Young keep an EYE on the environment

The EYE (Eco-Young-Engaged) project allows young people to share their ideas and raise environmental awareness.

More than 100 children from 14 schools attended the summit and most had inspiring stories of what they had achieved in the last year.

Two schools in particular stood out from the rest with ideas they had implemented.

Ever wondered what you should do with all of those plastic bottles lying around?

Thomas A'Becket Middle School had the novel idea of building a fully functional greenhouse out of hundreds of them.

The girls from Davison C of E High School saved a recession-busting 5,000 last year by programming the school's computers to automatically switch off at 5pm if not being used rather than leaving them only in standby mode overnight.

The highlight of the day was the television link-up with the British Council in Ghana in order for the children to talk to their counterparts in that country.

Many schools in Ghana have been fortunate enough to receive computers sent by Worthing resident Jib Hagan through his company 'carec4dc'.

Things didn't go quite to plan, however; after three weeks of setting-up a television link-up with Accra, there was vision but no sound from our Ghanaian friends.

A high-tech solution was called for and all that was needed to be said was written down on a piece of paper before pointing the state-of-the-art web cam at it.

The children then proceeded to communicate via the medium of the written word over the internet.

Our hosts from Boundstone treated everyone to an environmental play, memorably featuring the characters "Green Dave" and "Evil Bin Bag Belinda".

This was thought-provoking and yet very funny, which set the tone for a wonderful and inspiring day that will have no doubt enthused everyone who attended.

My thanks for the children of EYE who helped write this week's article.

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