School projects are nothing new, but a teacher in Alkhobar proved that even something old can become exciting if students are encouraged to let their creativity guide them.
“Students’ time is precious due to the often overwhelming demands of their studies,” said Shaha Mubarak Sehli. “We needed to develop a project that would be educational but also enjoyable for students from the elementary level through the secondary years. We decided to have an art exhibition and to make it unusual, we asked the girls to create all their artwork using recycled materials. The end results far exceeded our expectations.”
Sehli is the supervisor for activities at the 3rd Girls Secondary School in Alkhobar. During her career in the Ministry of Education schools, she taught biology for 15 years and has a passionate interest in showing students how important science is to everyday life. Sehli has a particular concern with environmental issues. She felt that a project, which showed students how trash could become treasures, would be of interest not only to the girls but to their families, too.
The project was called “Think before you throw me away.” From the start, it was enthusiastically embraced and eight schools eventually took part. From Alkhobar, the 8th and 16th Girls Elementary Schools, the 1st and 3rd Girls Intermediate Schools and the 3rd, 5th and 6th Girls Secondary Schools contributed artwork. The 1st Girls Intermediate School in Rakka also joined the project. Three months after the students started creating their recycled treasures, an exhibition was held and the community was invited to view the talent and imagination on display.
After visiting the exhibit, the representative of the Ministry of Education, Girls Education, Alkhobar, Khaled Ahmed Al-Sabti said, “When a person thinks and puts forward the ability and desire to work, all difficulties may be overcome. All that is required is to be convinced of what you are doing and to be organized in the action.”
The art produced by the students was both beautiful and ingenious. Plastic drinking straws were fashioned into bouquets of flowers. Cornflake cartons were cut and covered and became magazine files. Worn school binders were gussied up and by adding pages of recipes, they were turned into cookbooks. Old paper was recycled to make new paper for greeting cards, calendars and picture frames. Beautiful collages were formed from all sorts of scraps. Burlap rice sacks, wire hangers, torn clothing, plastic bottles, Styrofoam packaging — the students raided the trash and the results were a credit to all the participants.
Siddiqah Fahad Al-Husaynan, head, Girls Student Activities, Eastern Province, said, “I am touched by the excellence and achievement of these students. In this superb exhibition innovation plus diversity plus development equaled great accomplishment.”
The exhibition was so successful that it was held over for an extra week.
“I hope that the students see the delight that their families and the community have shown with this project and that it will help them to think about the possible ways to reuse items that would otherwise become waste,” said Sehli. “As a society we must consider that recycling may create items desired by consumers, and industry focused on such activity would raise the economic status of those involved in such work.”