Air pollution and terrariums with PPL PWR at William Perkin CofE School Founder's Day
On Founder's Day at William Perkin CofE School, Greenford, PPL PWR engaged with students about air pollution and its impact on humans and ecosystems.
PPL PWR's workshop on air quality and ecosystems augmented the school’s objective on Founder's Day was to provide students with exciting activities that relate to topics shaping the world that we live in, with an emphasis on having a positive outlook on overcoming pressing environmental and societal issues in the environment and society.
Air quality is a prominent topic today especially when it comes to the health of our children following the tragic death of nine-year-old Ella Roberta in 2013 - the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate. By engaging with students on the science behind these topics, we hope to help them make informed decisions when they are accountable for taking care of the world’s ecosystems.
Students from year 7 and 9 learned how air pollution affects humans and animals, and how this impacts all facets of our ecosystems. To demonstrate the interconnected nature of ecosystems, students helped build a terrarium, which can be viewed as a mini self-contained ecosystem. This was followed by a suite of activities that showed how pollution gets from one ecosystem to another, through trees, reefs, food etc, ultimately impacting human beings as well.
Our aim is always to help students gain the knowledge we wanted to share via practical engagement; and, needless to say, they exceeded our expectations.
At PPL PWR we want to make sure that people, even from a young age, can communicate information and understand which actions can make them participants of a greener world. We promote knowledge and wish to create change makers for the future this world needs.
And as always, PPL PWR volunteers outdid themselves by engaging people with passion, care and knowledge.
To find out more about how you could host a PPL PWR workshop in your school, please contact Dr Josh Bailey at josh@pplpwr.org.uk.