RIGHT: Ciaran O'Connor, teacher of science and chemistry at King's Hospital, Dublin.

I have always been interested in the natural world, but it was not until I began an MSc in Applied Environmental Sciences from Queen’s University Belfast that an awareness of our environment took shape. The breadth of the subject, and the way in which every aspect of our lives impacts on it, were a source of amazement for me.

Since becoming a teacher, I have tried to imbue my students with this same interest. I believe there are many opportunities within the school curricula to encourage curiosity about the natural world. However, it is through exposure to the many extracurricular activities dedicated to the environment that students can fully and actively participate in learning about it.

The One Good Idea Project and the Green Flag programme are good examples of these extracurricular activities.

Our school, The King’s Hospital, was awarded its first Green flag in 2009 for the theme of litter and waste, thanks to some sterling work from the pupils and staff on the environmental committee.  Now we are working towards our second flag, which is on the theme of energy.

The One Good Idea project, run by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), is an excellent opportunity for students to increase their knowledge of the ecosystem. The idea is to devise and run a campaign that will raise awareness of a single issue related to either climate change, energy efficiency or our behaviour towards the environment.

One of the biggest hurdles that I found with the Green Flag process was in raising awareness and communicating our efforts to the whole school body. The One Good Idea project tackles this issue head-on.

I am currently using the flexibility afforded by transition year to work on the One Good Idea project with my fourth years. We start by watching the DVD and reading the class notes provided by SEI. Having explained the basics of the project entries, I then facilitate a brainstorming session where all students put forward any ideas or thoughts they have. All suggestions are valid and welcome.

Although there are six topics and three target groups from which to choose, my students have tended to focus on one of two topics:

• everyday energy saving at home or in school,
• buying power and choosing energy efficiency.

I believe these areas are chosen because students recognise that their target group will be more likely to listen if they can make a financial saving from their action.

When it comes to researching and expanding ideas for their projects, the SEI website is worthy of a particular mention. The students found the examples of previous students’ work, in the resources section, to be especially useful.

Specific projects for competition entries vary from designing merchandise such as key rings, tee-shirts and stationary that link in with other transition year enterprise projects, to the creation of comic strips, songs, poems, presentations and games for younger children. The beauty of this competition is that it allows students who traditionally find science difficult to use their creative abilities in art and music to participate fully in their group’s activities.

The main reason that I ask students to enter the One Good Idea project is because it affords them an opportunity to come up with new and innovative ways to raise awareness of important topics that interest me and that hopefully will interest them as they grow and become members of the global community.

I also hope that the power of peer learning will serve to spread the message from my fourth years to their friends, families and communities.
For more information about the project log onto www.sei.ie/onegoodidea, email onegoodidea@realevents.ie, or call 01-5224800