Sustainability Center
The Millennium National School has chosen ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ as a central part of its school mission and its educational plan. We believe that a school is not only a place for students to learn, but also a space for the community to be inspired.
In a world as interconnected as ours, one realizes that protection of self and protection of the planet is indistinguishable. Education for ‘Sustainable Development’ enables our students to weave information into a Story – to see the connections, the patterns, and consequences. As young children are well shaped to mimic what they see and hear, the school offers them an opportunity to internalize these values. By reaching out to the broader school community that includes parents, neighbourhood, experts etc, we intend to take up experiments and explorations to create whole new culture of how we work and live. It is through such context, we are confident, that lot of new opportunities of learning and innovation would emerge on which we will collectively act and envision a different future!
Activities at sustainability center derive from following objectives
- Education:Learning from nature as a cross-curricular theme in school education
- Environment:Creating ‘Diverse Ecosystems’ for observing nature’s strategies and values
- Experience:Eco-internship for students with eco-entrepreneurs. Educating the community in sustainable ways of living through experiential and experimental data
- Leadership:Piloting solutions for addressing human challenges, through innovations that emulate nature’s time tested patterns and strategies. Incubating and improving ideas for creating earth friendly businesses using nature inspired solutions
Projects undertaken
Organic Forest Garden
At Organic Forest Garden students grow their own food. They do so with minimum effort as they harmonize their tasks with the way nature operates. Students mulch the ground, nourish the plants with jeevamrut, look out for signs of insect damage or disease and apply some natural remedies, finally harvest the produce to prepare a delicious dish. The Organic Forest Garden thrives on the food waste from the school canteen and sustains on water received from utensil-washing. The students come to appreciate the benefits of interdependence and coexistence. Growing their own food gives them a tremendous feeling of pleasure!
Engineered Wetland for |
Cow for jeevamrut |
Biogas for hobby kitchen and |
Farm to school
We buy our grains and vegetables directly from the farmer. Farm to school enriches the connection our school has with fresh, healthy food and local food producers by changing food purchasing policies. It is a means to improve child nutrition, support local economies and educate children about the origins of food. We can also increase the in the diversity of the grains and vegetables we consume
Urban Farming
It is a farming activity carried out in urban premises, like in an open plot or on an open terrace. It is dependent on intense use of city compost, which is generated preferably in the same or nearby premises, where such farming is to be carried out. The produce i.e. the vegetables can be consumed by the community or in the city itself. You may want to try out the experiential course to be an ‘Urban Farmer’
Eco-sanitation
Through the use of Urine Diversion Dry Toilets we use to plan to achieve a sustainable sanitation system, especially where water is scarce, a connection to a sewer system and centralized wastewater treatment plant is not desired, fertilizer and soil conditioner are needed for farming, and groundwater pollution needs to be minimized. odor-free operation and pathogen reduction by drying
Green teachers
Green teachers initiative perceives school children as ecologists in their own right who need to be nurtured by a flexible school routine and engage with children in the construction of knowledge. The plan is to engage students in the study of the relationships between living things and their surroundings in a more contextual and connected manner. Green Teachers will understand, appreciate, adopt and contribute to the development of a multidisciplinary perspective of environment and its conservation in children.
Classrooms in Nature
If learning through play is completely natural to children, where does adult-designed learning fit in? Unstructured play in an enriched outdoor environment develops the skills formal education strives for. In a Nature’s Classroom we give students and teachers the chance to experience education from another perspective, outside the walls of the classroom. It gives a change to bring nature into the lives of the children. This could probably be the space where the young children learn best
Objectives
Learning from nature as a cross-curricular theme
Nature will not only be viewed in terms of aesthetic beauty but also as a model, as a measure and as a mentor. It will be an opportunity for the students to see not what we can extract from the natural world but what we can learn from it. Using environment as a base, wish to socialize children into a culture of concern and a search for collective solutions. Through nature, science could be seen as set of complex relationships rather than a narrowly specialized enquiry
Piloting solutions to tackle real world challenges
We will strive to encourage innovators, researchers, students, faculty, and staff to continue piloting sustainability solutions on campus to tackle real-world challenges. The plan is to use our campus as a test bed to generate solutions that enhance the health of people and planet, nature and ecosystems, culture and learning
Creating Diverse Ecosystems for observing nature’s strategies and values
In nature all the players perform in harmony for life to flourish. Seeing these virtues – symbiosis, networking, balance, sharing – connects us to nature and each other. We fall in love with it, and whatever we love, we are hardwired to protect. Nature fits form to function, uses only the energy it needs, rewards cooperation and local expertise, curbs excess power from within. Awe and reverence flow out while observing nature’s creations. By being attentive to nature’s lessons, we can hope for change of heart, to use this new technology to help ourselves fit in on earth rather than the other way round.
Eco-internship for students with eco-entrepreneurs
As a part of experiencing different ways in which students learn to be useful within a society, they can choose to be working with eco-entrepreneurs. The field trips can be thoughtfully chosen to reflect the internship project. The science projects can be an year long activity carefully mentored by the eco-entrepreneurs.
Inspiring the community in sustainable ways of living through experiential and experimental data
We believe that schools must not only carry out research, but also translate the findings of that research into action. Community engagement campaigns and programs will be focused on using our campus to incubate great ideas and replicable models for change. Students can organize sustainable living convergences where the community is invited to the school and educated about the alternative lifestyles by reflecting the pattern of nature’s wisdom. The school can invite other schools and inspire them to emulate such projects in their own way.
Incubating and improving ideas for creating earth friendly businesses using nature inspired solutions
We want our budding entrepreneurs to meet men and women who are exploring nature’s masterpieces and then copying these designs and manufacturing processes to solve our own problems. They will be able to discuss their own innovations from the perspective of sustainability and this awareness will result in improving their designs.
