The Blue Planet Project: May 2005

PROJECT MEETING ACTIVITIES REPORT

RUCAR,ROMANIA,
APRIL 18 – 20 ,2005

The project meeting of the Comenius school project „The Blue Planet” took place on April 18th,19th,20th at the Grupul Scolar Forestier Rucar,Romania,according to the programme of the second year project.

Participating teachers from the European school partners :

From Italy - Instituto di Istruzione Superiore „Ugo Mursia”,Carini -coordinating school:
Anna Maria Bevaqua ,coordinator teacher;
Anna Maria Taddeo,teacher;
From Greece - ”8 Eniaio Lykeion Ioannion”,Ioannina :
Panayiotis Yiakis,principal;
Stergios Nastopoulos,coordinator teacher;
Angeliki Stoukidou,teacher;
Martha Pappa Rapti,teacher;
From Sweden – „Satilaskolan” Satila:
Margit Karlsson,teacher;
Anette Schreiber,teacher;
From Romania – Grupul Scolar Forestier Rucar:
Ana Vorovenci,principal;
Domnica Pestritu,coordinator teacher;
Maria Vlaicu,teacher;
Ion Radescu,engineer.

During the project meeting there were developed the following activities:

1. Lectures on :

„The National Park Piatra Craiului – history,goals and
water managemant”,by Mr. Bogdan Cosmescu, environment engineer;
„Local development and fresh water management”,by Mr. Ghica Dumitru, maior of Rucar

2. There was also information concerning the importance of water for the local activities such as :the Trout Nursery of Dambovicioara or the Watermill at Rucar.

The power of water was underlined during the visits to:

The Hydropower Station of Pecineagu/Clabucet;
the Dambovicioara gorges;
the Hydropower Station and the dam of Vidraru;
the water cleaning entreprise”APA BRASOV”.

The project participants had the opportunity to disccover water symbols in some of the Romanian myths, legends or literary works during the visits to the Cave of Dambovicioara,the Monastery of Curtea de Arges, the old city of Brasov, or the folk evening performed by the Romanian students.

3. The project meeting session focussed on the following topics:

a) Activities already done by each project partner this school year.

The school from Sweden insisted on more practical activities, while the Greek team has been collecting sayings on water as well as students’ drawings.
The Romanian school suggested to make a collection of texts on water symbol in the partners’ culture(literature,music,religion,legends).As the Italian and the Romanian schools worked on both scientific and literary topics,the Italian school proposed to make a collection of these materials as an end product of this project year. The Greek and Sweden texts will be added next year,as the partners are still working on water symbols.This collection will be made by the Italian school as an end product of the project.All the participants agreed with it.They also accepted the Romanian
proposal of making a dictionary with the most used words connected to water,in
English and the languages of the four partners.The dictionary will be drafted by
the Romanian team as an end product of this project year.

b) The Sweden partnes insisted on teaching methods ment to raise the students’ interest in the project and involve them in the activities carried on by each school. The other partners offered examples of interesting activities - according to the students’ age.

c) Communication between the partners.
The Greek school underlined the importance of students’ involvement in the project too; the chat-room created by the Greek partner helps the students of the partner schools to get in touch one – another easily. The Greek school had a suggestion too:the proverbs on water - collected by the students - to be recorded and sent to all partners, using the new technology. The Romanian partner proposed to add these proverbs to the dictionary which is to be made this year. The Greek school proposed to add paradoxes on water too.Each partner agreed to add to the dictionary 5 proverbs and 5 paradoxes both in English and the mother tongue, before the 10th of June 2005.

d) Dissemination of the project activities.
The Greek school mentioned the web pages visited by more than 300 teachers last year.The Italian Site „Gold System” has been working with similar results.The Sweden and the Romanian schools insisted on the renewal of the students’ materials on the web pages of the project. There were underlined the initiatives of the Greek school with respect to the dissemination , the film on the project meeting at Ioannina inclusively.

4. Dissemination of the project to the Romanian community was done by:

involvement of the local administration, private entrepreneurs or students’ parents in the project meeting;
ccooperation with the National Park Piatra Craiului, S.E.H. Curtea de Arges, Compania APA Brasov; the School of Dambovicioara; the Trout Nursory of Dambovicioara.
headteachers of the nearby school were invited to the lectures on water;
students and teschers articles published in the local newspaper and the school magazine;

5. Conclusions:

the project participants had the opportunity to discover the real Romania and to be informed about the local water problems;
the projectg meeting ment a step ahead to reach the project aims;
We renewed our partnership and friendship that already had developed and enriched our teaching and life experience.

6.The partners decided upon the next project meeting:October,2005 in Sweden.

Water in posters

A work of the Romanian School from Rucar. Well done, kids!

Water dictionary (English-Greek-Italian-Romanian-Swedish) and not only...

A work of the cooperating schools. We hope it is useful...

This spring has met generations, has seen travellers and travellers, paysants and soldiers, housekeepers washing cloths, horses and cows. She is still there waiting for you to pass by. Water clear and cold, no modern designed bottles, just water. Simple and strong construction with no ornaments. Practical and minimal. Functional.

A modern spring built in old style in Epirus, Greece. Photo by Mr. Panayiotis Giakis, Principal of the 8th Unified Lyceum of Ioannina, Greece

This old spring in Epirus, Greece is waiting for the tired walker, here for centuries. Photo by Mr. Panayotis Giakis, Principal of the 8th Unified Lyceum of Ioannina, Greece