While climate change education is increasingly becoming part of school curricula around the world, facilities and operations are often not incorporated into the fight against global warming.
At the Ibn Khaldoun National School in Isa Town in Bahrain, the facilities are run in a sustainable way and are used as a forum for the students’ learning experience.
Circularity plays a major role. Located in a water scarce area, the school’s own greenhouse uses water that is recycled from other school facilities. Waste produced in the greenhouse is used as compost for the school’s garden. To meet the energy needs of the green house, the school’s roof, but also other surfaces of the facilities, such as the teachers’ parking lots, are covered with solar panels.
By taking care of the greenhouse, students learn about resource preserving irrigation practices, such as aquaponic and hydroponic techniques, different plants, and using a greenhouse in an arid climate. As headmaster Dr. Kamal Abdel-Nour underlined, it is crucial that the learning opportunity of facilities like the greenhouse are in the immediate environment of the students. “It is there, it is available, they can see these things around them.” Students who joined the “Go Green Club,” the environmental association of the school, were part of the planning of the greenhouse, acquiring core skills, such as teamwork, outreach and project planning skills. This could help the students in their careers as teacher Labib explained: “The program aims to inspire students to have their own projects in the future as entrepreneurs who have an eye on the environment.”
However, student Ali Alammadi also described some challenges that their efforts face: “The most difficult part of the project that we encountered was changing the behavior of the students toward the environment and encouraging them to take actions.” The school tried to circumvent these issues by designing the greenhouse also with aesthetical aspects in mind as to attract more people to it and to build it in a convenient location. Furthermore, as in most schools, it also required some time until all teachers embraced the change. But, as headmaster Dr. Abdel-Nour stated, this change “is a journey” and he mitigated such concerns by integrating climate education as a core-curricular activity, so that teachers and students perceive and experience it as a central element of teaching and learning.
Through the practical work, students have also integrated these practices in their daily routines: “During this program, my behavior towards using everyday items has changed, and I became more wary of the things I need to save,” student Alammadi described. His family installed water saving devices, work on reducing their water and energy consumption and recycle different kinds of trash. “These things sound very simple, but they could cause a major difference, if we all do them,” Alammadi asserts.
At Ibn Khaldoun National School, students are empowered as change agents driving innovation, as headmaster Dr. Abdel-Nour affirmed: “We need to listen to the students, we need to empower them, we need to give them a voice. The more you empower the students, the more you can achieve. They have the stamina, they have the enthusiasm, they have the ideas. And then you don’t have to worry about too many things because they can take the lead.”
