Article: A green break

Sunday June 14, 2009

By LEE YEN MUN

WHILE other students go on vacation trips or take "laze" breaks at home during the school holidays, some children gratify themselves in quests to understand and help Mother Nature.

Sixty children, one third of whom were children from Rumah Hope and the Precious Children's Home, learnt and created their version of renewable energy at ING Insurance Berhad's "The Hydro Rocket Adventure" held at Lake Gardens recently. The others were children of ING employees.

A young participant holding up the 'rocket' she constructed with her teammates with a pledge saying 'I want to plant more trees!'

Aged between seven and 12, the young participants were taught about hydro power and how to design and build their own water rockets using recyclable materials such as plastic bottles and card boxes.

Guided by facilitators from Discovery Learning Labs, the children were taught to reduce, reuse and recycle via practical sessions of constructing toys out of reusable materials, one of which was the hydro-powered rocket.

The company's group general manager Jessica Dang said schoolchildren had to be educated on the environment and the alternative sources of energy available.

She explained that the purpose of constructing the hydro-powered rocket was to enable the children to learn about the renewable sources of energy in a fun way.

"In this case, they learnt that water and air can create energy, and that they can save the environment by making their own toys out of reusable materials," she added.

The children appeared eager and excited when it came to the launching of the rockets they designed.

Chanting "go! rocket! go!" when a member of the team began to pump and compress air into the rocket, their excitement turned into cries of "woah!" when the hand-made rockets shot high into the sky.

In a separate event, students from 10 secondary schools in Shah Alam and Klang took part in a one-year environmental conservation effort under a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme organised by the UMW Group.

Known as the UMW Green Challenge, teams were required to propose and implement solutions to balancing the eco-system in a neglected park or green area near their respective schools.

Each participating team was provided with a financial grant of RM1,000 by the organising company to aid their effort.

Another RM20,000 worth of awards and prizes will be given out to the participants when the programme comes to an end in February 2010.

The 10 participating schools were SMK Taman Sri Muda, SMK Seksyen 9, SMK Alam Megah, SMK Seksyen 16, SMK Seksyen 19, SMK Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, SMK Bukit Jelutong, SMK Kota Kemuning, SMK Jalan Kebun, and SMK Convent Klang.

Suseela Menon, executive director of UMW Corporation said, "We hope that the challenge will give our young participants something that they can be proud of — to know that they are playing their part in healing our wounded Mother Earth."

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Education 14 June 2009