Mentor

Our groups mentor is Mr. Musco. This is an Email that we sent to Mr. Musco.

Dear Mr Musco, We are the Saving Ocean Life exhibition group and we strongly appreciate the time you are using in our cause. We would like to know when you are free to have a meeting with us to discuss important matters to do with the exhibition. You will find a timetable on the second-last page of the mentor handbook showing the times that we are free. The blacked out parts of the timetable is when we are not able to appoint a meeting, on account of our classes. Regards, Vivian, Tanvi and Thaddeus, founders of the Saving Ocean Life group.

This is his reply,

Good morning Vivian, Can we please meet this Friday, April 01st at 9:00am. Please let the others know, and confirm with me. I look forward to working with you! Mr. Musco

Then Andy said that date was not suitable, and so Mr. Musco changed the date;


 * Dear Doug,


 * I'm replying on behalf of the group. They would like to meet you from 12:00 - 12:40. They will need to bring their lunch with them to eat at the beginning or you could finish at 12:30 and they could go to the lunch room to eat.

Hi both,

Can I see the kids this Friday, April 01st at 12:40pm-1:15pm?

If so, please have them come to my office.

Cheers,

Doug

Our next mentor meeting is on the 13th of april at 12:40. This is the email that Mr. Musco sent to us.

Hi team,

Let's please meet at 12:40pm this Thursday in my office.

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you this week.

Mr. Musco

Vivian sent this email to some teachers, parents and group members.

Vivians mum replied. This is what she said.

> > > > > > > > >
 * I have looked at the proposal to make biodegradable soap, and the related request to buy soap base through Alibaba. I think this is not a good action plan for your Exhibition project. For two reasons.
 * First, the mechanics of getting the ingredients and making the soap is complicated and wasteful. I understand that the least amount of soap base you can buy is 20kg, which based on your recipe will make 118 __batches__ of soap. In addition to that being a huge amount of soap making time -- slow heating, stirring, pouring, cooling --, it involves going to a warehouse (address details to be ascertained) in Fotan, Shatin, to pick up this load of soap base. Going there by car or train not only wastes time, it burns gas or electricity for transportation, and indirectly uses up more petroleum which needs to be shipped and the risk of oil spills -- the principal ill your group is trying to address. In addition, you have other ingredients that are still to be obtained, e.g., olive oil (and possibly coconut oil or palm oil), essential oils or other scenting, coloring or prettying materials. Although olive oil is easily obtainable in supermakets, I am not so sure about the other items. Will we need to add these process costs to the costs (monetary and otherwise) of the soap base? Then there are moulds, pots, measuring utensils, "cooking"/laboratory facilities, and utility expenditures for the cooking process, plus the adult supervision that must attend all this heating related process. It is likely that at the end of the "action", there will be quite a bit of soap base and other materials and tools left over. How do you dispose of all that? Would you be creating more garbage?
 * Second, I am not persuaded that nonbiodegradable soap is a significant pollutant of the oceans. Moreover, I am not persuaded that making a few bars of biodegradable soap is a cost-effective way of dealing with pollution in the oceans -- even pollution from non-biodegradable soap. In other words, I don't think making biodegradable soap is an action well tailored to achieve a significant improvement in your identified problem -- pollution of the oceans.
 * In view of the above, I invite you to reconsider your action plan. Could you do something more relevant, e.g., energy conservation (think up a plan for specific actions each of you can take to reduce energy consumption -- motor vehicle use, lighting, heating, AC, cooking, hot water heater, etc.), attitude to "trash" (e.g., specific plans to reduce, reuse, recycle, no littering), or cleaning up (I know that another group has organized a beach clean-up, so you can think of something else). These suggestions are addressed principally at dealing with my "second" objection above. Perhaps these are not as "fun" as soap making. Maybe you can think of some angle to make it fun, or some other action.
 * To address my "first" objection above, and as a lesser suggestion, you could buy a "soap-making kit" (which hopefully satisfies your environmental requirements) that supplies all the equipment and materials and at a "fun" quantity. I saw such a kit on Amazon, but they may not ship overseas. Perhaps you can find a similar kit over here.
 * In general, I invite you to think away from spending money and running adults around in devising your action plan. I believe reducing expenditures and reducing your demands on adult time is environmentally friendly and promotes social hamony -- both objectives in your Exhibition unit.
 * I would be interested in hearing your views or responses (verbal and action) to these points, and would welcome any views from the adults on this email.
 * Actually, I should have sounded a more positive note -- I actually think all your energy in devising a fun action plan is great. This one has some problems. Could you fix it? I'm sure you can. Just tell me how, and all best regards, Vivian's mom (Hsiao-chiung).