free! Its paper is made from pulverised construction rock com-bined with a small amount of nontoxic resin. The result is a silky-smooth paper that’s anti-bacterial, 100% biodegradable, tear-resistant and water-resistant.

The process of making stone paper uses no water or trees, requires less energy than mak-ing regular paper, and produces significantly less air pollution and solid waste.

The programme was launched in Singapore on 24 April 20138 schools registered to be an eco-school in 2013WWF-Singapore is the national operator of the Eco-Schools Programme in this country

Fast facts

EXtra PoWEr PaCk

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Do you have any special tips that you use when planning your Eco-Schools activities? Send it to edu@wwf.sg and we’ll feature it in the next edition of Eco-Schools Voices!

grEEN FLag 101Eco champs are not made in a day. To help you along in your Eco-Schools Jour-ney, we’ll be featuring some tips for you to understand the 7-step process better! In this issue, we delve a little deeper into Monitoring and Evaluation.

Think about how you are going to monitor and evaluate the results of your ac-tions and activities even as you are doing up your action plan! By doing so, you are likely to prevent difficulties in measuring your results at the end.

Set in place a schedule to collect and evaluate your data. Leaving it all to the end of your project time period may leave you with a massive amount of data – and a headache trying to make sense of it all!

Data collection doesn’t have to be only about numbers and figures! You can also take before and after photos of your projects; collect opinions of your teachers and schoolmates and compare them before and after your project.

© WWF-SINGAPORE © WWF-SINGAPORE

Nan Hua High students observing the surroundings of the Sustainable Living Kampung

Kranji Secondary students discussing their action plan

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22Nd | aPriL EARTH DAY

24tH | aPriL ECO-SCHOOLS SINGAPORE TURNS ONEInvolve the whole school in this celebration by telling them about your Eco-Schools projects. It’s a good way to execute the ‘Inform and Involve’ step too!

23rd | maYWORLD TURTLE DAYHelp WWF give the endangered turtles a safe passage back to the sea. Do a fundraiser in your school to adopt a turtle hatchling at http://giftcatalogue.wwf.sg!

5tH | JuNE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

22Nd | maYWORLD BIODIVERSITY DAY

8tH | JuNE WORLD OCEANS DAYJoin the first-ever Sustainable Seafood Festival in Singapore! More details to come your way.

9tH | JuNECORAL TRIANGLE DAYThe Coral Triangle holds 75% of the world’s coral species, the highest coral diversity in the world! Besides being home to marine life, they provide livelihoods and food for people worldwide.

saVE tHE datE WWF JaN

ECo-sCHooLs rECruitmENtWe are in the midst of Eco-Schools recruitment! Come April, more schools will come on board the Eco-Schools Programme in Singapore. Stay tuned to find out which schools you will be joining forces with to create a more sustainable future!

HaPPY BirtHdaY ECo sCHooLs siNgaPorE!

aNNouNCEmENts

Participate in the Eco-Schools Birthday Party on Eco-Schools Hangout! The best three birthday wishes on the Community Page will win a WWF stone notebook. Head to page 4 for more details.

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drop us a lineHave you got any burning questions on Eco-Schools for us? Do you have any feedback or comments on the programme? Leave a post on Eco-Schools Hangout (eco-schools.wwf.sg) so we can address your question and share the answer with everyone else.

• ECO-SCHOOLS VOICES – MarCH 2014

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Superheroes speak in secret messages. Your first superhero assignment: Match the symbols with the alphabets to decode the secret message we have for you!

Answer Key:

BraiN tEasEr

a B C d E F g H i J k L m

a b c d e f g h i j k l m

N o P Q r s t u V W X Y z

n o p q r s t u v w x y z

with great powercomes great

responsibility

use your power