Israel School’s GAIA Project Goes International

A falcon chick, team GAIA’s very own live mascot (photo: WBAIS).

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The Walworth Barbour American International School (WBAIS) in Israel aims to instill its core philosophy of “Peaceful Cooperation in a Green World” through both a set curriculum and co-curricular activities.

And at WBAIS, no group lives and breathes this concept more than the Global Awareness, Investigation and Action (GAIA) team. Comprised of middle and high school students, the team uses science and politics to research environmental issues while guiding other national and international schools through their own processes and findings.

GAIA was founded by Dr. Stuart Fleischer in 2008. In its first year, a small group of students started working with two other schools in Israel. Today, GAIA includes approximately 80 Arab, Jewish, Druze, and Christian students, and 15 teachers, from five local Israeli schools in addition to WBAIS. Last March, team GAIA travelled to Luxembourg to present at the Global Initiatives Network.

All participating schools are currently testing the hypothesis that the presence of live animals reduces pesticide use. WBAIS uses chickadees to eat insects, and falcons and owls to eat rodents, in the suburban and agricultural area of Even Yehuda, Israel.

The GAIA club is also supported by “GAIA Jrs.,” middle school students participating in GAIA activities at the local level.

GAIA’s present goal is to mobilize environmentally conscious citizens, and to convince local farmers to curb pesticide use. The research being done is backed by the findings of Professor Yossi Leshem at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Zoology.

GAIA’s second area of focus is political engagement, and Tomáš Pojar, the Czech Republic’s ambassador to Israel, has become GAIA’s main political supporter. After acting as the keynote speaker at a WBAIS Israel GAIA research event, Ambassador Pojar has been instrumental in building international collaboration with schools in Prague, Czech Republic. He often frequents his individual bird box at AIS (GAIA awards these to donors).

GAIA has built an impressive nature reserve at WBAIS, which currently consists of over 60 trees, a pond, and a windmill to generate the power needed for the pumps. The truly remarkable part of this plan is GAIA’s commitment to preserving local history and agriculture by re-planting the types of trees that used to grow in the Even Yehuda area.

This year, the area will officially open to the public as the “AIS Nature Reserve.”

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