Cowley International College win our Spring Termly Topic Award

Congratulations to the students on the Eco-Committee at Cowley International College in St Helens, we are delighted to announce that their innovative awareness campaign for the Eco-Schools Marine topic has been crowned our Spring Termly Topic Award winner. Check the post, some Eco-Schools freebies will be waiting for you when you get back from the Easter break!

As the Eco-Committee at Cowley had already decided to focus on Marine as one of their Eco-Schools topics, students from years 7-9 decided that their own project should also focus on Marine Environments: they decided to create a large jellyfish sculpture highlighting the threat of single-use plastics to marine life. They did this by first filling clear plastic bags with non-recyclable plastic waste, then joining these bags together to form the bell of the jellyfish. Once they had completed the bell, students threaded different size plastic bottles onto a long piece of string to create the tentacles. They attached the tentacles in the bell and finally glued shredded plastic bags around the circumference of the bell to create the margin.

Their jellyfish has been given the Latin binomial name Lagenam Gelata (thanks to science technician Mr Pemberton) which translates to bottle jelly. Lagenam Gelata has been on display in the school atrium on a carefully arranged blue sheet to give the impression of the model floating in an ocean. Accompanying the model are also facts about ocean plastic.

Whilst creating the model, the students learnt a lot about the issues facing the oceans: they had to research ocean plastic facts and decide what the model should be made of and what it should look like. It has prompted students to look at further ways we can learn about this in school. Once the model was completed, the Eco-Committee took on The Pod’s Waste Week and planned a range of activities and competitions focusing on plastic waste with Lagenam Gelata being the focus point of activities.

Since creating their model, students have noticed less plastic around school and more students interested in becoming a part of the Eco-Committee – they hope this interest from around the school will continue.