Five Grade 11 students from The KAUST School joined up with peers at Thuwal School Intermediate and Secondary Schools for Girls on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 for a recycling awareness workshop, as part of the Environment element of KAUST’s Young Learners’ Development Program (YLDP). Accompanied by three members of the Social Responsibility team, the girls made two presentations, one to each school, in both Arabic and English. First, they introduced themselves and talked about the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle campaign, using posters that they were able to leave with each school. To show how reusing and recycling can be fun and creative, the TKS students had brought along two ideas and all the necessary resources to share with the Thuwal students. For the first project, the Thuwal students worked through recycling t-shirts into useful bags and for the second project, the students made good use of plastic bottles by turning them into decorated plant pots, finishing with a little bit of soil and flower seeds. There is an informal competition between the Intermediate and the High School students now to see which ones grow the best!
The TKS students were outstanding representatives for KAUST and TKS – they had excellent presentation skills, talking through the Reduce, Reuse and Recycling Program clearly and knowledgeably and then, having demonstrated the t-shirt and bottle exercise, worked together with the girls on the projects. Likewise, the Thuwal students were a most conscientious audience, listening carefully and able to put the presentation into production. The two groups engaged very well, with some renewing acquaintances with those they had already met at English classes, WEP and the friendly sports fixtures. Although some of the Arabic speaking TKS students were a little reticent in using their Arabic in case it wasn’t up to scratch, they won praise from the teachers, particularly the principal of the Intermediate School.
For the KAUST students this visit goes towards the Creativity Activity Service (CAS) element of the IB Diploma, which aims to assist students in enhancing their personal and interpersonal development by learning through experience. The KAUST students were impressed by the Thuwal girls’ creativity and attention to detail as well as noting their collaborative approach to learning. The KAUST students felt that both visitors and hosts learned a lot from the morning and are very much looking forward to the next occasion when they can work together.
Thank you very much to the principals, teachers and students at Thuwal Intermediate and High School for Girls for the warm welcome and especially the students’ willingness to engage with their guests and the projects. Thank you to Aliya, Jana, Rumaysa, Sabarisha and Zainab for your careful preparation and great teamwork.
Part of the Young Learners' Development Program - read the Program Overview here.
February 15, 2018
