It’s that time of year when the Thrive Sustainable Schools programme gives us an opportunity to think about our environment with the annual EnviroQuiz competition.
Founded in 2007, Thrive is a Hout Bay organisation uniting communities through awareness events and action projects that encourages everyone to see waste as a valuable resource, grow local food and vegetables, take care of water and biodiversity, and use energy solutions that work in harmony with nature.
Aimed at both primary and high schools, the programme has an exciting curriculum including eco clubs, mentorship, audits, food gardening and, of course, the EnviroQuiz and EnviroArt competition.
Since 2009 Thrive has partnered with Sentinel News to organise the competition, helping to energise Hout Bay schools and the whole community to be more environmentally aware and responsible.
Year on year the competition has been growing with invitations now also extended to schools outside of Hout Bay. Twenty-five schools from across the peninsula have entered the 2017 competition so far – a record number. They will compete for eco prizes valued at R16 000.
Each year the Thrive EnviroQuiz takes a different theme. In 2016 the focus was water – a good thing considering the water supply crisis Cape Town is currently experiencing – and this year the theme is energy and transport.
Look out for five EnviroQuiz articles to be published in the Sentinel News over the coming weeks exploring energy use for a more sustainable planet. Each article will include a fun Q&A from which, importantly, competition questions for the EnviroQuiz will be drawn.
If you miss or don’t get a copy of Sentinel News, the full articles with study material will be made available on the Thrive website at www.thrive.org.za The author of this year’s articles is Andy Le May, a local clean transport and clean en-
ergy expert, and founder of Ewizz.
The 2017 Thrive EnviroQuiz competition takes place on Friday September 8 at Kronendal Primary School and all schools in the Cape Peninsula are invited to participate. Entry is free and teams can register by emailing enviroquizart@thrive.org.za by Monday August 7. Places are limited and schools may enter no more than two teams (four pupils a team).
For the EnviroArt competition, schools are invited to create a three-dimensional educational wall piece made from recycled materials only. This wall piece should promote awareness of issues around energy and transportation. The judges, artists Lissa Claassens and Mambakwedza Mutasa, would like to see learners thinking deep-
ly on these issues and explore creative ways to share their findings with their fellow learn-
ers.
Look out for the first of five Thrive EnviroQuiz Energy
and Transport articles next
week.