Binusians as Changemakers
“More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together.” – Kofi Annan.
This quote by the former UN Secretary General also resonates with the mission of BINUS Schools – fostering and empowering society in building and serving the nation.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or global goals have been the driving force in our school for the last few years. We have incorporated the 17 SDGs explicitly in our curriculum, linking all our units of inquiry and learning engagements within, to the achievement of these goals.
Over the years, several Binusians have demonstrated their commitment towards these global goals by working on various projects. Some of these projects have involved saving orangutans and rhinos, building schools and providing education in remote areas of Indonesia, working towards gender equality, etc.
This year, we decided to take a step further and have a celebration to salute these changemakers and to inspire others. We celebrated the SDGs through our ChangeMakers Fest which was from October 25 to October 28, 2021. This event was a whole-school collaboration, allowing around 1200 students from early years to grade 12 to collaborate and learn from each other.
From October 25 to October 27, different grade levels focused on specific SDGs and planned activities to explicitly involve their students in those global goals. Some grade levels even collaborated which gave an opportunity to students of various age-levels to work together. Some of the activities that students participated in were compost making, growing plants at home, story reading, making better food choices, managing waste, using water wisely, to name a few.
Our big day was October 28, where around 1200 students along with their teachers gathered for the culminating event. Our day started with an inspirational opening by our school principal Mr. Peter M. Saidi. He and all members of the school executive committee have been the biggest supporters of this event. For this day, one SDG was assigned to each grade. These SDGs were assigned based on the current unit of inquiry or keen interest of that grade. After our principal’s opening address, all students joined their respective grade levels to attend guest sessions related to their assigned SDG.
Our student volunteers from Middle School and High School had been working tirelessly for the last several weeks to arrange the guest speakers, organising meetings with them and coordinating between these speakers and our school. Some of these speakers were our current and former students, who have worked on certain projects and used this event as a platform to share their work with fellow students. Others were experts in their respective fields. We had passionate speakers from Bumi Buddies, Going Green in Jakarta, Proyek Pencil, Bye Bye Plastic Bags BINUS Serpong, to name a few. These speakers gave our students an authentic learning experience from people who have made a difference.
This was the first time we had organized an event involving students across Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, and Diploma Programme. There were things which could have been better and online learning provided its own challenges. However, this event gave a platform to our students and teachers to collaborate beyond the needs of the curriculum, to think about issues arising in our immediate surroundings and the rest of the world and to think about ways of individual/group effective action. As Mahatma Gandhi had once said, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’. We need to initiate change in our world to see any real difference. And our classrooms/schools are a good place to start.
By: Priyanka Patni
Grade 4 Level Head
BINUS SCHOOL Simprug
ppatni@binus.edu
PYP Dunia Blog 