“As for the future, it is not a question of foreseeing it, but of making it possible.” Antoine De Saint Exupery The requirement to conserve the world is imminent, and as we keep celebrating days, weeks, and months to spread awareness about this threat to the planet, we wonder how much longer it will take for collective action to take life. World Nature Conservation Day is celebrated every year on the 28th of July to spread awareness about the flora and fauna that face the threat of extinction. To secure a future where people can still enjoy natural resources such...
Plastic-Free July
Recycling is a very well-known and popular concept. Almost everyone on the face of this planet has either heard or read about recycling throughout their lifetime. Despite that, approximately 12.7 million tonnes of plastic annually enter the oceans. In India, approximately 3 kgs of plastic are used by a single person every year, which adds up to 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste a year. Of all sorts of plastics that we use, single-use plastics are the most harmful products for the environment, simply because their usage is limited and they are almost impossible to dispose of, creating trash that...
Cloud Spotting 101
A cloud is a visible mass of tiny liquid droplets, ice crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. These droplets and crystals could be made of water or a variety of different substances. With the monsoons right around the corner, let us see what we can tell about the different clouds that we see throughout our day! You see, we can find clouds almost in the entire homosphere (the lowest part of the Earth’s atmosphere). Terrestrial clouds can be found in the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere, which make up the homosphere. Air...
Van Mahotsav 2022: Why should we worry about planting more trees?
As Margaret Thatcher rightly mentioned, we are not owners of this earth, nor have we inherited it from our forefathers. We are in fact, just as our ancestors were, mere tenants who enjoy life tenancy over here. It is of great importance that we remember this fact, that we do not own this planet, but we owe it. We owe it the care and repair it requires, for the damage that was caused mostly by our activities. In our country, every year, the first week of July is celebrated as Van Mahotsav. Citizens will be planting trees across the country...
International Mud Month
In 2009, several students from Bold Park Community School teamed up with the boys of Nepal’s Panchkhal orphanage to honour the visceral and primitive bond we all have with the Earth and the natural world. Bold Park took advantage of the chance to raise donations for Nepal’s less-fortunate children. Since that eventful beginning, schools, families, and early childhood education institutions from all over the world have collaborated to promote the idea that we all need to play in the mud every now and again to remember what it means to be human. After a year of being lost in the...
The Mozart Effect: Commemorating World Music Day
21st June is celebrated as World Music Day every year. To commemorate this occasion, we are going to dive into the science behind the world of music and see how it benefits us. Music is perhaps one of the best things that humans have ever invented. It is the evidence of mankind’s abstract thought, of our ability to create patterns, frames, and a likeness toward them. The first music of prehistoric cultures dates firmly back to c. 40,000 BP of the upper Palaeolithic through evidence of bone flutes, although it is unclear whether or not the actual origins lie in...
A Tribute to Father’s Day
Father’s Day is a day of celebrating and honouring fatherhood and paternal bonds. In India, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of the month of June every year. Let us celebrate this day by commemorating our Fathers! To be called ‘The Father’ of something, in various fields, means to be the man who first started something or one who did it first successfully. Let’s have a look at men who took the first steps into the unknown, who set off in a vague pursuit, to leave footsteps behind for their children to follow! Aristotle happens to be known...
STEM Moving Towards STEAM
For a long time, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has been considered essential for teaching critical thinking skills and instilling a passion for innovation. It has been observed that STEM assists in problem-solving and exploratory learning that fuel success across a variety of tasks and disciplines. Recently, a new approach to STEM Education has developed, an approach which includes Arts in the list as well! STEM is now converting into STEAM (the ‘A’ denoting Arts). Why would we include arts now, and why did we not do that before? Let’s first look at why we should consider Arts as...
Ode to Strawberry Full Moon
Are you as excited as us about seeing a pink moon this June? On June 14, 2022 (Tuesday), we will be witnessing the Strawberry Full Moon. It coincides with the summer solstice, which is either on June 20, 21, or 22. The ripening of wild strawberries around this time of early summer is what gives June’s Full Moon its name. The ripening of wild strawberries (gathered by Native Americans) around this time of early summer is what gives June’s Full Moon its name. It even has Celtic names: Horse Moon, Dyan Moon, and Rose Moon. Other English names are Flower...
Celebrating World Green Roof Day
The 6th of June is celebrated as Green Roof Day in order to commemorate environment-friendly green space on rooftops. People all over the world have been shifting to greener terraces and roofs since time immemorial. But what are green roofs and do they really benefit the environment? A green roof is a layer of vegetation planted over a waterproofing system which has been retrofitted on top of a flat, or slightly-pitched roof. This green roof takes advantage of what we know about plantations in soil-less mixes to create a significantly lighter-weighing garden. There are three main types of green roofs....