"Me! I know the answer. The answer is soil degradation," shouted Amy.

"That's correct," exclaimed the teacher.

The next question.

"Oh, me! I know. Let me see...hmmm....the answer is Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), the measurement used to see how polluted the soil is," shouted Andrew. 

"Correct", exclaimed the teacher. 

On December 15, my classmates and I had a guessing-game. The rule was, the randomly chosen student had to go up to the front without facing the board. One of the concept or key words that we learned for 1-year will pop up in the board and the student in the front has to guess it. Of course, the remaining students who are able to see the word are the ones who have to describe it without using the actual word. 

Some of the words involved, law of thermodynamics, case studies such as Aral Sea, recycling, reusing. 

In this 21st century, while many students are interested in famous movie stars, students interest in environment has continued to subside. 

Ever since this activity, I have learned more about different ways to save the environment as well as recall some of the important case studies that have occurred and is currently going on. 

One of the memorable case study was the Aral Sea case study. The Aral Sea was similar to North America's Great Lakes—it was a huge body of fresh water, filled by rivers that brought rain and snow melt to it from distant mountains. Since 1960 though, rivers that once flowed into the lake have been diverted to irrigate crops. With the decrease in the amount of water flowing into the lake, evaporation has became the dominant process. As fresh water evaporated from the lake and was not replenished, the amount of dissolved minerals (salts) in the water increased and the area of land covered by the water decreased.

I intend to do a similar activity with the poor Filipino children in Santa Mesa, where Jae-Yeon Kang and I implemented the "Act for Green" Project to help them become aware of the huge environmental issues that goes unknown due to youth's disinterest. 

I will never forget what I have learned through the activity in my school and continue to pass on this knowledge to the students and youth around me.