STUDENT LIFE

SISP: School, Sustainability, and Social Impact

Jack Zhang interviews SISP director Rafi Cristobal to share more insight into the program's objectives and how students can work together to achieve these goals

15 March 2022 --If you are new to the school, you might ask: “What is SISP?” I interviewed the director of SISP, Mr. Rafi Cristobal, to explain everything. SISP, or the THS Social Impact and Sustainability Program, is a program embedded into the curriculum which teaches students about the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how students can take action to achieve these goals together.

Mr Cristobal has confirmed that SISP is read S-I-S-P, not what many people think as SIS-p, sis-P or SISP. He, alongside Mr. Handrich and Mr. Giovanni Tengga (also 5C Head Teacher), created this program at the start of the 21y22 school year.

SISP has a predecessor, Project Hope, which was created by a few teachers in 2019. Project Hope was an optional pull-out program in which students participated in small activities that were centered around the community, such as going to farms in Sai Kung and visiting elderly centers in Ap Lei Chau. When Mr. Cristobal was asked why he created SISP, he stated, “We want to make it [SISP] grow and then be part of the curriculum, so it will be a good effect for the students, and also a big effect in the people that we help.” Interestingly, according to Mr. Cristobal, SISP’s end goal is to become an organization which helps people around the world, starting from THS and slowly advancing step by step.

In September to December of 2021, SISP held 7 schoolwide and 36 grade-level events, some such as food-tasting and experiencing the lives of poor/disabled people (more information here). 40 of these events were sponsored by other organizations, such as UNICEF and the Hong Kong Green Council. Collaboration, according to Mr. Cristobal, is “very easy if you have good encouragement from the management, which we have, and also inspiration from the students, the parents, the teachers, and the entire community.”

Some of you reading may know that SISP has started a social enterprise, the Dog Biscuit Company, which makes innovative new dog biscuits to sell to people. In a social enterprise, part of the revenue that is earned from that enterprise goes to helping the environment and the community. Mr. Cristobal has confirmed (or leaked, rather) that in the 21y22 school year there are 6 new social enterprises planned alongside Dog Biscuit, and there will be even more in the 22y23 school year.

Mr. Cristobal notes that COVID-19 does not affect any of SISP’s plans, and they always find a way to host their events as planned.

To sum it up, SISP is a part of the school curriculum which teaches students about the 17 SDGs, and its predecessor was an optional program called Project Hope. SISP hosts school events for the students, some for the whole school, and some for specific grades or classes. They also have a social enterprise. I personally think that SISP is a good program, however it definitely has its flaws, such as how the topics of the social enterprises (such as dogs) do not interest some students. I hope you enjoyed this article, and now know more about SISP!

Grade 7 students attending a social enterprise summit in October 2021

A PASSION PROJECT UNIQUE TO PAST YEARS

This edition of POP is a little different from the ones from previous years, writes Julie Mok

Students work on their passion projects, clockwise from top: video creation; drawing and painting dance and drama; building models.

15 December 2021 -- This year, students of all ages from Junior Grade 1 to middle school are participating in PoP, otherwise known as Passion Projects. Passion Projects first started in 2016 when Mrs. Dunn, current teacher of 4A, did it with her class. The following year, the idea of PoP rolled out to the entire school. Since then, students have been dedicating their term 2 library time to working towards a goal they want to achieve, or something they are interested in making. They then are able to display their hard work at a Passion Project showcase at the end of the term, where parents, teachers and students usually are able to come see what everyone’s been creating over the past weeks.

For students, Passion Projects can be a place for many different things. For some, it could be a time to experiment and learn, but for others, it could be a time for them to simply have fun and practice their hobbies. Ms. Julia, our school librarian across all grades and this year’s PoP organizer, shared with us some of the most unique Passion Projects she has seen from this year. “Two students are making edible slime, and I have to say I am very curious to try that,” she says. She also mentioned projects such as making a dress out of leaves, making home-made perfume, and making a skateboard. Mrs. Schiavon, Grade 6B teacher also added that a Passion Project which stood out to her was that some students were creating their own lipgloss.

Unlike past years, where students did PoP in their classrooms, this time students were split into 22 different groups based on the topic of choice. In each group there are students of different grades working on similar projects. This allows students of different grades to help one another, and for students to receive feedback and help if needed from other peers.

Doing Passion Projects can be a huge benefit for many students. Ms. Light, Grade 2A teacher, shares with us some of her thoughts on the benefits of Passion Projects. “It's a great chance to develop a skill or learn something new that you have not had time to do before. It is also really fun to do something hands-on that you can work on both at school and at home,” she says. Mrs. Schiavon also agrees with her, talking about how “we don't always have time for students to show off their special talents and interests in our regular lessons/class periods, so PoP is the perfect time to allow students to work on something they truly love.”

Although this year’s showcase was planned to be held on March 2nd, it was postponed to March 11th, and had to be held online. Despite these hiccups, however, THS was still able to hold a virtual PoP exhibition via a website shared with the THS community.

We hope you enjoyed watching showcase videos that all students have made after lots of hard work over the term, and look forward to what next year’s Passion Projects will bring.

THS Student Council Considers Students' Wishes

Student leaders were presented with whole school survey with data on students' favorite subjects, classroom arrangements and suggestions for improvement, writes Julie Mok

15 December 2021 -- Being a student at The Harbour School for more than three years, it’s made me wonder how the Harbour School operates, how they make decisions when making improvements, and how much of a say students have. Because of this, I created a google form to ask students what they felt were areas of improvement THS could consider. The purpose of this article was to report back after discussing students’ responses with members of Student Council. In November, the form was released to all students of all grades at The Harbour School through TIDE and the weekly bulletin. It included questions about what students would like more of at our school, what the school could improve on, and what students’ favourite subjects were. The form received 106 responses collectively from students in Grades 6, 4, 3, as well as middle school and high school.

Above: Percentage of students who responded from each grade.

Above: Graph of student’s thoughts on their classrooms

Based on this survey, I learned that the majority of students’ favourite subjects in order were P.E., Media Tech, and Math. I found this surprising since Field Trips only reached a close fourth, which I thought would be more popular. In terms of classrooms, more than 60% of students stated that they like or love their learning spaces (8-10 on graph), while less than 5% of students answered that they did not like their learning spaces (1-3 on graph). The graph below represents how much students like their classrooms on a scale of 1-10 (least to most).

Being a student at The Harbour School for more than three years, it’s made me wonder how the Harbour School operates, how they make decisions when making improvements, and how much of a say students have. Because of this, I created a google form to ask students what they felt were areas of improvement THS could consider. The purpose of this article was to report back after discussing students’ responses with members of Student Council. In November, the form was released to all students of all grades at The Harbour School through TIDE and the weekly bulletin. It included questions about what students would like more of at our school, what the school could improve on, and what students’ favourite subjects were. The form received 106 responses collectively from students in Grades 6, 4, 3, as well as middle school and high school.

In spite of the majority of students loving their classrooms, it was also said that some classrooms have slow wifi and have a loud environment. On the other hand, students also mentioned how unique and comfortable their classrooms are.

Other suggestions included the possibility of getting vending machines added to our school, reintroducing buddy systems, and student-chosen recess clubs, all of which will be talked about later on in the article.

After reviewing the results collected from the survey, I had a meeting with Mrs. Greenberg, principal of Junior Grade 1 to Middle School, and Sienna Kim, Grade 6 Primary Representative for Student Council. I also shared the results to the other members of the Student Council. The discussion is summed up below:

Student-led and chosen recess clubs - The majority of respondents said that they would want student-led and chosen recess clubs. Mrs. Greenberg and Sienna mentioned that they really liked that concept and that it would be easy to introduce, with teachers only being there as support and supervision to students, who would be planning and leading their own groups.

Buddy Systems - Buddy systems is a system where a student is paired up with a younger student, so that the older can help the younger Mrs. Greenberg told us that the school had tried buddy systems before, but it had been mostly phased out due to COVID restrictions, and that it would also be hard to organise cross-grade buddies because students have lunch and recess at different times and locations. It's more likely that the school can continue the buddy system within the same grade or floor.

Vending Machines - We then discussed the possibility of having vending machines on campus. Mrs. Greenberg said that she would look into it, and talked about how they would operate. Ideas such as making students able to use their student ID cards to pay for items in vending machines whilst letting parents see what they were buying using the cards was discussed. It was also mentioned that they could let students put donated items such as books and toys to the vending machines. It was felt that healthy food may not be popular, and as it doesn’t have a long shelf life, would not be the best option.

The Greatest Showman - It was also brought up that the students could perhaps watch the movie The Greatest Showman, which is this year’s school production, over three lunch times. Mrs. Greenberg showed keen interest in making this happen sometime in the future.

Move-up Day - Move-up day is a day where students will get to go see what their following grade will be like, as well as what they would learn and who their teachers would be. As this idea is similar to Meet and Greet, Mrs. Greenberg said that the school could arrange it so that they would add some aspects of move-up day’s such as getting to know what topics you will be learning the following year. She and Sienna both commented that it would be difficult to arrange showing students what their classrooms would look like the following year, due to the classroom spaces and teachers being moved around every year.

We look forward to seeing some of the topics discussed above come to fruition, and hope that the school and Student Council will consider some of the suggestions made by students. I’m grateful for all the hard work and wonderful ideas from the Student Council this year. If you did, thank you for taking your time to fill out my form as it is really appreciated!

Meatless Mondays:
Should You Pledge?

Jack Zhang offers more information about the campaign and how it aims to benefits students' wellbeing as well as the environment.

15 December 2021 -- Meatless Monday is a simple program by Monday Campaigns, which suggests eating no meat on Mondays can help the environment. The campaign, first started in 2003, was founded by Sid Learner, who revived the program from its first usage in WWI where it was established to help save resources.

The campaign is backed by scientific research from the Center of A Liveable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (which interestingly is the same organization that made CTY, if you know what that is). They have found that Meatless Monday can help the environment and also reduce health issues.

Monday Campaigns have also found that Monday is the best day in the week to kick start something different or new. Research in collaboration with ResearchScape International found,“Those who see Mondays as a fresh start rate their health highest: 71% rate it excellent or good. This was significantly higher than the other feelings about Monday. The same percentage (71%) of those that do not lose track of the day of the week also reported that their health was good or excellent.”

Eating less meat can help with your health, according to Monday Campaigns. It can reduce chances of heart diseases, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and cancer in the intestine. It is because red meat (beef, pork etc. - meat that is red when uncooked) can cause some harmful diseases. It will also reduce fat and weight in your body.

Protein is not a hard nutrient to get when eating vegetables, since plants such as beans, soybeans, and nuts can give you enough protein for one day of food. However, other nutrients such as Vitamin B12 are extremely important but hard to trace in vegetables, meaning you might need some vitamin supplements if you undergo Meatless Monday.

The most important point of Meatless Monday, according to numerous researchers, however, is to help the environment. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is famous for its effect on greenhouse gases and global warming, and the production of meat is a large part of these emissions, giving out more CO2 than all of the transportation sector.

Each Meatless Monday, you save 8 pounds (3.5 kilograms) of CO2 emissions or 1.5 Imperial tons (around the same metric tons) each year. Skipping 1 serving of beef (usually 3 or 4 ounces - around 85 grams) saves emissions equivalent to driving 348 miles (around 560 km) in a car. Meanwhile, methane is 20x more powerful than CO2 on trapping heat in the atmosphere, which is emitted as flatulence, especially from cows.

Animals take a ton of resources to feed and grow. The land that is used to feed them is already 30% of the world’s landmass, which is about the same size as Asia, and that is 75% of the world’s agricultural land. In the US alone, 260 million acres (around 1,052,182 km squared) of forest have been cleared for animal farming, with 7 extra football fields (1 american football field is 57,600 feet squared or 5,390 meters squared) cleared each minute for more.

It takes many more crops to feed the animals than it would take to feed ourselves. 70% of the US’s grain produce is used to feed animals, and 16 pounds of that grain can only produce 1 pound of meat. 5 pounds of wild fish only produces 1 pound of farmed fish. Farm animals produce around 89,000 pounds of un-treated faeces (around 40,370 kg) per second. This then pollutes the groundwater, which eventually reaches our homes.

Speaking of water, 425 gallons of water (around 1,608 liters) is used for a ¼ pound of beef, and also enough energy to power an iPhone for 6 months. 1 pound of beef takes 1,850 gallons (7,000 litres) of water, but only 39 gallons (147 litres) for a pound of vegetables.

Interestingly, eating less meat can also save your grocery shopping spending by at least $4 USD a week.

Despite the fact that Meatless Monday is helping the environment, how your vegetables came to your dining table still affects it. The vegetables could have been grown with insecticides and pesticides, which is also a massive problem in terms of global warming. They could also be shipped from far away with CO2-emitting transport, such as trucks and airplanes.

Now, you might be wondering, what has all this to do with THS? The Social Impact and Sustainability Program(SISP), formed by teacher Rafi Cristobal, is all about sustainability and helping us move towards a good future. They have brought the Meatless Monday Campaign to THS, and have created a form for this academic year, where students, parents and staff can pledge to participate in the Meatless Monday campaign. You can sign up here.

A survey conducted in the past month asks students throughout the whole school about their opinion on Meatless Monday. Although most agree with eating less meat, some students are against it just because they like meat.

These are the survey results:

Nevertheless, over half of the students did not pledge to Meatless Monday. The biggest reason I have found for why people did not pledge is because their parents plan their child’s diet and have not pledged to / heard about Meatless Monday. I hope that you parents consider the fact that eating less meat may be good for their child.In conclusion, Meatless Monday is a campaign brought to school by SISP and has many benefits in terms of health and the environment. Students mostly agree with Meatless Monday through my survey, however just less than 40 percent of the respondents have pledged to the program. I think that it is the parents’ responsibility for their child to either pledge to it or not, but I hope that with this article, I have informed everyone about Meatless Monday.

OPINION:
Everyone benefits from feeling valued and heard

Students and teachers should find ways to value each other's thoughts, feeling and ideas, writes Akshay Gobalakrishna.

15 December 2021 -- One day in late October, we were in the middle of a class discussion when the teacher shared something that I did not agree with. We ended up arguing, and in the end, I felt that I wasn't being listened to. This is what led me to do research on the topic of the effects of being heard, and conduct a survey on students from Grades 4 to 6 at The Harbour School.

When I researched this topic, I found lots of evidence that being listened to is very important. I found that the way teachers are in students’ primary years will affect them later on in school. I also found that teachers that give more positive feedback may have a better relationship with students, while teachers who criticize their students, especially in a negative way may have a much worse relationship with students. Finally, I found that being given positive feedback and less criticism may make students feel more confident, motivated, and interested in their tasks.

A survey of 57 students from Grades 4-6 at THS showed that 70 percent of students felt that their voice wasn’t heard enough. When asked to expand on their answers, students shared that they felt that they could not make their ideas happen, for example, create recess clubs, and that they would like to have a voice without being part of the Student Council. When asked what THS should do about this, many people said that students should ask teachers to help share their ideas, and there should be a form that they can fill for the school administration to consider.

When asked if not being in Student Council made it less likely for people to listen to their ideas, 79 percent said no and 21 percent said yes. Of those who said yes, survey respondents felt that they had ideas that the student council didn’t want.

In terms of teacher-student relationships, 74 percent of students responded that they felt their opinions were not criticized by their teachers, which is good news. There were however 23 percent who answered sometimes, and 4 percent of students who felt that their opinions were not heard or were often criticized by their teachers.

Students who answered yes and sometimes explained that there were instances where they felt that teachers were not listening to them. Instead, teachers were telling them to do things that the teachers thought were better. After asking them what the school should do about it, 15 students said that it would be good if teachers can support their students’ opinions, and listen first, instead of shooting them down right away.

The survey also looked into whether students felt that their preferences were considered when it came to subjects studied. When asking if students would want to take up new subjects, 68 percent said yes while 32 percent said no. The top three subjects that students wanted to take up were history, geography, and drama. Students said that they wanted to take up these subjects because they wanted to try something new or because their other subjects were getting boring.

Students also said they wanted more hours given to media tech, art, and math. Most of the students wanted extra time for media tech, which shows that students love doing things with computers and technology.

When it came to motivation for learning, there was an almost equal number of students who wanted more rewards as there were students who did not want rewards. This shows that for at least half of THS students, rewards would be a way for them to stay motivated when doing schoolwork.

Out of the 47 percent who wanted more rewards, most of them said that being given rewards would motivate them to finish their work on time and give them a reason for why they should work harder, some respondents said that they would like rewards to have more fun in school. Some examples of rewards that students wanted to receive were Dojo points, access to the Steam gaming platform, time to play Minecraft, and money.

When students were asked if they wanted to do additional extracurricular activities that are usually only offered to students who are eligible for Learning Extension services, such as the Literacy Extension and Acceleration Project (LEAP) and Full Steam Ahead (FSA), 63 percent said no and 37 percent said yes. Students who answered yes said they wanted to join but did not qualify. Other students said that they wanted more opportunities to explore their interests.

When asked what extracurricular activities they wanted to do, students said that they wanted to write journalistic articles and works of fiction. One person said that they would want to be able to write for The Black Dolphin Chronicle without having to be tested for LEAP.

Getting students’ voices heard is a small but important step in making the school a better place. Even though it may take a while to do this, in the end everyone will feel safe and comfortable in a school environment. In THS, I have seen how people can be happy to listen to others, but sometimes seem not to want to listen. This is why students and teachers alike should find ways to listen to each other and help each others' voices be heard.

A Look Into Virtual School's Impact on Children

Ryder Savio explores virtual schooling and how it has affected students from The Harbour School.

Think about it, have you ever had to deal with online learning, lockdown, and isolation? Well, I’m sure you have. COVID-19 has had a big impact on our world. It has caused people to get sick, be separated from family, refrain from traveling, and have mental health issues. Around 53.2 million people suffer from mental health issues because of Covid-19. Since the pandemic started, there has been a big increase in mental health issues with people, especially kids - all because of virtual school. Once lockdown started, teachers found a way to still be able to teach their kids through computer technology and what we call virtual school.

Schools took to virtual learning as a solution to still being able to learn during the Covid-19 pandemic but are also looking far beyond the consequences. Without virtual school, kids would have nothing to do all day and wouldn’t be able to learn anything, and for how long virtual school has been going some kids would have even skipped a grade without it. Many people think virtual learning has a positive effect on kids still being able to learn during Covid times. However, research shows just how many students have suffered from mental health issues because of virtual school.

Much research shows, according to the American Psychological Association (APA), that kids have trouble focusing during virtual school due to the fact of having the ability to go onto different pages at the same time. They feel that because their teacher cannot see them it is okay to go off-task which leads to the lack of discipline that students experience during virtual learning. On the other hand, when on-site, students need to follow rules to stay focused while in virtual school, students don’t necessarily have to follow these rules (Stringer, 2020).

At the same time, students’ favorite part of school is mostly seeing their friends, where they get to hang out and talk with each other during breaks. Not only that, but they also get to learn together. They can do group work and discuss what they have been talking about in classes. On the other hand, virtual school has not allowed them to see their friends as much which decreases their motivation. According to the APA, kids need the motivation to learn - “those moments of working alongside a friend or asking a teacher for guidance allow students to feel connected to others” (Stringer, 2020). When on a physical campus, students have the opportunity to interact with other students in their class.

Eric Anderman, Ph.D., an educational psychology professor who studies academic motivation at The Ohio State University, said, "It may be a problem to not interact with fellow students but it is also a problem that teachers cannot give proper individual attention” (Stringer, 2020). He adds that kids’ self-confidence is negatively affected “during distance learning because it can be more difficult for teachers to provide individualized feedback” (Stringer, 2020). When kids are doing in-person school they are able to ask teachers questions for their own needs and get the attention they need to help them learn. While doing virtual school, kids are not able to freely raise their hands and ask for help; they need to ask in front of the whole class. After all, it can even be embarrassing at times and makes kids feel that they should not ask for help in case it will be an obvious answer that the whole class already knows.

According to APA, virtual school is especially hard for children with disabilities - they are considered the most likely to have trouble during virtual school such as kids with ADHD (Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) who have trouble paying attention in class. This is because kids with disorders like ADHD are already at risk or have difficulty in education, and online learning just makes it even harder (Stringer, 2020).

I interviewed Grade 2 to Grade 6 students at The Harbour School to understand their perspectives on online learning:

Question: Do you think you got enough individualized attention during virtual school?

Answer: “No. Because I felt that the teachers were presumably very busy dealing with the whole class,” said fifth-grade student Francis Lui. He explained how he felt that there was not enough individualized attention towards him because the teacher had to deal with everything else that was going on virtually through the other students. This example shows how when kids feel that they don’t get enough individualized attention, they can be put down because they aren’t getting the help they need.

Question: How did you communicate and socialize with friends during virtual school?

Answer: “I used video games like ShellShockers, Roblox, and Minecraft. I also used Google Hangouts and Gmail,” said Kaito, who is a fourth-grade student. He explained how he wasn’t able to physically interact with friends because he couldn’t see them physically during virtual school.

Question: What did you dislike about virtual school?

Answer: 1. Teachers can’t give out individual guides. 2. Kids need parents to watch them. 3. Kids can’t focus on the screen too long. 4. No social environment.

This is according to fifth-grade student Elizabeth Zhu who. This shows how challenging it is to have teachers who can’t give proper individualized help and attention and how kids can’t focus on a screen for too long because it is bad for them as well as how difficult it is to have a social environment because they are separated from friends.

Question: What were you feeling during virtual school?

Answer: “A bit sad and lonely,” said fourth-grade student Viola Moore. During virtual school, she was sad and lonely because she felt no motivation from her friends.

Question: Which do you prefer: real-life school or virtual school?

Answer: Most kids chose real-life school due to all of the reasons which can prove that virtual school does take a turn on a kid’s life.

The amount of suffering that kids have to go through because of virtual school is heartbreaking - no friends for motivation, not enough attention from teachers, and no self-confidence. Kids just like me have had a long journey through virtual school and in some places around the world, kids still have to go through virtual school, increasing the risk of mental health issues towards kids like me.

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