Triston was part of a team from Chong Boon Secondary School which visited the Elephant Haven near Chiangmai last year. The objective: to get a taste of life as an environmental volunteer.

But the trip wasn't just a stand-alone activity. The students had also spent months collecting tabs from aluminium cans and encouraging their friends to toss used tabs into a collection bin. When the bin was filled, the tabs were sent to the Prostheses Foundation in Chiangmai, a charity that produces prosthetic limbs for amputees and victims of landmines. The foundation uses recycled materials to save costs and the aluminium collected by the students will end up in couplings, nuts and bolts that help farmers, villagers and even elephants literally get back on their feet.

Helping the environment, and the community too

A life-sized roti prata man was one of many sculptures created using recyclables for Racial Harmony Day.

The two programmes in Thailand illustrate how Chong Boon Secondary School's approach to environmental education involves caring for the earth as well as helping the community. Environmental education is a Niche Programme at the school and relevant lessons are infused into different subjects at all levels in subjects such as English, Geography, Science, Project Work and Character Education.

As Mr Yeo Keng Yong, head of the Science department, puts it, "We want to instil in students an appreciation for nature and also the ability to make responsible and eco-friendly decisions." One example of this is how the school tries to do away with waste as much as possible. Students are encouraged to bring recyclables such as old newspapers, magazines and clothes, which are sold to raise money for needy schoolmates. Wall decorations in the hall and canteen are made almost entirely from recycled materials and students once used old CDs to form a dazzling reflective backdrop for the school's stage.

According to Mr Yeo, since this practice began four years ago, the school's budget for decoration has fallen from thousands of dollars to just a few hundred. This practice doesn't only save money. Principal Mrs Saraspathy Menon adds, "What's important is that the entire school is involved in this process, and there's ownership and creativity."

More recent activities included the celebrations for this year's Racial Harmony Day. "The whole school made use of recycled materials to create sculptures with the theme 'Who's Your Neighbour?'" says Mr Yeo. Showing an inclusive take on the word "neighbour", the students created sculptures such as a model of Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers and a statue of their favourite roti prata seller.

Working to clean up after the elephants was a way for students to bond with the animals.

A Sec 3 class took their interpretation of the theme a step further, as student Edmond Toh explains. "We took famous places in Singapore and put them all together in a miniature. We had the Merlion and different religious places as the background, and in front there were trees and grass. We cut out famous faces from magazines and pasted them on plastic bottles to show the people coming together as one."

Jiving with jumbos

Beyond dollars and cents, the school strives to show how the students' efforts to recycle can benefit the community, even in neighbouring countries. Recounting his stay at the elephant park, Triston notes, "The elephants were injured or tormented by their owners, so Khun Lek, the woman who founded the camp, brought them there to help them."

"It was a very good opportunity to interact and learn about the elephants," he adds, and it strengthened his resolve "to learn more about conserving the environment and helping the less fortunate." Describing the trip as a real "eye opener", Chemistry teacher Mr Mike Goh was also struck by how the students bonded as they "could feel the closeness of humans and elephants working together."

After the trip, the students made a presentation during assembly to share their experiences with the whole school. In Mrs Menon's view, such episodes are surely the best way to spread the call to love nature. "That's how we propagate the message - by celebrating such experiences together."