Green Panther Newsdesk

Green Panther News Desk

ISB gets greener and greener every week. Some highlights of recent green news stories…

Partnership Opportunity for ISB and the Bill Clinton Foundation
The Bill Clinton Foundation recently approached ISB and several other Bangkok schools about a potential partnership with very green overtones. While the full details of the proposal will be revealed at a special meeting on 16 October, early information is that the Foundation will fully fund an environmental retrofit of the entire school (lighting, cooling, insulation etc.). Repayment of these upfront costs will be through savings from the school’s reduced consumption of energy.

More details will follow next week’s meeting. Keep your fingers crossed.

Grade 2 Goes Organic

This year, as part of their study of plants in Science, the Grade 2 students at ISB are growing vegetables in organic gardens. Over a dozen small plots line the jogging path near the fence on the far side of the parking lot. Student teams planted carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach and other vegetables in the hopes that before our December holiday, their classes will be able to harvest vegetables and share a salad they have grown themselves.

Not only will students gain valuable information about plants as they follow their crops from seed to table, but they will also reap the rewards that come to those who take time to care for the earth that sustains us.

In our community, much of the food our children see is either commercially prepared, or packaged in cardboard and plastic. It is easy to forget that our food comes not from
Villa, but from the ground. Just a few generations ago, a majority of earth's inhabitants nourished themselves, at least in part, with food they had grown themselves or animals they raised for that purpose. Now that nearly half of the planet’s inhabitants live in cities, a growing number of children cannot identify the origins of the food they eat because their food is wrapped in plastic on a Styrofoam
tray, vacuum-sealed, or boxed with a colorful label. In order to combat this trend, a recent article on nutrition in the New York Times Magazine gave this simple advice for good health: if your grandparents didn’t eat, you probably shouldn’t either. You know that rules out Pringles.

We can only take better care of our earth if we learn about it - what it needs, how it works, and how to carefully manage what it has to offer. Congratulations to Grade 2 for taking this concrete step. Work the garden, enjoy the food.

Visitors are welcome to view the gardens, and volunteer gardeners are
encouraged to ask the second grade teachers how they can help. Contact Caryn Macky, magicrat@loxinfo.co.th, for more information about the gardens or Kerry Dyke, kerryd@isb.ac.th, for ways you can support earth care at ISB.


Green Panther Birth Announcement

The Elementary Green Panthers are born! The newly established elementary student council is organized into four action groups and the Green Panthers were front and centre. Their first meeting is on the 25th. You will definitely hear more.