Enviromental Sustainability

Middle School (Ras Beirut & Ain Aar)

Counteracting Deforestation (5ème / Grade 7 - Ain Aar)

If there’s a will, there’s always a way, and YES you can counteract deforestation! In the frame of their interdisciplinary project, our Ain Aar 5ème/Grade 7 students planted trees and seed balls and made new ones for future generations to plant.

Permaculture (Grade 7 - Ras Beirut)

As part of Grade 7’s Interdisciplinary project revolving around empathy, students explored, within their biology curriculum, how interactions between different species contribute to permaculture, and how companion planting, used in permaculture, helps promote biodiversity and preserve the environment.

Students inquired into ways to be environmentally responsible and empathic, and found a strong link between their learnings about symbiotic relationships and permaculture. The concept of permaculture strongly stresses on the importance of optimizing the choice of plants and of conserving the soil’s characteristics in order to grow sustainable crops in an environmentally responsible way. The sciences unit related to symbiotic relationships highlighted the importance of symbiotic relationships to the environment, mainly in permaculture. The 5E model was applied (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate). Students were engaged through a series of activities and games (EdPuzzle, ID card game, virtual garden creation, etc.) that enabled them to understand how permaculture fields depend on these relations to sustain themselves. To deepen their understanding, they welcomed Mrs. Rita Hajj, Head of IC’s Environmental Sustainability Program, who talked to them about the main concepts of permaculture.

Students will now create digital brochures, to raise the community’s awareness on the importance of adopting sustainable agricultural techniques in order to preserve natural resources and show empathy towards the environment.