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• Elementary and middle school students in Bandung, Indonesia, have been spending too much time with their smartphones, according to Mayor Oded Muhammad Danial, who has come up with a clever distraction. In mid-November, authorities began distributing 2,000 baby chicks in cages with signs that read: "Please take good care of me."
AFP reports the students will be required to feed their pets before and after school and can keep them on school premises if they don't have space in their backyard.
Danial said the chick project, dubbed "chickenisation," is part of a larger endeavor by President Joko Widodo to broaden students' education. "There is an aspect of discipline here," said Danial. [AFP, 11/20/2019]
• Eighth-graders in the Payatas district north of Manila in the Philippines have come up with a way to help rid city streets of dog feces and maybe even lower local construction costs.
The "bio-bricks" they've developed are made of 10 grams of poop, which the students collect and air-dry, and 10 grams of cement powder, Reuters reported on Nov. 20.
The students say their bricks can be used for sidewalk pavement or small structures, such as backyard walls. They admit the bio-bricks have a faint odor, but assert that it will fade with time. [Reuters, 11/20/2019]