NATIONAL MONDI-WESSA INTERSCHOOL ENVIRO QUIZ

To encourage young people to 'think and act' environmentally, an Interschool Enviro Quiz was introduced and is now a fully national quiz. The first rounds are done at local level and the winning teams compete against each other in early August each year at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Teams are comprised of four high school learners, either from a school or from a youth group, and questions are taken from the E-Info box and general knowledge of all aspects of the environment. The organisers are Jim Taylor, Cynthia Dibben and Sue Swan.

Some reflections on the Mondi-WESSA Quiz

THE WESSA / MONDI ENVIRONMENTAL QUIZ

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) / Mondi Environmental Quiz provides a great opportunity for learners of all ages to develop their environmental knowledge and to test it amongst each other in a fun-filled and competitive or co-operative way. A quiz can involve a small group of children or adults, a class at a school or may even be organized as an inter-school event. Anyone can organize an environmental quiz. If you would like to organize a quiz, but aren't sure how to go about it, maybe these instructions will help! 

How to organize a quiz
To organize a quiz one needs people, information and questions! People may be school pupils of any ages or even teachers and parents. The Mondi E-Info library is an ideal resource for developing environmental questions. It is also a useful 'library' to use for study purposes and to enable young people to understand our environment better.

A suggested structure for the quiz
The first step when organizing a quiz is to develop the questions and it is suggested that at least 70% of them are developed from the *** Mondi E-Info library. Once the questions have been developed and the teams have got together the quiz can begin! To manage the quiz one needs anything from 2 to fifteen teams each with four participants, a quizmaster and at least one scorer.

The quizmaster begins the quiz by reading the first question and each team then quietly discusses the question before writing down their best answer on a provided slip of paper. These written answers are then handed to the scorer who marks them out of two. He or she gives two marks for a correct answer and one if the answer is only partially correct. While the scorer is marking the answers the question is open to members of the audience who raise their hands and try to answer the question verbally. Audience participation while the written answers are being marked is great fun and everyone learns a lot including the teams who may have got the answer wrong.

The scores are then added to each teams mark and the next question can begin.

(*** The Mondi/WESSA E-Info library is available from Nathi Ndlovu or Clare Peddie at Umgeni Valley , Share-Net, P.O. Box 394 , Howick 3290, telephone: 033-3303931 or e-mail sharenet@wessa.co.za . The Mondi E-Info library provides a wide range of easy to use resources for environmental learning and costs R240 including postage and packaging.)

The National Quiz
Each year WESSA and Mondi also organise a national quiz at which teams from various provincial regions of South Africa can participate. This means that local and regional quizzes must first be organised before a regional team can go forward to the finals, which are usually held in August each year. In addition to the Mondi E-Info library local branches of WESSA may provide support for quizzes. Contact your local branch of WESSA if you would like to find out more about this or telephone Clare Peddie (033) 330 3931 (e-mail: sharenet@wessa.co.za ) or Dr Jim Taylor (033) 330 3931 (e-mail: jt@wessa.co.za )

The Mondi/WESSA E-Info library is available from Nathi Ndlovu or Clare Peddie at Umgeni Valley , Share-Net, P.O. Box 394 , Howick 3290, telephone: 033-3303931 or e-mail sharenet@wessa.co.za . The Mondi E-Info library provides a wide range of easy to use resources for environmental learning and costs R240 including postage and packaging.

INVITATION TO BE PART OF THE 2007 MONDI-WESSA National Interschool Enviro Quiz
In 1990 the Umvoti Branch of WESSA held the first interschool enviro quiz amongst local high schools. It proved to be a great success and in 1994 the quiz grew to a provincial contest, following a few years later by becoming a national interschool quiz. Over the years, the quiz has enjoyed valuable sponsorship and support from Mondi Business Paper, as it is known today. The Enviro Quiz is aimed at all HIGH SCHOOL LEARNERS. The quiz is in two parts, the first rounds take place in your local area, usually organised by a branch of WESSA but it can also be organised by a group of schools, enviro clubs or youth groups. The winning team from the group is then invited to compete in the national finals (this year on Friday, 3 August 2007), which will be held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Teams are of four learners, all high school age. For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Clare Peddie or Jim Taylor (contact details below)
Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa
PO Box 394
Howick 3290
South Africa
Tel +27 (0)33 330 3931
Fax +27 (0)33 330 4576
sharenet@wessa.co.za  and jt@wessa.co.za

PLEASE DOWNLOAD AND FAX THIS COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE BACK TO CLARE PEDDIE (sharenet@wessa.co.za)

[click here to download]