Nina Diana Nawi, Fatin Aliah Phang, Nor Farahwahidah Abdul Rahman, Jaysuman Pusppanathan, Mohd Munir Baharom, Choo Hui Hong and Mohd Aizad Osman
Keywords: climate change, Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge, low carbon society, COVID19, digitalization
Abstract: COVID19 has put the world at stake while irresponsible human activities continuously increase carbon emission that accelerates climate change. Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge (IMELC) is an innovative educational program commences in 2013 to address climate change through formal and informal school education. IMELC aims to foster Low Carbon Society (LCS) awareness among primary students, teachers, and their families (public community). Via IMELC, proactive actions towards low carbon lifestyle will reduce carbon emission and ultimately realize LCS in Iskandar Malaysia by 2025. In 2020, 546 primary schools in Johor with 55,000 students participated in the challenge in its eighth year of implementation. Amidst the outbreak, IMELC 2020 was conducted using a new format designed using ADDIE approach. The IMELC transformation involves the digitalization of IMELC operation in terms of teacher briefing, workbook completion, and deliverables. Facebook Page and Telegram Channel were optimized as media of communication for teacher briefing and updates- whereby Google Classroom (GC) and Google Meet were utilized to disseminate low carbon education and stimulate the learning and teaching activities by interactive digital materials. IMELC schools completed the four modules of IMELC accordingly. The first module is for the year 6 students to complete the IMELC workbook via GC which consists of the LCS knowledge and primary school Science and Mathematics curriculum. The second module is for the school to run campaigns on saving electricity and water usage. The third module is for the school to collaboratively collect recycled items in the designated period. The fourth module is to prepare a report comprises of all the low carbon efforts by the school. The judging criteria were disclosed during the teacher briefing session. The top 15 Schools underwent video presentations and interview with the stakeholders of IMELC to be selected as winners of IMELC. Through IMELC 2020, the total weight collected for the recycling is 232,410kg, and the income generated via IMELC 2020 for schools and families is RM 101,295.05. Amid the challenges in executing IMELC in the new norm, the digitalization of IMELC 2020 has successfully fostered LCS awareness, changed the irresponsible behaviour and subsequently reduced 697,334.03 kgCO2 of carbon emission that contribute to global warming and climate change.
