fourteendegrees

2008-06-22T17:37:00.003+08:00

hey people! proposal is submitted, and now we have the A2 board left to go! jiayou jiayou!

tomorrow we are doing the A2 board, and if we cant finish tomorrow, we MUST finish it on tuesday.

i dont know when we are doing tomorrow, but most probably after school. since xinyuan and i (adeline) end our lesson at FOUR, we will start during lunch time most likely, yup.

im just bored so i want to post. haha

VOTE OUR BLOG

2008-06-19T22:15:00.010+08:00

Voting of Blogs

Go to this link: http://www.worldview360.org/blogs.html

THIS IS THE PAGE TO VOTE FOR BLOGS!

Take a look at this little voting entry on the 17th row

Doesn't it look like this blog.... this blog url is 14degrees.blogspot.com.

i suspect that the worldview 360 organizers have made a mistake. I have already sent a mail to clarify the mistake.

And i found another worldview 360 blog that uses the same blogskin as us.

A close up look:

Dont be mistaken. This is NOT our blog. The usually CHEAPO me thought that this was our blog and clicked on that red cute round shiny button......

their blog URL is http://goinggreen-naturaldisasters.blogspot.com/

This blog belongs to a team from Hua Yi Secondary School

They have a lot of pics in their blog! VERY NICE and COMICAL. and i even tagged! XD

First 2 bottles to go into Cistern

2008-06-18T20:00:00.004+08:00

First 2 bottles to go into Cistern

We decided to go against the timeline and start adding the bottles into the toilets of Level 1

1) wash the insides of the bottles
2) fill it up with water
3) Remove the packaging wrapers

4) Submerge the bottles into the cistern! XD

Waa Laa! Now to hope this plan is successful!

I could not add more bottles into the rest of the toilets because of:

We do not have enough bottles with BOTTLE CAPS at the Green Comm area. Bryce's Youth for Causes used it for their project. Would be borrowing some back from them soon.
This one is obvious: I could only go into the guys' toilet.......

Proposal

2008-06-17T16:57:00.018+08:00

PROPOSAL

`Operation: 14degrees Proposed By: 14degrees

SUMMARY
Operation 14degrees would be carrying out 3 projects. The first is the Cistern Project, where we put bottles of water into toilet cisterns. The second is the Garage Sale Project, where we sell second-hand textbooks and items. The third is the Recycling Bin Project, where we encourage students to recycle.

OBJECTIVES AND THEME
The objectives of this Worldview 360: Youth for Earth proposal is to

1. Reduce utility consumption (Water)

2. Reduce waste output (Paper and Plastic)

Our principle is: ‘Awareness Through Action.’ We aim to raise awareness of environmental issues and create a green culture through self-initiated action that would demonstrate and educate about what can be done to be Youths for Earth.

The theme is the 3 Rs— Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The 3 projects of this Worldview 360: Youth for Earths each would take on one component of the theme.

Organization Structure

14degrees is a group under the Green Committee (GC). All proposed projects by 14degrees will be implemented as a GC project. GC is a committee under the leadership board—National Education Ambassador (NEA). Manpower would be drawn from everyone under this board, since there are 2 NEAs in each class. They would also be the main channel for effective publicity to every class.

PUBLICITY

Class NEAS, emails, announcements, posters, etc would be avenues for publicizing the projects. All other related documents would also have a footer reminder related to the theme and scope of the project as part of raising awareness.

Project Overview

A. Water: Cistern Project

Introduction:

The Cistern Project is part of the effort to reduce NUS High School’s utility consumption of water. The school uses about 400,000L (est.) of water monthly just to flush toilets—about 13% of the school monthly water consumption [refer to blog post 'estimating water used for flushing']. Since reducing this part of water consumption is economical and feasible, a significant amount of water can be saved. Our goal is to reduce this water consumption by around 5%.

Water is very precious in the sense that ALL LIFE RELY ON WATER TO SUSTAIN but only less than 1% of the water on earth can be used by human. Excessive water consumption has caused a GLOBAL water crisis and many environmental problems like erosions, degradation of water bodies, and desertification. Reducing water consumption would help to ease the demand of water, hence benefiting the environment and the school.

Program:

14degrees would be adding two 500 ml plastic bottles of water into every toilet cistern. This is a very economical and feasible way of saving water. It practically has no cost for us to bear and is sustainable for many years.

Once sealed, used plastic bottle filled with water would be submerged into the toilets with cisterns. This reduces the amount of water used for flushing.

These bottles would be added to the toilets of level 1 first to be tested and troubleshoot if any issue arises. If after a week passed with positive feedback that the flushing systems are working fine, we would proceed to add these bottles to the rest of the school’s toilets. The only toilets that will not have the bottles would be those with no cisterns.

Besides adding of bottles, we would be putting up laminated posters to:

Spread the message of saving water (placed beside taps)

2. Notify the school students that the 14degrees are adding a bottle into the toilet cistern to raise awareness about such a method of saving water (beside the water cisterns)

Want to know a

CHEAP

WAY TO SAVE WATER......

LIFT THIS LID

to find out

A Cistern Project By NEAGreen Committee.
REDUCE, Reuse, Recycle
“Remember to reduce your toilet flushing volume”

Action Plan and Timeline:

Week	Action	By:
July W1	Collection of plastic bottles	Recycling Bin Project
July W2	Adding of bottles with water into Level 1 toilet cisterns. Start of pilot project and troubleshoot	Cistern Project
July W3	Adding of bottles with water into Level 2 &3 toilet cisterns	Cistern Project
July W4	Adding of bottles with water into Level 4 & 5 toilet cisterns	Cistern Project
Aug W1	Adding of bottles with water into toilets in hostel	Cistern Project

Logistics:

· 100 500ml plastic bottles

· 50 posters

B. Paper: Textbook Re-sales Project

Introduction:

The Textbook Resale Project is part of 14degrees efforts to reduce student’s waste output of paper. Yearly, Students buy new textbooks. However, students may not need the textbooks after getting newer ones next year. Hence, these old books are usually underutilize—wasted.

14degrees would reduce this wastage by creating a system for students to reuse textbooks. Reusing the textbooks would lowers demand on printing and paper. Lesser trees would be chopped down to produce paper, reducing deforestation rate and thus benefiting the environment.

Program:

14degrees would become a middleman for the trade of textbooks in school; with the teacher’s resource room being our storeroom. This Textbook Resale Project would involve 4 phases—Deposition, Selling, Collection and Publicity.

Deposition

During non-sales period, students interested in selling their used textbooks would

1) deposit their textbooks with their class NEA

2) Fill up 2 textbook registration forms

One form would be kept with GC and the other would be kept with the interested seller. The class NEA would then deposit the textbook with the registration form into the central textbook deposition box, located below the staffroom.

Alternatively, interested sellers can download the registration form the Textbook Resale Portal, fill it up and deposit it with the textbook into the central textbook deposition box. The central textbook deposition box will be cleared twice a day. Interested sellers would deposit their books directly to the selling booth, during the sales period.

Registration form:

Full Name:	Class:
Date:	Email:
Contact Number:	Remarks:
Textbook Name: 1)_____________ 2)_____________ 3)_____________	Textbook Price: 1) 2) 3) (students are advise to quote a price about half of the market price to ensure competitiveness of the books to be sold. Please take into consideration the physical quality of the book too)
Notes: · If your textbooks have been sold, 14degrees will notify you to collect your. More information will be provided through the email. · However, if your textbook remains unsold by the of the sales period, 14degrees will also sent a notification email to inform you to collect the unsold textbook. ANY UNCOLLECTED TEXTBOOKS WILL BECOME A PROPERTY OF SCHOOL FOR FUTURE SALES
A Textbook Resale Project By NEA Green Committee. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle “ Remember to reuse your textbooks”

Selling

Before selling, the head of the green committee will compile and collate all the textbooks. The updated list will be posted onto the textbook resale portal daily. The list on the blog would contain the name of seller, their textbook, and the price. A summary list will also be posted on the NEA green committee notice board and will be available at the selling booth during sales period. The summary list will include the name of textbook, quantity of it available and range of prices.

There will be 3 sales period:

9 – 15 October (Term 4 Week 5 & 6)
10 – 14 November (Term 4 Week 10)
24 November [tentative] (Break 4 Week 2)

The first sales period is after the Year 5 & 6 exams. This is a good time for these seniors to sell their textbooks as studying no longer bothers them and they would have more time to think about selling textbooks. It is also a good time for juniors to buy the textbooks as it is the start of their revising periods.

The second sales period is after the Year 1 – 4 exams. Again these junior would consider selling their textbooks after the exams or buying more textbooks for the next year.

The third sale period would be during NUS High School’s annual Matriculation. This sale is aimed at the incomimg year 1 & 3s who are generally more enthusiastic about school related activities.

All sales will have a format of a garage sale, where most of our available textbooks will be displayed on a table. Textbooks will be arranged by topic and price. The location of the booth will tentatively be at the school canteen. The booth will be manned by NEAs on duty. A duty roster would be create after term 3 begins.

Detailed list format:

Subject	Book Name	Seller Name	Quoted Price
Subject X	Book A	Seller A	Price A
		Seller B	Price B
		Seller C	Price C
		Seller D	Price D
	Book B	Seller A	Price A
	Book B	Seller B	Price B
Subject: Y	Book C	Seller C	Price C

Summary List Format:

Subject	Book	Price range
Subject X	Book A	A ~ D
Subject X	Book B	A ~ B
Subject Y	Book C	C

Collection

Any unsold books would have to be collected by 1^st December. Emails with further information would be sent to all sellers, whose textbooks are unsold at the end of sales.

Any uncollected textbooks after 1^st December would be used for future textbook sale. If a seller needs the book back last minute, he/she can approach the sale booth to withdraw their textbook.

When a book is sold, an email would be sent to the seller the next day to inform of the successful sales. He/she would collect the payment during one of the sale or collection date.

Sellers can email 14degrees or view Textbook Resale Portal to check the status of their textbooks.

Publicity

14degrees will be working with the Publicity and Partnership committee of NEA to publicize the textbook resale system. All publicity revolves around the theme of saving, reducing or reusing paper. All channels of publicity would be used to show the benefits of this system. This would be worked on at a later date as it requires large-scale planning.

Action Plan and Timeline:

Week	Action	By:
July W 2	Obtain all NEAs free time	NEA exco
July W3	Finalization of textbook resale plans with NEA and Management	Textbook Resale Project; NEA head NEA teacher IC
July W4	Planning for publicity
Aug W4	Finalization of publicity	Publicity and Partnership Comm
Aug W5	Start of publicity and deposition system. To be continued after term break.	Textbook resale Project; Publicity and Partnership Comm
Sep W2 & 3	Sales period	NEA
Nov W3	Sales Period	NEA
Nov W5	Sales Period	NEA

Logistics:

·Textbook resale portal

· Garage sales booth

· Registration forms

· Central textbook deposition forms

· Posters

C. Plastic: Recycling Bin Project

Introduction:

The Recycling Bin Project is part of 14degrees efforts to reduce NUS High’s waste output of plastic. The school canteen sells bottled drinks that are popular among students. The used plastic bottles are noted to be often thrown into a rubbish bin instead of a recycling bin. This is may be due to having only 1 plastic recycling bin at only 1 end of the canteen.

The location of the recycling bins is determined by the recycling company, which is not convenient for students. 14degrees will reduce this waste of plastic by placing more plastic recycling bins at more strategic positions—thus allowing more people to recycle.

As plastic are non-biodegradable and takes up a large proportion of the waste stream, reducing the waste output of plastic would not only reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, lesser rubbish would also be going to the landfill and thus extend the ‘life’ of the landfill. Recycling plastic also saves energy: the energy saved from recycling just a single plastic bottle can light up a 60W bulb for 6 hours.

Program:

Making of Recycling Bins

The recycling bins will be handmade using cardboard boxes and lined with white trash bags. The boxes will be sealed completely, with only a small opening cut open on top of the boxes for deposition of the bottles. The bins will also have signs on them indicate that they are plastic recycling bins.

Deploying of recycling bins & Publicity

One recycling bin would be placed along the common classrooms corridors of every level of every block; One would be placed by the side of the plate collection point in the canteen; 3 would be placed along the routes from the canteen to the classrooms. Posters would be placed at the dustbins to remind people to use the plastic recycling bins.

Class NEAs are to inform their classes of the presence of such recycling bins and encourage their classmates to use it wisely.

Clearing of recycling bins

The recycling bins would be cleared by NEAs regularly whenever it is full. The full trash bags would be checked through to ensure that there is no rubbish, and then they will be tied up and kept til the recycling company collects them. Some plastic bottles collected would be cleaned for the Cistern Project.

Action Plan and Timeline:

Week	Action	By:
July W1	Creation and deploying of recycling bins	Recycling bin project
~2008~	Regular clearing of recycling bins	Green Committee

Logistics:

· 16 cardboard boxes

· 16 posters

· White trash bags

Estimating monthly water used for flushing

2008-06-17T09:17:00.003+08:00

Estimating monthly water used for flushing

School Population: 1000
Hostel + staff Population: 300

monthly school use of toilet: 11L * 1000 ppl * 20 days = 220,000L
monthly Hostel + staff use of toilet: 11L *300ppl *23 days * 2 times= 151800L

220,000L + 151800L = 371,800L (appro. 400, 000L)

Monthly school water consumption:
January: 3,200,200 L
February: 2,949,300L
March: 2,908,600 L
April: 3,124,200 L

Average: 3,000,000L

400,000L / 3,000,000L *100% = 13% (appro. 10%)

Calculating flush volume

2008-06-16T07:31:00.005+08:00

Calculating flush volume

Before flush depth: 20 cm
After flush depth: 3 cm
Length: 39 cm
Width: 17 cm

Refilling system diameter: 5 cm
white pipe diameter: 3cm
Flushing button: 7cm

Total water in cistern: (20 - 3) * 39 * 17 - pi * (5^2 + 3^2 + 7^2) = 11.010L (appr. 11 L)

Toilet Pictures

2008-06-16T06:59:00.008+08:00

Toilet Pictures
These toilets are those found in the guy's restroom

This type of toilet have NO CISTERN! so we cant do anything to it...

AH!.... This type of toilet have a cistern... so lets explore it...

1) lift up the lit (can be done easily)

2) look into the cistern. In the center is where we press the flush button and all the water go flushing... On the left is a refilling system for the cistern

3) Press the flush button for fun! XD look at the thing refill...

4) the hose thing in the cistern is where the water for refilling comes from

Next Meeting

2008-06-14T22:49:00.005+08:00

Next Meeting
Our Next Meeting is on Monday (16 June), 9am, NUS High canteen

The agenda is to

finalize the proposal
brief and update everyone on the progress of the group
take picture to be pasted on the TWO A2 boards
plan, make and decorate the TWO A2 boards

On this day, it is 1 day to the end of worldview360, and we still have lots to complete!

Please come down on this day, IT IS COMPULSORY!

DO NOT BE LATE, SMS me and everyone to wake up in the morning.

Also, bring all the art and craft materials that you all have at home. We need it for decorating the TWO A2 boards.

NUS Co-op Used Textbook Scheme

2008-06-14T22:39:00.002+08:00

NUS Co-op Used Textbook Scheme

This is something that we can follow. Nic Leong mentioned that NUS did the textbook resale project, so we should be able to do it too. How our is unique is that our textbook resale project has a motive on saving paper, hence encouraging student to reuse the textbooks.

FAQ for Sellers

Q. How do I register my textbooks for sale?
A. You may approach the Used Textbooks Registration Counter (next to the Customer Service Counter) at the Forum Bookstore to register with your matriculation card during the registration period. Simply provide your particulars and your selling price and we will put up your books for sale.

Q. Do you accept non-NUS textbooks?
A. Currently we will only accept textbooks that are being used in the NUS curriculum. We will verify the relevance of the books to the current modules offered. Only the most current and latest edition of the textbooks will be accepted unless an older edition is adopted by a faculty member.

Q. Do you accept study guides or CD ROMs?
A. This will depend on the course requirement adoption received from lecturers. However, we cannot accept instructor editions, overseas editions, course packs, or illegally photocopied books.

Q. Can I sell back books in any condition?
A. Books need to be in reasonable, usable condition. We reserve the right to refuse to purchase damaged books or books that are unlikely to be repurchased by other students.

Q. How do I price my textbooks?
A. Books that are in better condition usually fetch a better price, so to ensure that you can sell your books, you should price it competitively against a book in similar or poorer condition.

Q. Can I change the price of my textbooks after registration?
A. You may but we do not encourage price changes as an administrative fee of $1 will be charged.

Q. Will I be informed if my book has been sold?
A. We will email you after the Sales period. Alternatively, you can visit our website(http://coop.nus.edu.sg/services/buy_back/index.htm) and use the record ID on the registration form to check the status of your books.

Q. When can I collect my payment?
A. We will email you after the Sales period. You can collect your books one week after the close of the selling period on the day and time allocated to you in the notification. You must bring along the registration form to make your claim. All unclaimed sales proceeds will be donated at our discretion after the end of the Payment and Recollection Period.

Q. How will I be paid?
A. Payment is in cash only. Request for payment in cheque will incur admin fees of S$5.00 per cheque.

Q. When can I collect my unsold book?
A. We will email you after the Sales period. You can collect your books one week after the close of the selling period on the day and time allocated to you in the notification. You must bring along the registration form to make your claim. All unclaimed books will be disposed at our discretion after the end of the Payment and Recollection Period.

Q. Will I be able to collect my books if I have lost my registration form?
A. We will still honor your claim but will require patience from you as we try to trace your record. All claims without registration forms will be processed after the Payment and Recollection Period. We will need your assistance in providing us details of the book registered, a copy of your matriculation card and contact details. We will contact you once we are able to retrieve your book.

Q. How much commission do you charge for a sold book?
A. Our commission is fixed at 10% of the sale price or $1 (whichever is higher) for books that are sold. Administration fees are waived for this period. Currently we do not charge for unsold books.

FAQ for Buyers

Q. Where can I buy these used textbooks?
A. NUS Co-op will set up a new area inside the Forum Bookstore to cater to used textbooks. The books will be sold at the price set by the sellers. A separate cashier counter will be dedicated to the sales of used books to help speed up your transaction.

Q. Why should I buy from Co-op?
A. We have experienced staff to assist you in making the right purchases. We also give you the convenience of comparing both new and used textbooks under one roof.

Q. Can I exchange or return my purchased copy?
A. It's the responsibility of the buyer of secondhand books to ensure that books purchased are in acceptable condition. As the books belong to individual sellers, we will not be able to facilitate any returns.

Q. Will Co-op member enjoy further discount?
A. NUS Co-op’s role is the facilitator in the transaction. As such we do not have ownership of the books on display and are unable to extend the member discount to these books.

Straits Times Forum

2008-06-14T22:15:00.009+08:00

The Straits Time Forum

Link: Don't throw food into recycling bins

I agree very strongly with Mdm Tang after the recycling bin incident during th p4 Math Carnival!

June 14, 2008
Don't throw food into recycling bins

THERE are now more recycling bins in Housing Board estates to allow residents to dispose of their recyclable products.

However, I have noticed some problem areas which need to be tackled:

There is not enough education on what should not be put into the recycling bins. People throw in cans containing leftover food and drinks, and some of these containers are not covered. They will become breeding grounds for insects and, worse, mosquitoes. There are also foul smells emanating from the decomposed waste.

Leftover food and drinks should not go into such bins in the first place. The authorities should put up posters on the bins to educate the public.

The recycling bins are not cleared regularly, and the waste overflows into the surrounding grass patch. I have called up one management hotline and found out that the bins are emptied only once a week. Mosquitoes can breed in stagnant water within two days, and even our normal rubbish chutes are emptied daily.

To keep the environment safe and clean, the recycling bins should be emptied at least three times a week.

We want to embrace the recycling act but let's rectify some of the problems before they become serious environmental hazards.

Tang Sook Han (Mdm)

UPDATE!!!

2008-06-13T17:41:00.005+08:00

UPDATE!!!

1)We learned one very important thing: CARPET BOMBING NEVER WORKS. At first, we wanted to cover a wide range intensively, but we don't have the time and ideas to do that.

2) So now, instead of carpet bombing, we will cover only 3 domains: water, paper, plastic. By the way, we took eectricity out as we see reducing it difficult. The school's "waste of electricity" turns out to be essential to security (lights up the area) and functionality (air con 24-7 on to keep network servers cool). Improving efficiency in this aspect do not seems to worth the effort.

3) Instead of many ideas per domain, we woud be having 1MAJOR PROJECT PER DOMAIN. There would be a minor project to support the pubicity and environmental awareness of the major project.

4) I (TPL) know that everyone is busy.... but we do need a time to meet to finalise the proposal and do up the A2 boards

OutLook

2008-06-08T23:59:00.009+08:00

OutLook

Ok. here an outlook of what points that WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO.

WE ARE SERIOUSLY IN BIG TROUBLE IF THIS PROJECT CONTINUES TO BE DEAD.
Since the deadline for worldview is coming closer and closer, can we meet in school on this WEDNESDAY (11 June), from 9 to 12. Please reply if you are able to make it

We have 8 more days till the end of worldview.

Written in black would be what is in the proposal and written in purple would be what I commented.

A. For WATER, we would be doing

1. faulty taps and toilets

a. posters (Gd job on that posters, is there any more? 2-3 more would be better)

b. system to inform estate department of faulty taps and toilets. (are we going to talk to the estate about this? when can we talk to them? anyone free to ask them?)

2. flushing system

a. brick in cistern (One day the whole groups should get together in a toilet to measure the flush volume with and without a brick in the cistern. We have to talk to estate about this? when are you all free?)

b. dual flush cistern (i think we should keep this in view in the proposal. just ask the estate if it is possible. need to negotiate about funds with school that will take long and do not worth the time.)

B. For ELECTRICITY, we would be:

1. electrical appliances

a. interesting posters and reminders to switch it off! (no poster yet... =( I think if we are at wit's end, just print out small plastic reminders and paste it at the switches)

b. policy for student to switch computers off (policy can extend to lights, fans and air-con)

c. auto shut down (talk to Jone Chia~ the IT person~ about this)

d. policy for teachers to off air-con after class (again the policy can be merged)

The whole of the electricity part is more of awareness and policies. But how are we to ensure and prove that our effort works? A monitering system?

Also, how are we to ensure renewed interest of students in the policies. Such policies if continous could cause students to lose interest and not care about our reminders. Do you all want the day for NE mentoring to also be the day for energy conservation where we have all our policies in place.

C. For WASTE MANAGEMENT, we would be:

1. Paper

a. default double sided for photocopying (is it easily done? if not, just have a simple tutorial at the photocopying machine for easy double-sided print. Most of the waste should be due to students not knowing the orientation of scaning their documents for double sided print)

b. electronic notification (any ideas on how to make this idea unique? NUS High is already doing a lot in this aspect)

c. awareness on paper recycling. eg.: school to collect newspaper from nearby HDB (how is getting students to collect newspaper creating awareness? i still like the idea of hands-on experience of recycling paper during art week. need more ideas in this area!)

2. Plastic bottles

a. class reps to collect plastic bottles from classrooms and dump them in recycling bins (ok. we would be heading this as a project under green comm. Next, we would extend the scope of recycling to paper too, as students are in the first place not allowed to bring drinks into the classroom. So now we need to build more recylcing boxes!)

3. Reference Books

a. system for seniors to sell their textbooks to juniors and get half their money back. (Nic Leong mention that he is not sure if council is accepting his textbook resale proposal. If council is accepting his proposal, WE WILL DROP IT, if not, we would be doing it. So temporally we should just start on the system under worldview. I would most probably get Nic Leong to involved in this if we are going to implement it)

________________________________________________

All the above project should start off small, taking baby steps. So we would have a trial run to test the success and to troubleshoot anything that goes wrong in these projects. Which year do we want to trial run on? Personally, i like to try on the year 3s.

_______________________________________________

Systems to create:

reference book resale
classroom recycling collection
policies to turn electronic appliances
informing estate department of faulty taps and toilets

Posters & reminders to create:

water poster to conserve water and to ensure that faulty taps are fully turned off
reminders to switch off lights, fans, etc
simple tutorial for printing double sided

One-time-off task to do:

brick in cistern
auto shutdown program
create recycling bins
awareness on paper recycling

Shaky ideas to think about:

electronic notification
dual flush cistern

Curently, we have 11 goof ideas to work on and 2 shaky and unstable ideas that have been identified. PLEASE THINK THROUGH WHICH WE SHOULD DROP. WE ARE OVERLOADING OVERSELVES! (so much of carpet bombing... haha). I want to drop at least 3 ideas, so that we can move on faster.

_______________________________________

BTW, we still have two A2 boards to do up, a proposal to finalize, powerpoint to create, and most importantly START ON THE IDEAS!

Posters

2008-06-05T19:07:00.007+08:00

Posters
Here are the sample posters for the part on raising awareness:

this is the one on water. can be placed near the taps in the canteen.

this one is on waste management. put near the bins to remind people to recycle.

k yap.

NEED IDEAS FOR ELECTRICITY POSTER! D:

and and and and and...

HAPPY WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY!

Update

2008-06-05T00:59:00.012+08:00

Update

1) Recycling Bins

It has been a long time since i posted about this. Our bins were nice but they collected more food than bottles.

Styrofoam boxes that contain food thrown into the bin AT 8AM

At the end of the day, the boxes were piled up with Styrofoam boxes. I suspect the cleaners throw the content and the box away as i could not find it at the end of the day.

Lessons to be learned

place a lid over the bin such that only bottles can go through
put picture of bottles such that people understand what the bin is for at a glance
do not use a black trash bag to contain the bottles
Ensure there is or build rubbish bins beside the recycling bin

Consolation: at least we helped ease the rubbish problem on the first day of P4 math carnival.

2) There is a green committee meeting today (5 June)
You all can discuss worldview if you all want, but i (TPL) will be doing HSSRP, so busy...

3) We need a date to meet together online to discuss with our facilitators.
please tag on the tagboard your free timing and date or just edit this post.

Adeline:?
Jia Ying:?
Kar Yen: Usually free in the evening. (Will usually be there all the time after 8pm). Not free this friday till next monday.
TPL: Not free at all this week. ~~Please go on with a meeting if everyone else have a common time.~~ Next week free after 8pm.
Xinyuan: free after the 18th of June
Gavin:?
Karen:?

4) Proposal

The proposal that was done by Adeline has been sent to Gavin. You all have a copy. We need to work on it. The next time we meet, please review it, add in the substantials like the sample of the poster and the evidences (calculation & experiments need to be done), etc.

the water cooler leaks water too!

2008-05-30T12:55:00.003+08:00

we took this video on wednesday:

see, the water cooler leaks water too!

Summary of 28 May 08 Meeting

2008-05-28T23:08:00.008+08:00

Summary of 28 May 08 Meeting

2 days ago, TPL created the google document for editing our proposal.

1 night ago, there was a chunk of text in point form summarizing our project outline

Problem:

TPL didnt typed it

Adeline didnt type anything

Karyen, Xinyuan and Jia Ying only saw google docs today

so this is something weirld

____________________________________________

Then we sidetrack and didnt do much to the proposal.....

___________________________________________

Then we went to make recycling boxes.

On Tomorrow and Friday, NUS High will be having the P4 math carnival our school campus. We predict that the drinks being given out to the P4 students will be bottles of water.

So we made recycling boxes for plastic bottles. This will be an extension to our project jobscope. We should be doing this for most school activities in the future, operating under both worldview and NEA.

Signs to be pasted on the boxes

Box #1

"Bottles goes into our recycling bin"

Box # 2

UPDATE!

2008-05-26T17:02:00.003+08:00

UPDATE!!!

Again, please be reminded that there is a meeting with the mentor in school this wednesday at 2 o clock.

I forgot about this in the previous post:

On the 24th May meeting, we came up with an idea of proposing to set up a green portal on the school website or something.

PURPOSE:

Update on the school progress on environmental issues and upcoming environmetal activities coming up in school etc.
Put up interesting related (youtube) videos or other media to make the portal more interesting
Stir up the interest of the school population about environmental issues: raise awareness

I'm still going through the youtube videos we saw on the 24th meeting, give me some time to go through them again and sort them out because i cant really use the computer often. sorry!

Here is a video i took of one of the faulty taps in the canteen. i've counted, there's 3 such taps in the canteen alone. This can serve as an evidence. We will need to find more of such evidence and take pictures or videos of them. =)

This is the tap we are talking about for the idea for the water poster. As you can see, the water DOES NOT STOP coming out from the tap until somebody pulls it.

If somebody do not know that the tap is faulty or he/she does not care about it and leave the water flowing, the water can really flow for very long and thus a lot of water would be wasted.

So, we really need to do something about it.

JOB ALLOCATION FOR stuff due by 28th may

2008-05-24T16:03:00.003+08:00

JOB ALLOCATION

POSTERS: xinyuan will draw. not sure if karyen will be free to help.

LETTERS: karyen can draft out =)

PROPOSAL: jia ying + tpl + adeline

to karyen: we need a letter to the principal telling him about the policies that we proposed:
- encouraging staff to print double sided
- make the staff off the air-con of the classrooms when their lessons end.
- check previous posts for more information =)

24th May POSTERS discussion!

2008-05-24T15:26:00.007+08:00

24th May POSTERS discussion!

today we discussed & brainstorm for ideas for the posters!
(here we are discussing using Bryce's Laptop. Photographer: TPL. Sadly Karyen was unable to make it)

for each category(water, electricity and waste management), there is a theme, which is also a slogan.

the poster(s) for the category will revolve around the theme. at the bottom of each poster, the theme(slogan) will be stated.

FOR WATER!!! H20

theme(slogan): save water. save life. save the earth

How much water is wasted from leaky taps:
-water flow per minute X number of leaky taps X school population
-what can the amount of water wasted be used for: eg, can support the life of a family for.... (give ppl an idea that the water wasted from leaky taps is really alot! and it can save life...)

FOR ELECTRICITY!!! Energy

theme(slogan): conserve electricity for the future

If electricity is suddenly cut off... what will happen
- first part of the comic shows electricity wastage
- second part of the comic shows that the electricity is suddenly cut off (something funny happens)
- shows the importance of electricity and so we should conserve!
- can make a series, of different actions of wasting electricity and different outcomes of electricity being cut off
intersesting ways and uncommon ways to conserve electricity/interesting or shocking facts about conserving energy
- people will find conserving electricity can be a interesting process =)!

FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT!!! 3Rs

theme(slogan): reduce waste. youths can play a part! (tentative to change)

get a short word to do with waste management. the letters of the word will make up actions or tips to help in waste management! (needs expansion of this idea)
- can make a series, different words to do with waste management can make up different posters

anymore ideas please add on especially for WASTE MANAGEMENT!

make sure the ideas are EASILY EXPRESSED ON PAPER.

Meeting with Mentor: Discussion Summary

2008-05-23T13:52:00.007+08:00

Meeting with Mentor: Discussion Summary
this is a rough outline of what we are going to cover:

WATER

create cartoon posters to attract more attention (something like those in public toilets telling people to not stand on the toilet bowls)
create educational posters
come out with a system plan to let people inform the estate department fast enough when taps, pipes, toilet etc are damaged
propose to the school to get half-flush toilets and water efficient taps
- calculate budget

ELECTRICITY

create cartoon posters to remind people to reduce electricity usage
encourage (or set a a policy to make) teachers turn off the air-con when the class ends (air con will not be on when there are no lessons)
ENERGY-STAR - set the computer terminals to auto-shutdown after 15 minutes of inactivity

WASTE MANAGEMENT

posters!
get the NEAs of each class to throw all plastic bottles to the proper recycling bins at the end of each day
check how often the recycling companies come down to collect the recyclables and the requirements for plastic needed for be recycled
maybe set up additional small recycling bins around the classroom areas for convenience
collect unwanted paper from school or also can have a monthly, termly, semester-ly or yearly collection from nearby blocks.
send most of the paper to recycling factories
rest of the paper we can recycle on our own. make it a school activity. can increase awareness.
system to resale of textbook from higher levels to lower levels
-make a portal?
set default setting of photocopy machines to double sided
encourage teachers to print notes double sided

Others

get the school to show us the bills then every month we can make morning announcements to tell the school how many percent have the bills increase or decreased the past month so that they will know that their efforts have turned out good or they have to continue working hard.
make posters about interesting facts about environmental issues to draw people's interest

what we can start doing NOW:

brainstorm ideas and start creating the posters (water + electricity + waste management)
-everybody brainstorm. any ideas communicate through email, blog or tagboard
-xinyuan and karyen will be in charge of the posters
resale of textbook
-ask nicholas leong according to tpl
find out details about sending paper to recycle
-where
-how often
-rate $$
find out about how often recycling company come to collect the plastic
recycle our own paper
-we try out on our own first. we need to know exactly how to do it.
notices or letters to encourage staff to reduce electricity and paper usage

what we need?

statistics
-about current state of recycling in school
-school electricity bills and water bills
PICTURES and VIDEOS
-related to our project to put up here. more interesting

we also came out with the outline of the proposal:

Aim of project
Problem in the school
Evidence of problem (from Ms Sim's Notes)
-Explanation (research)
-Hypothetical instances
-Figurative comparison
-Fables, sayings, poems and rhymes
-Demonstration
-Statistics
-Factual instances (pictures, videos)
-Literal instances
-Expert opinions
Solutions
-long term solutions
-short term solutions
- actions that we can take NOW
Justification of solutions
Timeline of solution
Bibliography

Meeting with the MENTORS

2008-05-21T23:25:00.005+08:00

Meeting With Mentors

We would be meeting our mentors (Karen and Gavin) on Thursday 2pm.

Please meet at 11 outside staffroom for group meeting.

The agenda should (tentative) be:
1) clearing up and clarifying the job scope of our group and other groups
2) plan out we would be doing and proposing

3) Getting opinions from mentor on the job scope and feasibility of ideas
4) Getting mentor's advice on how to write to proposal and blogs

Thanks Jia Ying for initiative :)

Plastic Bottles collected from ECP

2008-05-21T21:22:00.011+08:00

Plastic Bottles collected from ECP

Today, Adeline, Xinyuan, me and few other people went cycling today at East Coast Park.

Background info
The bicycle rental shop provide free bottles of water if you rent their bicycle

Happenings
We collected 12 such bottles of water (our own included) and 3 soft drink bottles after returning the bicycles. I would be keeping the bottles in usual "green comm area" in school to prepare for the recycling drive.

Thought...
1) Is there such a bicycle rental shop that provides free bottles of water in West Coast Park?
2) Is West Coast Park under the South West CDC?

3) If above statement 1 and 2 is true, can we do a proposal for a recycle bin beside the dust bin of that shop?
4) Also, anyone interested in cleaning up the drains and beaches as part of waste management... XD

Discussion with Bryce

2008-05-19T22:05:00.006+08:00

Discussion with Bryce
Okay... I was on the phone with Bryce. This is his insightful opinion:

1) Our scope is huge.
We might not be able to cope with it

2) Water
This clashes with with bryce's group. Bryce group is doing water conservation and ecosystems. He would be installing water-efficient taps in school toilet.

3) Waste Management
Byorn's group is doing food waste monitoring. So we can do plastic bottle recycling and paper recycling. By The Way, Bryce wants the plastic bottles for his Youth For Causes project.

4) Electricity conservation
Yong Qin group is doing electricity ONLY.

So what is left is "back to square 1". We will be doing paper and plastic bottle recycling. What is left now is to decide on the system of collection of platic bottles and paper. Next we must decide on what to do to the bottles and recycled paper. For the bottles, we would be using it for "a good cause" (Youth for Cause).

So do we want to reduce our scope of the project? Pls comment on the taggy...

idea so far #1

2008-05-18T14:14:00.006+08:00

Worldview 360 Briefing: Group Discussion Summary
This is what we discussed yesterday at the briefing:

Firstly, we are going to scrape the outline we had before the briefing.

Ideas we discussed yesterday:

We are intending to focus on more than one point.

Firstly about water:

Stagnent water in various part of the school. We can try to eliminate stagnant water, although the school still fog the area regularly.

Water wastage. We can put up posters in the toilet and around the tap areas to remind people to save water. Also, we can propose to the school to change all the faulty and leaking taps and toilets in the school (there are quite a number of such taps and toilets).

Research! We need to find out more about the system in the school like what the cleaners do and spot out all the parts where water is wasted and propose changes to minimize the water loss and conserve more water in school.

Next, about waste management, which we are most likely going to focus on paper usage and paper recycling.

Unwanted paper. We can collect unwanted paper from people in school especially from the staff room. we can recycle these paper, some of which we recycle ON OUR OWN (& maybe we can involve the school to do this together) on a monthly or termly basis and send the rest for recycling at factories (it is definitely impossible to recycle all on our own)

Printing. Encourage people (both staff and students) to print and photocopy double-sided.

Lastly, about energy conservation.

Conservation. conserve energy regarding air con, lights, fans and computers.

Lights, fans, Air con. can put up reminder notices near the switches of the rooms.

Computer. Encourage people to shut down the computer terminals instead of logging them off and leave it there when nobody is going to use them.

Policies. Maybe we can propose to the school to set a rule that the aircon in classes can only be on during lesson times.

Monitoring. We can try asking the school to show us the bills so that we can monitor and keep track whether our plans are working well (we need them for green audit too).

Okay, thats about it. there are some considerations that we have to take note when planning:

can we monitor the progress?

the plan need to be long-term, which means the green committee can continue taking it up.

it has to be related to global climate, but it can be an indirect relationship.

when our plan is fixed, we will have to justify on this blog how our plan/proposal is related to the environment and the theme.

anymore ideas can communicate through email (on the blog), or can also directly post it up here! tagboard can also be used but it may not be that efficient.

Conclusion:

we need to research on how to recycle paper.

brainstorm of more ideas and hopefully some special enough that nobody else can think off.

update this blog very often. so any ideas just put it here!

details from participants booklet

2008-05-18T13:48:00.011+08:00

Details from Participants' Booklet
Okay, this time round the information is taken from the participants' booklet.

About the blog
a. Document research and progress of the projects over a 4-week period (17 May - 17 June)
b. The public will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite project/blog online at the worldview 360 website
c. NO PLAGIARISM!
d. inform mentors of the blog address by 24th May

About submission of proposals
a. submit a short proposal of how we will be presenting the project, if selected
b. should be accompanied by any visual aids, if applicable
c. should not exceed a length of FOUR pages
d. submit via email (worldview360youths@gmail.com)

About A2 board presentation
a. Do up 2 A2 boards showcasing their project ideas to the public
b. This is regardless of whether we make it to the finals
c. There will be a selection for the Best Display

About the GRAND FINALE (if selected)
a. Will be notified of the selection by 20th June
b. Finalists will need to prepare for their actual presentation on the 10th July
c. 5 minutes of presentation followed by a round of Q & A by the panel of judges
d. No restriction for forms of visual aids used
e. There will be a selection for the Most Engaging and Most Creative Presentation

WORK ON ALL THREE PORTIONS SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM THE START

Judging criteria

Proposal:
a. Originality and Idea of the project (40%)

did the idea of the project display creativity?

does the project involve a sizable population of the school?

b. Content of the project (60%)

is the overall project sound, viable and sustainable in the long run?

does the project increase awareness about environmental issues?

is the project well-researched? (statistics etc)

Most Engaging and Creative Presentation:
a. Strength of presentation (50%)

did the presenters communicate their ideas confidently and clearly?

do the visuals used by participants enhance their presentation?

b. Creativity of presentation (40%)

does the presentation capture the attention of the audience?

is the project presented in a creative manner?

c. Question and Answer (10%)

do the teams have a good understanding of their project?

are the teams able to answer the questions confidently?

Best Blog:
a. Is the project idea communicated clearly on the blogsite? (25%)
b. Is the progress of the project charted clearly? (25%)
c. Is the project presented creatively? (25%)
d. Is the blog well-maintained? (25%)

Best Visual Display:
a. Aesthetics & Creativity (40%)
b. Clarity (30%)
c. Informative (30%)

Best Overall Project:
a. Proposal (40%)
b. Most Engaging and Creative presentation (30%)
c. Best Blog (20%)
d. Best Visual Display (10%)

competition details

2008-05-15T09:43:00.013+08:00

Competition Details
following is the details of the competition taken from the notice from the NE notice board:

Process of Competition
1) Setting up of their respective blog
2) Start of research and discussion itself
-->teams are expected to seek help from their respective mentors assigned to them
--> Mentors will be introduced to their teams on the briefing day on 17 May
3) Creation of the possible visual aids needed for presentation
4) Crafting of the proposal of how they are to go about doing their 5 minute presentation
5) Submission of visual aids and proposal by 17 June
6) if selected, preparation and rehearsals to be carried out for the presentation during the GRAND FINALE

Notes
1) Only relevant project materials should be displayed on designated blog site
2) Standard English should be used and profanities are prohibited
3) Only 1 blog is allowed per team

Mode of Competition

Preliminary Round- Blogs
1) Students are to document their research and progress of their projects, over a 4-week period from 17 May to 17 June 2008.
--> The team can decide the design of their blog and the information placed on their blog.
2) Teams are to submit their visual aids (videos, PowerPoint, etc) and a short write-up of how they are going to present their ideas by 17th June 2008, before the grand finale.
3) The public would have the opportunity to vote for their favorite project/blog online, at the Worldview 360 website: www.worldview360.org

Final round - Presentation
1) The best 5 projects will be selected based on the judging criteria below.
2) Each team would be required to give a five minute presentation on the day of the grand finale.
3) Following each presentation, each team will undergo a question and answer round, in which teams would have to answer questions, raised up by the panel of judges, relating to the project.

Prizes

Prizes will be awarded for the following categories:

-->best project $2000 worth of prizes
-->most participative school -- (with most number of projects) $1000 worth of prizes
-->most creative presentation $800 worth of prizes
-->most creative blog $500 worth of prizes
-->best booth presentation $200 worth of prizes