Cooperation among schools Best practice from schools

Cooperation among schools

• Best practice from schools

• (at local level)

AMBIENTE E QUALITA’

• A LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATIONAL NETWORK

• ISIS MALIGNANI

• ITI MALIGNANI 2000

• Cervignano del Friuli Italy

Leading School: ITI“Malignani 2000” part of ISIS“Malignani”- Cervignano del Friuli - Italy

Department of Chemistry

• Spring 1994: first experience with other local schools in environmental educational topics (water quality)

• ITI MALIGNANI 2000 I

Spring 1997: creation of network of six local schools, in relation to lichens as bioindicators (“Bioindicatori - i Licheni”)

1998: the network expanded its activities under the umbrella-project “Ambiente e Qualità” which included two international projects related to the monitoring of environmental quality, G.R.E.E.N. and GLOBE

• 1998: the network expanded its activities under the umbrella-project “Ambiente e Qualità” which included two international projects related to the monitoring of environmental quality, G.R.E.E.N. and GLOBE

“MONUMENTI” PROJECT effects of air pollution on the conservation of monuments

The “Ambiente e Qualità” project has the following macro-objectives:

• The “Ambiente e Qualità” project has the following macro-objectives:

• The trial of project activities on common themes involving different types of schools in a network

• The definition of structured rules to organise, test and document the work accomplished

• The development of a modularly structured educational system to be used in projects

Educational Laboratory

• Created to teach, up-date/train, and develop educational materials, not to waste the experience and knowledge acquired by teachers and to make it available to the network

The following goals are expected:

• To build up a structure to provide services for schools and the local area

• To allow an exchange of information between students and teachers in different schools

• To promote connections and to create relationships between research, teaching and local work training centres

• To issue and circulate the work accomplished now and in the future

Some services

KEY POINTS FOR WORKING IN A NETWORK

• Overall goals according to “Ambiente e Qualità” project planning, but specific objectives and targets for each school,

• Synergy obtained thanks to people involved, tools and knowledge shared, feedback obtained

• Mutual support from planning the work with others (condition of financial resources, too)

SOME ISSUES

• Gaps in communication

• Misunderstanding of roles

• Mixing-up of co-ordination and executive roles

• People overloaded, because involved in many activities

• Nodes with different resources

• Difficulty to obtain acknowledgment of work done

Outputs of our local network

• Common conferences and annual training for teachers on environmental themes

Outputs of our local network

• Annual event with local schools and public authorities on a selected river-basin

Ten editions – 2000/2009

Cooperation among schools

• Best practice from schools

• (at international level)

• Kogeka

SPLASH (2003)

• 3rd European Youth Congress for Water

• 22-29 March 2003, Geel (Belgium)

• KOGEKA, City of Geel, GREEN Belgium and 5 students of the Youth Water Representatives (YWR), partners from different countries (Belgium, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Greece, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA, Japan, South Africa)

Search for partners

• Through the KOGEKA and GREEN Belgium networks

• The communication

• By e-mail, mail, phone
• No web based communication platforms like Moodle (not common or not known back then)

Most important objectives

• Environmental awareness

• Sustainable development

• To promote democratic values among European youth

• Young people

• can work with their peers
• making new contacts and friends in other countries

Grants

• The help of a lot of people

• friendly host families, pupils and teachers

• A lot of subsidies were donated by

• the city of Geel
• the province of Antwerp
• the Flemish Community
• the Belgian Office at the European Parliament
• the European Commission
• some large companies (BP, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Grohe, KBC) and other companies and service clubs

Workshops

• Water workshops

• Students were divided between the workshops according to their age and interests
• Activities
• last +/- 1.30 hours (advance-system)
• at the different KOGEKA schools (PEP, SDC, SAG, SJG, SMG and SMK)
• prepared by KOGEKA-collegues together with their students
• prepared by the delegations of the different countries
• outdoor activities on location lasted half a day

Water-workshops

• Water & food

• Students of the KOGEKA school ‘t Peperstraatje (PEP)
• A session of making snacks
• Aged 12-14

Water-workshops

• Water & music

• Students of the KOGEKA school Sint-Aloysiusinstituut (SAG)
• A session of making music and singing ‘water songs’
• Aged 12-14

Water-workshops

• Water & agriculture

• Students of the agricultural department of SAG
• Examples of the importance of water in agriculture at the experimental farm Hooibeekhoeve
• Aged 14-18

Water-workshops

• Water experiments

• Students of the scientific department of the KOGEKA school Sint-Dimpnacollege (SDC)
• A series of experiments with water playing the leading part
• Aged 17-18

Water-workshops

• Water & dance

• Social sciences students of SDC
• A modern ‘water dance’ for which they composed the choreography themselves
• Aged 17-18

Water-workshops

• Water & technique

• Students of the chemistry department of the KOGEKA technical school Sint Jozef-Instituut (SJG)
• A session of microscopic research, determination of the level of dissolved oxygen and of the nitrate and phosphate content of the water
• Aged 16-18

Water-workshops

• Rain dance

• Students of the KOGEKA Sint Maria-Instituut (SMG)
• A lesson on the history and the music of rain dances
• Learning a rain dance
• Aged 14-18

Water-workshops

• Water sculptures

• Students of the KOGEKA school Sancta Maria Instituut (SMK)
• Making permanent sculptures with several kinds of material, thus creating fountains, waterfalls etc…
• Aged 12-18

Water-workshops

• Water, source of life

• Students of SMK
• Session on water pollution, water purification and water in the circle of life, including simple experiments
• Aged 16-18

Water-workshops

• Water, religion, myths & legends

• Students of the social department of the polytechnic KHK
• Water as a symbol in the world’s most important religions
• Water related myths and legends from different countries
• The final goal was to make a SPLASH myth

Waterworkshops

• Water & energy

• The Norvegian delegation
• Presentation of their project on water as an energy resource and the ecological importance of pure water
• Aged 16-18

Waterworkshops

• The Romanian delegation

• Presentation of their project on the integration of water patterns into teen-fashion to draw people’s attention to the importance of water in life
• Interactive workshop
• Aged 14-18

Waterworkshops

• Water quality assessment

• Determination of the biological and chemical water quality of a local river
• Aged 14-16

Water-workshops

• Water & art

• The Belgian visual artist Ben Cloots, one of the creators of the ‘Aqua’ exhibition leads this workshop
• The participants of this workshop take the challenge to create a piece of ‘water art’

Water-workshops

• Water & health

• Visit to the production plant of the pharmaceutical company Janssen Pharmaceutica in Geel
• The use of water in the production process and water treatment
• Presentation of the efforts of the company in the field of sustainable development

Poetic water walk

• Water poems were presented along a walk in the city of Geel

Mokatlon

• A triathlon fully dedicated to ‘water’: kayak, biking and running a relay race with water in containers

• For charity!

• donations to each participating team
• the profit to DRD, the township in Johannesburg

Evaluation

• The questionnaire approach

• The quick evaluation exercise

• Daily interviews with teachers, students and organisers

• Personal observations of events, workshops and procedures

Best practice from schools

• Best practice from schools

• (at international level)

• Realized by: Mihai Madalina – Teacher at School N°.4 – Ramnicu Valcea

• Marandici Tatiana – Teacher at “Colegiul National “ Mircea Cel Batran”- Ramnicu Valcea

• Students from 13 to 14 years old;

• Teachers of secondary school;

• The local community members;

• Parents;

• Languages used – French and English

• To increase the motivation of the target group concerning the importance of water resources in our life and for the future;

• To develop students’ capacity to use IT – tools and to synthesize the information;

• To make cross-curricular connections among other subjects (Biology, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics);

• To promote foreign languages and cultures for developing the civic attitude in the European context.

Pupils had to make a comparison between two rivers:

• Pupils had to make a comparison between two rivers:

• the Olt river (Romania) and the Aude river (France).

• These rivers are used differently

• The Aude river

• – for sport activities, for hydroelectricity and tourist activities.

• The Olt river

• - for hydroelectricity and hydrotherapy.

WEB-SITE – http://echangeroumanie.free.fr

• WEB-SITE – http://echangeroumanie.free.fr

• 2 exhibitions with posters done by the Romanian and French students;

• a model with the cycle of water (the French students);

• a model with the hydroelectric power stations that are in Valcea district (the Romanian students);

• questionnaires about water consumption.

• The presentation of the cycle of water and its importance for life (Geography, Biology, Chemistry);

• the presentation of the exhibition at the local level (Geography, Biology, Art);

• the presentation of the project at local and national level (the National Geography Symposium in Bucharest – 2007, different scientific symposiums)