esfalp_v_-_web_small.pdf - European schools for a living planet

and teachers, than we lit candles and released 10 lanterns.On our school’s days we planted 300 trees in a forestnear our city. We also organised a three hour long activityfor all the kids from grades 5-8 in our school (games,drawing, watching documentary films).During this project our team was looking for dirty spotsin the city which we highlighted on a map of the city andwhich we are going to give to the mayor of the city, hopingthat he will do something about it.On the 26th of April, we organised a “gala evening” as theclosing of the project. Before that, on the 22nd of April,celebrating Earth Day, we had an activity for grades 3 and4, where they made ECO-crackers (our own invention!!!)for the gala. We invited many people, as the invitation waspublished in the city’s newspaper, too. After the presentation,there was a fashion show, too, with girls dressedin clothes made of paper. We held a raffle and then wewatched the stars and planets with a telescope from theschool yard, switching off all the lights in the school.Broadly, these were our activities during the project, butwe don’t want to stop here, because there is plenty ofwork to be done to reduce the city’s ecological footprint.ACHIEVED OBJECTIVESOur objectives were to reduce electricity and water consumptionat least in our school, but also to capture people’sattention about ecological life. We think that we succeeded- the school’s bills were significantly reduced. This meansthat we captured our schoolmates attention, as well as thatof the teachers. Our outdoor actions got the attention of thegeneral public, local newspapers, radio and TV stations andinternet news portals. Especially our final event got a bigmedia interest. By the advertising many people in the citycould hear about our project, so we hope some of them willmake the first steps.BIGGEST OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECTmap on which we highlighted the dirty spots we hope shewill be able to mobilize some people to clean those places.WHAT WENT WELL? WHAT WENT NOT SO WELL?..Our project went very well, but we think the problem wasthat we had to learn a lot at the school, beside this projectand we could not focus only on this and the activities weorganised. But in spite of this, we succeeded in reachingthe goals we wanted at the beginning. Some of the studentssay they were to lazy to get more involved in the project...IMPACT ON THE SCHOOL’S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMWith the stickers placed in every classroom we convincedour schoolmates and teachers not to use the lights unnecessarily.We hope that our teachers also mention theimportance of ecological life for the students.As teachers we have planed to connect the project withan optional subject taught by us each year in grade 11. Wecan say that we got some new perspective and new methodsfor teaching this subject in the next years to come.HOW DID YOU CELEBRATE?At the end of the project we held a “gala evening” in ourschool, where we invited everyone who wanted to see ourproject presentation. There was also a fashion show, when the“models” (schoolmates) were dressed up with clothes madeof paper, suggesting the importance of ecological life. We alsoheld a raffle with many valuable prizes, which we got fromour sponsors. The income of the raffle will go to change thelighting system in our classroom to more economical ones,based on LED technology. At the end of the gala evening wewatched the stars and planets with a telescope, switching oflights in the school and the school yard. It was a way to getrealise how small and vulnerable we are in the Universe.We think that one of the most important actions we didwas the tree planting, because in the forest where weplanted the saplings many trees were cut out.In the school we succeeded in reducing the consumption ofwater and electricity, but also in teaching our schoolmatesabout ecological life. We were able to involve all classes ofour school and through a variety of activities to have a realimpact on their thinking about our environment.One of the biggest outcomes was that as the result ofthe income from the raffle of the gala evening we will beable to change the lighting system from our classroom tomore eco friendly LED based technology.Our project had an impact also on the vice mayor of thecity, who was very opened to hear about our opinions onhow to run the city, and she helped us a lot with some ofthe activities we organised. And after we will give her theRECOMMENDATIONSAs teacher it is very important to see students as partnersand allow them to lead the project, in order that theyshould have a better feeling about their successes andof their importance. Projects like these are important tomake students more mature and responsible, feeling theycould have an impact on their community and environment.Projects Report 39