Environmental protection has always been a topic of great concern to our students. The students have also set up a number of relevant student clubs such as ECOCAP, Envirothon, Bird Watching Club, etc. Through the careful operation of the students, these clubs not only stand out among a number of ecological and environmental protection activities, but also attract more peers to participate in protecting the Earth. At the same time, SHSID is sparing no effort to provide guidance and resources to all the young students. On October 20th, Dr. Zhu Ying from the Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences was invited to attend the "Environmental Health into Campus Lecture and the Opening Ceremony of the Shanghai Bird Photography Exhibition" and gave a lecture entitlted "Paying Attention to Rivers and Protecting Biodiversity" to the teachers and students at the Annex Auditorium in the Xianmian Building. Although the lecture was held during the lunch break, the auditorium was still full, which showed students' curiosity and concern about environmental protection.

Located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shanghai is characterized by many river basins. Dr. Zhu Ying first elaborated on the importance of rivers to human beings from the perspectives of transportation, landscape, and food sources, and introduced the current five indicators for river-health assessment and the current situation of river habitat and water quality in Shanghai. Then, Dr. Zhu Ying introduced the common aquatic organisms in the rivers in this city. Different organisms have different levels of tolerance to polluted water, so a variety of organisms can also be used as pollution-indicator species, providing important "alarm information" for human beings. In addition to polluted water, invasive alien species are also a risk factor for local biodiversity. Based on the current situation, Dr. Zhu Ying summarized the challenges faced by urban river health, and encouraged students at SHSID to give their play to the characteristics and advantages, actively participate in the river-health survey and evaluation, and contribute their strength to maintaining river health and protecting biodiversity through multi-party cooperation.

Dr. Zhu Ying's lecture not only brought students the broad knowledge of, but also provided valuable suggestions and ideas on how to carry out activities about ecological and environmental protection. Later on, the founder of Aichuangyi Public Welfare Development Center, He Jingyang, used his own experiences as examples. telling the story of the "road of ecological and environmental protection" and how, currently, the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is being held in Kunming, Yunnan province, China. These examples are where he also directs more young people’s attention so that they may participate more in biodiversity protection and jointly create a better environment here on Earth.

Finally, the SHSID STEM guidance advisor Liao Hui announced the opening ceremony of the "Niaohui Xiaoyuan" photography exhibition in the Xuhui district of SHSID’s tour, a first stop on the tour. We encourage more students who love ecology and environment to play an active role at SHSID and actively participate in the community for environmental protection. Let's wait and see how far these students can go towards their dreams in the future.

(Written by Mengli Wang Pictures by Hui Liao Reviewed by Qian Zuo)