Part B
An Essay:
*An essay on the Biodiversity of Christian Higher Secondary School:*
INTRODUCTION:
Biodiversity is all the different kinds of life you'll find in one area– the variety of animals, plants, fungi and even micro-organisms like bacteria that make up our natural world. Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems, like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life.
Biodiversity comes from two words Bio meaning life and diversity meaning variability.
Our team has undertaken the topic of Biodiversity as we felt that our school, Christian Higher Secondary School, Dimapur has a lot of biodiversity in and around our campus. We were also drawn by the various activities involved in the booklet. Through all these activities, we have had a chance to explore the biodiversity of our school and document it. It has also helped us to find out the various ways humans play a role in either destroying or creating a rich biodiversity in an area. It had also helped us to showcase our findings to our schoolmates and they have also been enlightened about the various lifeforms existing in our school campus.
OBJECTIVES:
Biodiversity is usually explored at three levels - genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity. These three levels work together to create the complexity of life on Earth.
Our main aim with undertaking this project, as said, was to explore every nook and cranny of our school to find biodiversity that we did not know existed. Another aim was to know the various types of biodiversity in our school that came under the types of biodiversity as– genetic diversity which relates to the number of individuals of a specific species, species diversity which relates to number of species in an ecosystem and ecosystem diversity which relates to the various types of ecosystem present in an area.
This aim had been ignited by the fact that even the school staff and administrators were unaware of the various types of lifeforms available in our school and so, our team were encouraged by the school to go about the campus and determine the variation in biodiversity of our school.
Some of the main objectives were:
1) Determine the types of vegetation and animal life around the school.
2) Know about the various plants and animals found in each season.
3) Know how the landscape of our school has changed and how it has affected the biodiversity.
4) Lastly, make a pact to transform our school into a hub for biodiversity and academics to excel and coexist.
STUDY AREA:
Our study area was the campus of our school, Christian Higher Secondary School, Dimapur. We felt that it would be the most appropriate study area because as students, our school is the area where we spend most of our time in and as such, we have grown to be more attached to it. Choosing our school as the study area has also led us to complete the project more fluidly as our team had time to meet during free periods to discuss and this made us to complete the activities easily.
For us, choosing our school as the study area was an easy decision as all of us were curious to know the lifeforms in our school.
Our school has a large campus where we can find spiders at corners, snails and centipedes crawling on some exterior walls and butterflies flying around as kids enjoy their breaks. Our school has not only been a place for us to learn but has also done its best to ensure that we learn the importance of nature in the learning process. We also have Clubs like Health and Wellness and Social Service where we are closely related with nature and clean the school gardens.
(Dimapur on the map)
Primary data: (1.1)
For the primary data collection regarding Historical Timeline and Seasonal Calendar, it was all dependent on the various people living in and around the school campus as they were more aware about the biodiversity of our school.
For the Historical Timeline, we asked the school authorities the records of our school regarding the various landscape changes that have occured in our school. We asked them about how the school has changed from when it was first established till now. After acquiring the records, we took out the important events and put it in our Historical Timeline.
For the Seasonal Calendar, all of the records and information were gathered by interviewing the staff and teachers that reside in or around our school campus. They were able to give us a full report on which plants and animals are found and sighted in each season. We asked them questions regarding some of the most important plants which help them in their day to day lives and also which they could use to earn their livelihoods.
Lastly, for the Rich picture, it was solely based on discussion among our teammates along with consultation with our teachers and schoolmates as opinions about how we want our school to look in the future affects them as well. We shared ideas and opinions and came to a conclusion to draw the rich picture combining all our ideas.
(1.2)
We interviewed two ground staff of our school that reside in our school campus. They were Laksan, the School head peon, our school gardener, and the owner of our oldest school canteen.
We interviewed them on a day where they were the most free as their jobs require them to be busy most of the school day. We asked them questions about how long they have served in the school, what changes they have seen around the school campus, the lifeforms around the school and how they change with every season and also about the changes they want to see in the school in the future.
The interview went smoothly as all of the people we interviewed were experienced and had been living and serving in our school for a long time and hence, they were able to answer all the questions easily.
2: SECONDARY DATA:
This article has helped us in our project as the instructions they have provided to increase and improve biodiversity in our schools have truly been successful.
The following article has also helped us in the making of the rich picture as the benefits of biodiversity in education cannot be ignored and play a pivotal role in the learning sphere of a child.
RESULTS:
RICH PICTURE:
For the rich picture, it consisted of our team having a discussion with our schoolmates about how we wish our school to look in the future. We discussed and shared our opinions and decided what features would most likely be able to be implemented in our school in the future. We also took into consideration the opinions of the people we interviewed and which components they wish to see in our school campus.
Finally, after much discussion, we decided that a small miniature pond and a much larger and a more functional garden where the students can plant herbs and other kitchen plants so as to learn more about the various techniques required to grow plants would be the best components that we can add to the school in the future.
A pond would enable the students to look after the fishes and maintain the garden as school property. The garden could be used as a teaching tool to teach the students from both lower and higher classes to learn about the various kitchen plants that can be used almost everyday in our kitchen.
The steps we think are necessary for the implementation of the components of our Rich Picture would be the school authorities to take into consideration our ideas and suggestions. We, as a student community, feel that these components would help us to not only, improve our learning but also give us an upper hand in the infrastructure of a school. We are also certain that the plans we have drawn for our school would be supported by a majority as the Rich Picture was drawn after much discussion with our schoolmates and teachers.
Our team's rich picture that we have drawn can be seen below:
HISTORICAL TIMELINE:
The historical timeline was yet the most challenging activity as there weren't much records of the school landscape changing so we did the best we could and collected relevant information both from the school records as well as the people living in the school campus.
Not only did we interview the staff of our school, we also tried to remember how the school has changed when we first enrolled there and now. We collected all our memories together and tried to pinpoint the incident on a specific year.
For collecting information for this activity, we enquired from Uncle Laksan, who is the school's oldest serving ground staff and peon. He expressed that the school has indeed come a very long way in infrastructure. He said that the School Hall was also built after much clearing of land and also the playground which was for the children were also removed to make a parking for the school buses. All of these information were crucial for our Historical Timeline.
Through this activity, we have come to know about the various developments that have occured in our school till recently and what effects it has had on the lives of the people. For example, the cricket pitch which was built on 2021, was built after clearing out land from the primary area and has led to decreased plants around that area. The people we asked for getting these information had also expressed a wish for the school to have development without affecting the biodiversity of the school as the greenery around our school is what makes our school beautiful.
The historical timeline can be seen below:
SEASONAL CALENDAR:
This activity has enabled us to find out the various plants available in each season like mangoes in summer. Thee availability of mangoes in summer is highly beneficial to people living around the school campus as they are able to consume it and also sell it for their livelihood. Also, the grasshoppers found in our school is also caught by people in large numbers and sold for the public to consume as grasshoppers are a delicacy here in Nagaland.
The flowers, Hyacinth and Marigold which bloom during Spring and Winter respectively, add to the beauty of our school. The chirping of the various birds that migrate during the changing of the seasons also make a pleasant sound to listen to while we are engaged in our studies.
A summary of the Seasonal Calendar is given below:
Spring:
Plants: Hyacinth
Animals: Bees
Summer:
Plants: Mango
Animals: Snake
Monsoon:
Animals: Snails
Pre-winter season:
Plants: Ashoka Tree
Animals: Pigeon
Winter Season:
Plants: Marigold
The seasonal calendar is given below:
DISCUSSION:
Looking back at our objectives, our main aims were to know about the various types of biodiversity available in our school campus and also to discuss what changes can we bring about to the school so as to ensure that the school's biodiversity grows and becomes more diverse and not decline. We also had another objective and that was to know how the changes in our school has affected the biodiversity.
Tieing our objectives with the results we have gathered, we can proudly say that we have achieved most of the objectives we wished to achieve and complete.
We have learnt about the various types of lifeforms existing in our school. Even the tiniest of organism like the spiders that make their homes in a small corner of our school was still an important and crucial information for our school. Animals like snakes, earthworms, snails, centipedes, bees and pigeons that are seen around our school only add to the biodiversity of our school, and knowing the existence of these species and documenting them were possible only by undertaking the activities included in the book.
The objective of knowing how the landscape of our school has changed were known by completing the Historical Timeline. Another plus point of doing this activity was through this activity, we have also gathered valuable information for the Rich picture as well. This valuable information came from the people who expressed their desire of having a functional herb and kitchen garden which can be run by the students and which can serve the twin purpose of being used as a learning tool as well as being a huge help to the community residing in the school campus.
The information from the Historical Timeline has made us learn that no more land and plants should be cleared for the development of the school and instead, we should start making decisions where the biodiversity of the school as well the all round development of the school can co-exist together.
The types of flowers growing in our school like the dahlias and hyacinths which bloom during their respective seasons were known through the Seasonal Calendar. The fruiting trees that also grow during the seasons like pineapple and mangoes are also a major part in the livelihood of the community living around the school as they are able to consume it during their day-to-day lives as well as make a livelihood from it.
Lastly, the very last objective of ours was to make a step to transform our school into a hub for biodiversity and academics to excel and coexist. This was done by collectively making a poster which depicted the various things we want to include in our school in the near future. We included the herb and kitchen garden that the community wished to see and also a pond. The Rich Picture Activity made us know and learn about the various aspirations of the students and community and how they all collectively wish for the school to have a biodiversity full of diverse lifeforms as they all felt that learning is only possible in a place where humans and nature can co-exist in harmony.
CONSTRAINTS:
Though we did complete most of the objectives of ours, we struggled in finding out more information for the Historical Timeline activity mostly because of lack of proper records. There has been, undoubtedly, many landscape changes in our school all throughout the years but due to time constraints and as well as unavailability of records, we weren't able to make a detailed timeline and that is extremely regretted by our team.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, we would like to conclude by saying that the Biodiversity of our school is ever changing and we are grateful that we have gotten a chance to be able to document the numerous species existing in the ecosystems of our school.
The Earthian Sustainability and Biodiversity Project by Wipro Sustainability Education Program has been an amazing journey that has taken our team so much time but has also yielded many results. The activities have interested us and we look forward to joining and engaging in more activities like these. We thank the coordinators for giving us a chance to participate in this project.
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