Biodiversity and Numerical Ecology

On the 17th of May, we presented a new topic for workshops after finishing Digital Citizenship series with students from Mihai Eminescu high school. We were so happy that at this point we built a deep connection with student but sad at the same time because it’s our last week with them. In this time we chose to discuss Biodiversity and Numerical Ecology.

Our goal is to make students understand what biodiversity is, and how it’s affected by pollution. Moreover, what the environmental consequences of information technology in terms of pollution are and how we can minimize and control the bad effects. Furthermore, we introduce solutions for these paramount matters.

To achieve our goal we structured our workshop into one Icebreaker and 2 activities based on these topics:

• Pollution.
• Carbon emission & IT

Icebreaker

Firstly, we gave the students small pieces of paper, so that they write on them their own funny stories that happened to them in the past. Afterwards, we take the papers and mix them and let some students read these stories.

Biodiversity and pollution

Ibrahim, our volunteer, gave the definition of biodiversity, and mentioned some types of pollution. Next, he played a video about the life cycles of three plastic bottles, then asked questions on the video. Afterwards, there was an activity where he asked students about a place they would like to visit and to search for its pollution issues, and whether they will stay want to go after knowing some facts about this place.

Numerical ecology

Lisa, our volunteer, explained what is numerical ecology and gave the students paper with examples of numerical pollution. They arranged them in order from the most polluted to the least polluted. Afterwards, each group stuck the paper in order on the board and explained why they choose this order. Later, Lisa explained the correction and why these numerical technologies are causing pollution and what are the possible solutions.