The students and teachers of GSŠRM organised and carried out an eco day on Friday. Every grade covered a different topic. We had an opportunity to interview groups of people from each grade and each class that was present at school. We interviewed students that study economics and preschool education and we asked the following questions to which we got several interesting answers.

1. What is your plan for today?

Some students were taught about the efficient ways of reducing our carbon footprint in our daily lives, while the other ones were researching how much water they use in a day and also how to save it. A group of students was asked to  take samples of water in a nearby creek and analyse the contents of it. Another group of students was taught about the impact of fast fashion on the environment and people.

2. Do you think there is enough awareness about preserving the environment among the students?

Most of the questioned students think that there is not enough awareness about the ways to preserve the environment and they think that we should learn more about it.

 

3. Why do you think that an eco day is important at our school?

The most common answer to this question was to raise more awareness among young adults and to teach them to be more environmentally friendly.

 

4. How often do you think there should be clean-up actions organised by the school/ by the counties?

The students said that we should clean the area around the school at least twice per year and the counties should organise clean-up actions of the entire area every month.

 

5. Do you think that the supplies of clean water in Slovenia are limited?

The majority of students believe that the supplies of clean water are not limited, but we should still be careful about its usage.

 

6. What do you know about the impact of the textile industry on the environment (fast fashion)?

This question was a bit tricky for some students because they were a bit more unfamiliar with this topic. They learned that it causes a lot of pollution and that the workers work in terrible conditions and are poorly paid.

7. If you were an entrepreneur, how would you make sure that your company was environmentally friendly?

Most answers included using biodegradable materials and making sure that the production used renewable sources of energy.

8. What do you know about green energy?

Students were unfamiliar with this one too. They only knew that water, wind and sunlight fall under the category of renewable energy sources.

 

9. What are the consequences of climate change in Slovenia?

The questioned students said that they noticed that winters were warmer, shorter and less snow fell every year. The second thing they noticed was that the transitions between seasons (spring and autumn) were way shorter so the summers seemed longer and hotter. Also droughts have become more common at any time of the year, therefore there are more and more destructive fires occuring.

Most of our students are not aware of what green energy nor what fast fashion is. As members of Generation Z we are quite in awe that other Gen Zs are not aware of these important issues.

We believe more time should be dedicated to educating young people about this topic, raising more awareness about renewable energy sources and helping protect the environment as soon as possible.

 

Lara Cigoj and Lara Ocepek, 2. E