On the Road: Post-2015s towards a Greener Future

At the noon of August 19 and August 26, 2022, led by Shanghai Roots & Shoots, students in Shanghai Liaoyuan Bilingual School set out exploring the way towards a greener future.

About eighty kids gathered in a classroom furnished anew, receiving lessons about garbage sorting and bees. Before beginning their first year in primary school this September, these kids first set out on the journey towards a greener future.

In the first part, we lectured on the garbage sorting practices promoted in Shanghai, especially about the reuse and recycle of dry garbage. Through this lecture, students came to know that there is no such thing as waste, only stuff in the wrong place. As for the second part, we illustrated to the kids the characters of bees and their important role in nature. The wide array of tasty fruit and vegetables we enjoy are all made possible by pollination carried out by healthy bees. Then, a simulation experiment was added to help the students understand the stability of the hives. Each kid was to fold a hexagon from a sheet of paper; with several hexagons pasted together, the simulated hive grew larger. Later, books of different weight were laid on the hives to test their bearing capacity, the strongest of which sustained 45 books in total.

With lecture and practice combined, the kids gained new insights about bees as well as the three basic traits of insects. They promised to protect bees from then on so that we could enjoy more fresh fruit and vegetables in the future.

Though the two-day activities in Shanghai Liaoyuan Bilingual School have drawn to an end, Shanghai Roots & Shoots is still on the way with the bright and promising post-2015 kids heading towards a greener future. Together, we are to change our mother Earth for the better.

Translation: Ming JIN