5 Mar 2021

WANBO Green Week – Island School Biodiversity Challenge

As part of Green Week, WANBO is instigating another inter-House challenge! Aimed at teaching the IS community about biodiversity and getting students and their families outdoors and in nature, WANBO’s citizen science project utilises an App called iNaturalist.

The App allows users to log, record and identify biodiversity in Hong Kong. The House that can log the most observations and the most species over a 10 day period (March 5th to 14th) wins!

For this challenge, EVERYONE in the Island School community – parents, teachers, carers, staff and students can join. Simply download the App, take photographs of anything wild (bugs, trees, birds, animals) and log the observations. Further instructions can be found below:

Once registered participants must log their iNaturalist username on this Google Form in order for data to be sent to this IS Platform.

Points will be awarded to the House with the most observers, most observations, and most species recorded, and prizes will be given to the student who records the most species.

Sam Hui (11W), WANBO leader, said, “Whenever we go on a hike, or just walk along the streets of the New Territories, we can always discern wildlife in some shape or form. Although Hong Kong is infamous for its bustling commercial centres, the region also has thousands of square kilometres of rugged coastline, mountain ranges and country parks, so it is unsurprising that it has such rich biodiversity. We hope this challenge raises awareness that we as humans are only a trivial part of the environment, and have to do what we can to protect it. Biodiversity around the globe has been diminishing over the years, so we need everyone’s help moving forward. A massive thank you to all staff, parents, carers, and students for your conservation efforts.”

Sean Lee (11N), WANBO leader, said, “We are very honoured to be teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund on the citizen science project, to record biodiversity. The WANBO team are extremely excited that all of the Island School community could take part in helping to engender a profile of Hong Kong’s biodiversity identified by scientists across the globe.”

“The biodiversity challenge is an exploration of what’s really going on around us. It’s a chance for students to explore and discover interesting species that they might not usually have noticed or encountered before.” commented Clement Kwan (10R), WANBO leader.

Click here to rewatch the Green Week Assembly to find out more about the event.

If you would like to volunteer, please contact Ross Burrough (ross.burrough@online.island.edu.hk). Space on the teams are limited, so early sign up is advised.

For more regular updates and announcements on the project, as well as opportunities for students to get involved in our initiatives, please go to WANBO’s Instagram page @iswanbo.