LEA Convocation 2011!

 

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To learn more about Concordia International School Shanghai, visit www.ciss.com.cn.

Considering international education as a vocation? LCMS educators are invited to learn more about Concordia Shanghai and service as an international educator. Visit Concordia at www.ciss.com.cn/news which includes the information about green initiatives.

Green Schools Healthy Schools Project

Greening America’s Schools

 

 

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Investing in Green

Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS) wants students to become active global citizens. With the completion of their high school building and other campus renovations, students have a living example of how to fight climate change right in their own backyard, I mean classroom.

Founded by LCMS in 1998, Concordia is a model Lutheran school in Shanghai's JinQiao neighborhood, also known as “Green City.” It is at the forefront of a growing trend of schools to “go green.” CISS uses natural lighting—from skylights to abundant windows—to reduce energy needs. The glass is designed to maximize the amount of light and minimize the heat that penetrates the buildings. Bamboo, a renewable resource, was used on most veneer surfaces of desks, walls, and doors. Three green roofs also reduce rain runoff, absorb CO2, and produce oxygen, providing further energy savings.

Making a Difference

Lutheran schools in America are also making a difference by “going green.” Baton Rouge Lutheran School is in its third year of going paperless. They have been working in stages to reduce the quantity of paper purchased, printed, sent home, or mailed. Billing statements, forms, and grades are posted on Edline and parents are surveyed online using Survey Monkey. The school has found that using electronic mail and their web site has promoted timely communication and has improved parental involvement and support. In a recent online family survey at Baton Rouge Lutheran, 75 percent said “YES” for increased paperless communications and increased opportunities to submit forms and documents to the school electronically.

Middle-school science teacher Jessica Becker teaches an elective at Trinity Lutheran School, Roselle, Illinois, called “Living Green.” The students in her class collect the recycling for the church and school, sort through recyclable materials at lunch time, and planted an oak tree on Arbor Day. Last fall the class promoted green living throughout the school by conducting a school-wide “green challenge.”

The biggest commitment to reducing the consumption of fossil fuels involves a ground source heat-exchange system, which was installed underneath the school’s soccer field. The ground temperature cools or heats water that is pumped through underground tubing, which is then used to control classroom temperatures. “Using green technology is not only good for the environment, it also makes good business sense,” says Dr. James Koerschen, Head of School, CISS. The heat-exchange system allows a 25 to 30 percent savings on the energy costs at Concordia, and it is projected that the investment will be recouped within 10 years.

A science classroom walks out onto one of the three green roofs (see photo). The energy-saving garden also serves as the school’s weather station and may be used as an observation deck for telescopes. Beyond the physical structure being more earth-friendly, students at CISS are learning first-hand how to have an awareness and a sense of empowerment when it comes to environmental issues. Recently Robert Hulse’s seventh-grade students each picked a product, such as a basketball or lipstick, researched what components went into the product, and found out how each component is derived.

“Students were amazed at how many things go into a simple product, something they’d normally buy and discard without a second thought,” said Mr. Hulse. The class also learned how things were made, the resources required to make them, what it took to ship them to the retailer, and what happened to the products once they were discarded. “The project made students re-think the reduce side of the 3Rs (reduce, recycle, reuse).”

“When designing the newest phase of our campus, we were intentional about modeling global citizenship,” says Koerschen. “I hope that the families and students at Concordia continue to take an interest and gain awareness of the smaller environmental interventions that we can each make.”

 

Jill Zempel is Editor of ShapingtheFuture. Special thanks to Karin Semler, Assistant Director for Marketing and Communications at CISS, for her contribution to this article.

Photo courtesy Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS). All rights reserved.