Roots & Shoots at QAS

We can and We Will.

Roots & Shoots at QAS started off in April 2023 by joining hands with the Roots & Shoots global movement to create interest in students to work towards environmental sustainability and Climate Change. We wanted to take some action to create awareness about the climate crisis that we are in and identify the contributing factors to global warming in our campus.

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Overview

HundrED shortlisted this innovation

HundrED has shortlisted this innovation to one of its innovation collections. The information on this page has been checked by HundrED.

Web presence

2023

Established

10

Children

1

Countries

Target group

Students basic

Updated

March 2024

We hope to see more and more students who are aware about the environmental challenges and the biodiversity loss. Awareness and education are the only things that can motivate the students to take action. We see more and more students working with all the resources they have, to combat climate change and reverse the environmental crisis that we are in today.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

I wanted to create awareness in our students about the climate crisis and the excessive use of resources that is posing a threat to the wildlife and longevity of life on our planet. I also wanted to introduce our students to ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint to reduce global warming and improve our life and the life of other species on this planet.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

The Roots & Shoots at QAS runs as an afterschool program which includes various activities, projects and research. Some of our activities are:
1. Vegetable Gardening: We use organic and zero tillage methods to grow vegetables. This helps the students in understanding the importance of reducing food miles, eating good food and being self-sustainable as far as food is concerned.
2. Waste Sorting and recycling activity: To sort plastic, metal, general and food waste to encourage recycling and to reduce wastage of resources.
3. Field trips: To elite paper recycling, to park and plant spots, To Dadu garden to meet Dr. Jane Goodall.
4. Upcycling activities: Bird feeders with plastic bottles, creating notice boards with upcycled materials.
5. Bioblitz games: To create awareness about biodiversity loss and how to take action to prevent this.
6. Reducing food waste and composting:

How has it been spreading?

Currently, we have had numerous platforms like Roots & Shoots website where we could post all our activities. Please see https://uae.rootsandshoots.community/ link for more information. We also have morning assemblies where we encourage more students to join our program.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Please contact us at nsaleem@qf.org.qa and we can get back to you.

Implementation steps

Select a group of students who are passionate about environment.

You can do this by a whole school survey

Pick a mode of delivery

Can run as After school Activity, Service As Action, or as an EFS activity.

Implementation

To create some interest, you can give some research ideas, some projects like gardening, upcycling, composting and so on.

Reflection

After research, a reflection can be done to assess what the students felt about the research and what are its implications.

Action

After reflection and assessing the seriousness of the situation, the students can be encouraged to take action. You can support the students in taking action and help them with logistics. However, It will be their responsibility to execute the action.

Conclusion

Ask the students to assess how their action helped by various tools like surveys, monitoring and evaluation, plotting graphs and so on.