Enviro Club began at the start of Term 3 for 2019.

It is a student led group with three Year 10 students leading the meetings: Zoe Revell-Lynch, Grace Johnston and Annabel Kelly. They decided to re-start the club after their Global unit with Ms Bowden, who then became the teacher-in-charge. Within our meetings we have educated the members of the group on environmental topics such as fast fashion, plastic usage and what happens to our rubbish in New Zealand compared to other countries like Singapore.

We have planned a few events for Term 4, one of these is making use of the boxed gardens at Columba that were built a few years ago by the previous Enviro Club. We will be sharing these planters with GATE Science and plan to plant produce and other flowers to encourage bees.

We have also met with Claudia Babirat, the Coordinator of the Dunedin Town Belt Initiative. We have a Kaitiaki clean-up in a specific area of the town belt happening later in Term 4. Recently our Year 10 leaders also received news that they have been selected to represent Columba College in a project at the Otago Museum, designing and creating an exhibition on Climate Change, that will be revealed at next year’s International Science Festival. This will involve workshops and working with scientists and professionals in both the fields of climate science and science communication.

We haven’t had very long to develop Enviro Club but we have already inspired each other to be informed about the environment and to make realistic changes in our every-day lives. We are excited for next year where we will continue to build a better environment and community within Columba and Dunedin.

Zoe Revell-Lynch, Grace Johnston and Annabel Kelly