News Eco Campaign

Photo exhibition in Georgia

On 9th June, in order to close the campaign we organised the photo exhibition. We decided to make it in the schoolyard. We tied up cord and hung up the printed photos on it. Beforehand we printed approximately 60 photos (15 photos from Partner countries and the rest was taken during the campaign in Georgia). The process was very interesting and funny. The participants prepared everything by themselves. They cooked some delicious crepes from organic products (honey, egg, different type of fruits and etc.) and with other organic food/drinks presented during the exhibition.
Participants invited their friends, teachers, and parents to make a small presentation about the campaign. At the exhibition each participant tried to answer visitors' questions and made some comments about the photos. Read More

Excursion in Georgia

As part of the campaign, on 2nd June, 17 children from the school in Kaspi went for an excursion. It was the most joyful part of the campaign. Children waited for this day since the beginning of the project. As Georgia has wide biodiversity, we decided to take participants who live in the east part of Georgia, to the west part of the country, which is famous for its national reserves. We choose to visit Sataplia Nature reserve that is known for its Dinosaurs' footprints and cave. There is a karst cavern and traces of giant reptiles - extinct dinosaurs on the territory. There is an extinct volcano crater in the Nature Reserve. Sataplia Nature reserve is mountainous, it's great area is covered by most beautiful and multifarious wood strain Colchian type mixed forests In Sataplia Children had a chance to see Kolkhetian forest. We took another expert for this trip, who discussed about biodiversity in Georgia, what can cause its changing, etc. Read More

Evaluation of the campaign in the Czech Republic

In the 5th week of May each of the fifteen first grade pupils of the Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic chose his/her favourite workshop of the whole campaign and draw a picture showing the most important moments of the workshop for him/her. Later we put the drawings together in chronological order, sealed them up with the tape and created a five meters long timeline of the campaign in the Czech Republic. The basic line made of drawings we enhanced with photos, pieces of hand made paper, printing of experts' greeting email etc. In the end we made short video of our timeline. Video

Festival of audiovisual materials in the Czech Republic - Mothers' day

In the 4th week of May fifteen first grade pupils of the Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic celebrated the Mother's day together with their mothers. There was a public event held in the social hall of the village, where we created an exhibition of materials connected with our campaign. There were about forty guests out of 330 citizens of the village at the event. We proudly introduced them the outcomes of the campaign - what we learned, did and experienced during the last few months.

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‘Fresh Water and Health' workshop in the Czech Republic - World Water Monitoring Challenge

In the 3rd week of May fifteen first grade pupils of the Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic joined the international campaign World Water Monitoring Challenge by monitoring the water quality - temperature, turbidity, PH, content of dissolved oxygen. After watching the video spot promoting drinking tap water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_CFqR0psYA&feature=share, "Story of bottled water" http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-bottled-water/ , pupils went to monitor the water quality in the three nearest water bodies. Except of regular measuring pupils observed fauna and flora in the surroundings of the water bodies. After theoretical and practical experience, the pupils recognized the differences also as the common signs of the closest water bodies, as well as the need to take care about our water sources.

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Meeting with the expert II in Georgia

On May 19th, 16 children at the school in Kaspi welcomed another expert to discuss other important issues. In order to introduce the topic, the expert was asking many questions in order to check what the participants knew about sustainable lifestyle, fresh water, importance of trees in our life, waste management, recycling, and green energy. After he talked about other countries achievements in promoting sustainable lifestyle, also talked what is done in Georgia and what else could and should be done. He highlighted the priorities of sustainable lifestyle and importance of our own contribution.
The expert also talked about waste management and recycling process. He compared the situation between Georgia and other countries in order to make clear to participants that if they wouldn't start thinking to step forward and make their own contribution what will happen in 5-10 years.
Participants asked many questions especially about Green energy as this type of energy is quite new for Georgia. The workshop was very interesting. Participants wanted to have more and more workshops like this.

‘Cleaning the nature - Clean up the World!' in the Czech Republic

In the 2nd week of May fifteen first grade pupils of the Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic joined the Clean up the World! international campaign by local cleaning action. Our school is taking part in this campaign regularly twice a year. Usually we take a walk to the local pond, collect the rubbish from the sides of the road and all around the pond. Main activity is top up by activities like water monitoring, tree planting, fun activities and games, camp fire and barbeque. With this activity pupils again chose to take an active role in creating our living environment, thank you for involvement!

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Meeting with the expert I in Georgia

During another workshop of our campaign in Kaspi, on 5th May, we welcomed an expert. As introduction, she was asking questions in order to find out what the participants knew about ecosystem, nature conservation, and endangered species. Then she had a small presentation about the whole topic. She talked about all possible risks that extinct of endangered species can cause. The expert also explained the importance of nature conservation process.
The meeting was interactive and lasted 1.5 hours, there were 17 children present. Participants were asking many questions. Together with the expert they discussed the role of winds and temperature in the ecosystem, different levels and regions of ecosystem, etc. The meeting was very informative and interesting. Participants were very happy and enthusiastic.

‘Meet the Expert' workshop in the Czech Republic: Waste management - Recycling and Upcycling

Students in the small village school of ZŠ-Heřmanice took part in a workshop on upcycling. Two mini projects were undertaken - how to turn an old t-shirts into environmentally friendly shopping bags and transforming old Tetra-Paks into new wallets. The school already has a strong recycling ethos so a new take on what to do with old items was very popular amongst the children.

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'Recycling issues and importance' workshop in the Czech Republic - Sort out the shopping bag

After the 4th week of April fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic know how to sort the majority of materials of daily use, they know where to look for the recycling signs on the wrapping and they know where in our village they can bring various materials for the recycling. In the beginning pupils watched the "Story of stuff" video http://www.storyofstuff.com/movies-all/story-of-stuff/. Pupils split into three groups and each group got authentic plastic bag with authentic content - empty packaging of various goods we usually bring home from shopping. All groups successfully fulfilled the assignment to sort out these wrappings according to the type of the material they are made of and placed them into the right container in the school.

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‘Human rights regarding environmental issues' workshop in the Czech Republic - The local authority meeting

In the 3rd week of April fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic took a role of municipality representatives and one of them even a role of mayor. As a basic for the start we used the activity "Our futures" from Compass - kids were drawing visions, plans for future positive change in our surroundings, how they want their village to look like in the future. Then we assembled a local authority meeting. Kids were switching in five roles of councillors and mayor. There was always one architect, who was introducing her/his future projects. Councillors were asking questions and voting for or against the project to accepted. Pupils took the game seriously and still had a lot of fun playing the roles of adults.

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‘Waste management and its impact on society and human's life' workshop in Czech Republic - ‘Clean up the dump'

In the 2nd week of April fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic realized that everything made by man will become a trash one day. We have a choice either to store all kinds of waist at the junkyards which will bury us once or we will sort out the rubbish and recycle. Teacher prepared several boxes representing trashcans for all kinds of recycled materials (plastic, paper, aluminum, glass, iron, electronic devices, galvanic cells, organic waste) and hazardous materials. Also cards with pictures which represented all kinds of waste which fits in to the boxes. Kids mixed the cards with rubbish and made a junk pile out of it.
Afterwards they work out the task - "clean up the dump" in the groups of three. The assignment was to sort out the pile of trash into the correct recycle bins. All groups were very successful in correct sorting.

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‘Meet the Expert - importance of sustainability and its impact' workshop in Czech Republic

In the 1^st week of April fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic welcomed in their place an expert – Michaela Křivonožková, volunteer from Hnutí Brontosaurus. She sat with us and drank herbal tea while speaking about the simple and sustainable life of people in Slovak village named Zaježová, where Míša spent one year of her life. We were also speaking about tour elements in connection to ecology. Míša showed us photos and sang a song about blessing our Earth from Z. Svěrák (Chválím tě země má). She taught kids to play a Slovak game called “Mravec”. Thank you Míša for your visit, we had a great time!

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‘Sustainable lifestyle’ workshop in Czech Republic

In the 5th week of March fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic learned to see the difference between Sustainable and Consumable lifestyle. They can recognize it in their everyday lives. They know now that they have a choice and are aware of risks arising out of depletion of raw materials.
There was a motivation movie in the beginning - Energy, let's save it! or Pee During Shower. Pupils sit together around the big circle of paper. They divided the paper in two halves with the thick marker and decided which side will represent the Sustainable approach and which one will be the Consumable part.

The teacher started the story about our everyday morning and went together with the pupils through their common day. She asked them, what they do, what they use e.g. for washing themselves, what they eat for breakfast, what means of transport they use to get to school/work, etc. Pupils were discussing the differences. Teacher brought always two contra pictures so they can decide which one is more harmless for our earth and nature. You would be impressed how much the elementary kids know and how obvious the things are in contrast to what we actually do in our everyday life.

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‘Nature Conservation, wildlife and endangered species’ and ‘Trees and their importance in ecosystem’ workshops in Czech Republic

In the 4th week of March fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic split into three groups and each group was representing one protected beast of prey living on the area of Czech republic. There was a group of wolfs, bears and lynxes. Pupils got familiar with the web pages introducing these beasts to public and created a poster with pictures, paintings and information texts about each species.
In the second part of this workshop pupils watched the movie "The Man Who Planted Trees"- Jean Giono/ Frédéric Back and "Forest-live pump of CO2"-association TEREZA .
Afterwards they discussed and draw how the world would look like without trees and how it looks like with trees. Each pupil made his/her own hand-made paper out of used papers mixed with water. Kids spread in to their homes the stickers produced by Greenpeace saying "Paper has two sides!". School kids planted fruit trees together with the local Civic association Divous on the field close to the school.

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'Biodiversity and Ecosystem diversity' workshop in Czech Republic

In the 3rd week of March fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic aimed to connect the changing Ecosystems and Biodiversity with existing problems and threats on our Earth.
In order to visualise it, they covered big balloon, diameter of one meter, with paper and flour glue. They decorated this spherical encrustation with pictures from journals, nature, animals, humans, industrial issues and small toys like cars, animals, humans to make it more three-dimensional.

Pupils used the FaceBook profile of the school (http://www.facebook.com/zs.hermaniceuoder) and campaign group to share photos and videos from the workshop realization.

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Introduction of the campaign for pupils and ‘Ecosystem and people' workshop in Czech Republic

In the 2^nd week of March fifteen first grade pupils of the small Elementary school Heřmanice u Oder, Czech Republic aimed to learn what is the campaign about and to realize the international context, to make connection with international partners and to realize the ecological threats and problems, human impact on the Ecosystem.

In order to achieve these aims, pupils filled in the prepared personal leaflet about campaign. There were several small tasks to do, like: sign your leaflet, make a translation of the title "Together for a Green Europe", sort out a puzzle map of green leaf Europe and colour it, which countries are involved in the campaign? Colour the flags and fill their names with missing letters. Asking question: What is in front of us? We put together the calendar of the campaign. Read More

Cleaning the nature in Latvia

On April 21 we went out in the nature to clean it after the winter and snow. We did not have much trash in the nature, because in our region there are many people cleaning the area often, and also inhabitants are educated to understand that the trash should not be thrown away wherever. However outside the centres of populated places there is more garbage, especially next to the roads when people just throw out things from their cars. Read More

Workshop about recycling in Italy

On April 12, a workshop about recycling took place in Italy as part of the international campaign. 11 pupils aged 11-13 years from the secondary school of Minturno took part.
The main aim of the activity was to do the recycling in practice so we started the laboratory of recycling. We did it outside, in the yard of the school. We invited also small children from the primary school nearby and some parents interested in taking part in it. Giusy and Angela as experts who ran the activity promised that they will repeat it also during our exhibition in June!

Sustainable lifestyle workshop in Latvia

On April 10, the 4th workshop took place in the Ergli Secondary School in Latvia. In this workshop the facilitator gave a short introduction about the topic - sustainable development. 18 participants got to know the basic issues that define sustainable development and impact sustainable lifestyle. Read More

Recycling and Upcycling workshop in Czech Repubic

Students in the small village school of ZŠ-Heřmanice took part in a workshop on upcycling. Two mini projects were undertaken, how to turn an old t-shirts into environmentally friendly shopping bags and transforming old Tetra-Paks into new wallets. The childrens school allready has a strong recycling ethos so a new take on what to do with old items was very popular amongst the children.

Meeting with the expert and discussion about importance of sustainability and its impact - Italy

On April 3rd, there was the first meeting with expert during the campaign in Italy. The workshop took place at the secondary school of Minturno and 11 pupils took part.
For the next 4 workshops we changed the institute so we had to start with several getting to know each other activities to build-up the group. After the group building activities we stepped to the presentation of the campaign. Through visual facilitation and showing some photos from the previous workshops, we explained what was already done.
We used the material produced in the previous workshop to define sustainability. After a round of questions we stepped into the topic involving the expert Mario. Mario is part of a national Italian organization called "Fare Verde" and he explained some sustainable practices using a power point presentation. Read More

Nature conservation, wildlife and endangered species workshop in Latvia

On April 3 2012, 18 youngsters from the Ergli Secondary School took part in the next workshop of our ‘Together for a Green Europe' campaign. In the workshop we were working on the topics related with endangered animals and plants. Overall, we found out how many different species of plants and animals are registered in Latvia, and how many out of them are included in the Red Data Book. Read More

Sustainable lifestyle workshops in Georgia

On the last day of March, the 31st, the workshop about sustainable lifestyle took place. The teacher explained pupils the meaning of sustainability and the importance of sustainable lifestyle, the pupils were given some examples how they can live in a sustainable way respecting environment. The teacher encouraged them to talk about how they and their families live now, and how they can live more sustainably at school and at home. The pupils discussed the questions like: not smoking, eating a balanced diet; saving water, electricity and paper, recycling - very important part of sustainable lifestyle that still has not been applied in Georgia in alarger scale, using more bicycles; air pollution from cars; illnesses caused from the negligence of human and ruined sustainability.
The teacher shared experience of other European countries - Car Free Day campaign. People using bicycles in Netherlands, France etc., they discussed about the advantages of sustainable transport. The pupils wrote their ideas on the classroom board, and shared the information gathered.
There were 20 children present and they began to realise that everyone can behave responsibly with regard to the nature's resources, and make a difference for the good.

Sustainable lifestyle workshop in Italy

On March 29, the workshop about sustainable lifestyle was organised at the secondary school of Scauri. There were 15 pupils aged 11-13 present. We started with a short evaluation of the previous workshop about nature conservation, wildlife and endangered species. The time travel brought us back to the wildlife ecosystem forum theatre and its good energies and positive impact. Read More

Ecosystem and biological diversity workshop in Latvia

On March 27 2012, the other of the series of workshops took place at the Ergli Secondary School in Latvia. In the workshop we were discussing about the threats that endanger biological diversity and to realize the causes of the pollution, more specific about the Baltic Sea. Participants prepared diorama-collage about the topic: "The Baltic Sea and the danger".
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Nature conservation, wildlife and endangered species workshop in Italy

On March 27, another from the series of workshops took place in Italy, at the secondary school of Scauri. Again 15 participants, pupils of the first and second grade took part. At the beginning, we did a short evaluation of the previous workshop. The time travel brought out some negative feelings from the day before and we spent some time in imagining positive scenarios and proposing positive solutions, some of the proposals were very interesting. One of the participants, Francesca, suggested to the others to not kill any kind of animal during all their life (neither insects). She proposed to create a world law to forbid the animal killing or deportation. Simone proposed to create special houses in each part of the world where people can take care of animals and treat them as members of their family. Read More

Nature Conservation, wildlife and endangered species workshop in Georgia

The next workshop was organized on the 24th March. Firstly the teacher explained to the children why it is important that nature is preserved. For survival of many species; to maintain biodiversity, for our own health, for the economy, to preserve different cultures, etc. The teacher tried to make children aware that nature is not only pretty with cute animals, but we depend on nature in various ways; social, economical, cultural. The teacher tried to explain to the pupils that all species are necessary to maintain a healthy ecosystem because each species has a certain task in the ecosystem.
The second part of the lesson was dedicated to the endangered species, children were asked to give their idea what the endangered species are, together with teacher they explored the reasons why some plants and animals become extinct. Then trainer showed them pictures of several endangered species of flora and fauna in Georgia and in other countries as well. During the lesson they discussed what are the basic needs for all living things to survive. Together with children the teacher discussed some of the things how people can prevent endangered species not to become extinct.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Diversity workshop in Italy

On March 22, the second workshop took place at the secondary school of Scauri. There were 15 pupils of the first and second grade (11-13 years old) present. Firstly we focused our attention back to the topic and the activity done during the first workshop in order to evaluate it. We imagined all together to be transported one day back - what we did, who we were, do we know each other better? Each participant wrote down her or his impressions and then we read what the whole group wrote. Read more

Introduction of the campaign and ‘Ecosystem and people' workshop in Italy

On March 20, the first workshop of the Italian part of the campaign took place at the secondary school of Scauri. There were 15 pupils of the first and second grade (11-13 years old) present. The first step of the workshop was to get to know each other and to build-up the playing/learning group. Participants were lead through some games in social "ice-breaking". Participants were selected from different classes of the same institute so not all of them knew each other before. Read More

Biodiversity and Ecosystem diversity workshop in Georgia

On March 18, the other workshop about biodiversity took place. The main aim of the workshop was to explain and give more detailed information about bio and eco diversity. First pupils (21 pupils aged 13-14) showed the slideshow about ecosystem and human impact on it. Then the trainer asked them to talk about biodiversity. After they expressed their ideas the trainer took them to the schoolyard, where there weren't any trees, just dry grass. Across the yard there were small area with trees and explained how human and different kind of cataclysm can cause a deforestation in a larger scale. After the discussion children came to the point that human shouldn't interfere in the process of natural phenomena.
The trainer also talked about the situation floods that recently happen so often not only in Georgia but outside as well, (e.g. Australia, Latin America, USA, etc.) also talked about deforestation in different countries. With pupils she discussed the possible reasons provoking such occurrences.
Later the trainer divided children into 3 groups and asked them to write down their own ideas how the biodiversity can be protected.

Ecosystem and people workshop in Latvia

The workshop took place on March 2012 at the Ergli Secondary School and there were 18 youngsters between 13-17 years old present. They were reminded about the aims and content of the ECO campaign and presented the topic of the workshop. To realize the knowledge of participants about the ecology topic, the work in smaller groups was organized. Each group received one environmental problem and had to describe it. Afterwards groups were exchanging the papers and had to add the comments. In a big circle groups presented their work, discussion was led by the facilitator. Read more

Ecosystem and people workshop in Georgia

On March 10, 2012, we organized the first workshop of the campaign in Kaspi. Its main aim was to give more details about ecosystem to pupils. First, the trainer introduced the aim of the campaign, then divided children into two groups and asked them to write the meaning of ecosystem. Children had some questions about ecosystem, it turned out that they didn't have enough information about the issue. They were curious about: What is ecosystem and how people are connected with it / human influence, how diverse are ecosystems in the world, whether storm and tsunami are part of ecosystem, etc. The trainer showed some pictures explaining the basics of ecosystem and asked pupils to find some more pictures and make slideshow.
Another activity was applied as a team work activity, children were divided into two groups, they had to connect different natural phenomena (global warming, lakes, seas, oceans, rivers and submarine) to each other. Special interest provoked human impact on ecosystem.
There were 21 pupils present at the workshop.

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