Identifying problems and finding solutions

During our lat project meeting in Assen we made tables with the actions,events and project activities,
which partner schools organized from 2015 to 2017 in order to solve the problems in their schools and regions.

No.	Partner school	Ecological problem	Taken action
1.	Gimnazjum z Oddziałami Dwujęzycznymi in Juszczyna	Air pollution caused by burning rubbish and bad quality coal. Contamination of soil and brooks by throwing away the rubbish on the river banks and in the forest. Problems connected with wasting electricity, water and poor knowledge of necessity of recycling rubbish.	Including the project topics into Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography and English lessons.              -Students have learnt about dangers to the environment and how they can reduce them. Identify the reasons for those problems and show that we can protect the natural world  by recycling, saving water and electricity and using the alternative sources of energy.   Involving students into doing the multimedia presentation on alternative sources of energy.             -Additional lessons:                    English lesson- vocabulary connected with the environment and its protection, Physics lessons about sources of energy,                                      Chemistry lessons; harmful results of burning chemical rubbish, Biology lesson:”What can you do to change your bad habits and help to protect the environment in your region?”                                      -  Drawing posters showing the ecological problems in the area.         -Meeting with the representative of the local Ecological Organization ”Gaja”.                                 -Organizing meeting with parents and giving them multimedia presentations on the reasons for pollution in their region.                        -Publishing the articles in the local press about bad influence of the burning rubbish on the environment.                                          - Organizing educational trips:       to the hydroelectric power station on the Żar Mountain,                      to sewage treatment plant in Żywiec                                      Participating in the actions: ”Clean Mountains” Planting trees Meeting with forest rangers and firemen Participation in the international meetings, lessons and workshops connected with environmental issues.
2.	Gymnasium Unter Den Eichen  Uetze	!.Waste and waste separation in school.	-   Fairtrade-School: an own marketplace for selfmade food (food) from the students à less waste of recycling materialsü -    Due to change of the canteen owner - Convince the new canteen owners to offer no sweets and drinks in plastic cups or plastic bags à negotiations are still running a shared waste separation of all 4 schools at the school center à negotiations are still running
3.	Bedriye ve Kadir Uysal Ortaokulu  in Uşak	Air Pollution caused by using coal instead of natural gas.                                                               Water Pollution caused by dumping of factory wastes.                     Soil Pollution caused by using pesticides	In lessons connected with our project titles, informing students about the danger of using too much coal on living things and environment. In Biology lesson, giving information about greenhouse gases and their harmful effects on environment and living things. Explaining also these gases has invisible harmful effects for our body when we breathe them. In Physics and Chemistry, telling students the importance of using renewable energy types. Taking them to the plants of solar panels and wind turbines. In English lessons, because of the curriculum, in each level, teaching the subjects and related words about air and the other pollution types. Distributing brochures which give information about the harmful effects of smog on the air and explaining how important to take the factories out of the city and encouraging Natural gas usage in factories extended   Explaining students what the water pollution is and importance for people and our earth in science lessons. Celebrating each year  “The World Water Day” and emphasizing the importance of water in our life. Organizing  educational school excursion to Günalı irrigation channel and Uşak domestic waste water purification plant. Showing presentations to students and parents especially work on land about how the soil was polluted and the importance of keeping it healthy that is essential to maintaining a beautiful planet. Educating them about harmful effects of  man made waste consists of many chemicals and the usage of pesticides.
4.	dr.Nassau College Penta in Assen	In Assen we don’t have severe problems of water- or air pollution. In some places we have soil pollution caused by former factories or petrol stations. A part of our school is built on an area where in former times a dry cleaning company was run. But before building our school the soil was cleaned. The biggest problem in Assen and in the whole of the Netherlands is that we are dealing with is the high consumption of energy and throwing garbage away.   E-BIKES The municipality and our school stimulate the personal to make more use of bikes instead of using cars or public transport. They give a grant to everyone who buys a new e-bike for traveling from home to school.	In the lessons of biology, geography and physics we talk with the pupils about these problems. We also do projects in a nature reserve near our school, in one project we let them find solutions for the problems of throwing garbage away and of degradation of the nature reserve by for instance building roads and houses. In another project we try to make them aware of the importance of the area for good drinking water. By giving information/education about the high consumption of energy, we hope that they change their habits and be economical with energy and raw materials. In specific we give lessons about reducing the use of energy and the cause of the greenhouse effect with the consequence for rising sea level.  All the rooms in our buildings are equipped with automatic light switches that make the light only lit if there is someone in the room. We also teach about the use of solar panels. One building of the Dr. Nassau College has a lot of these solar panels on its roof. SUSTAINABILITY CENTER  New in Assen is a sustainability center where classes and inhabitants of Assen can get information about building energy-neutral. They give for example information about isolating buildings, using woodchips for heating, solar-panels, toilets that use less water, roofs with plants for isolation and so on. All our students will visit this sustainability center once in their school career.

 

 

No.	Partner school	Health problems of our students connected with their lifestyle and reasons for the weak interests in learning	Solutions
1.	Gimnazjum z Oddziałami Dwujęzycznymi in Juszczyna	- weak vision, spine curving and obesity(15%)                                            -students spend a lot of time in front of the computer and TV sets, they do not walk, even 100m a day, they prefer having fast food, sweets and fizzy drinks to eating fruit and vegetables        -our students do not often want to take part in the Physical Education lessons                                    -they prefer having fast food, sweets and fizzy drinks                      -being  busy with modern gadgets and computer games, they are bored during the school lessons and are too lazy to learn Mathematics.	-introducing more interesting methods and games during the PE lessons, -checking the  students fitness and discussing the reasons for the bad performances, -organizing a meeting with a well-known sportsman, -meeting with a dietician; workshops on the healthy diet, -workshop with a nurse on the healthy lifestyle and healthy diet, -culinary lessons connected with making healthy dishes, -involving students into preparing multimedia presentations on harmful influence fizzy drinks and sweets on the body and mind, -including topics connected with healthy lifestyle into Biology, PE and English lessons, -organizing educational trips          ( visit to the Bread Cottage, baking bread , trying it and comparing with the bread bought in a shop, making traditional  butter and cheese, a chocolate workshop in a Chocolate Museum in Cracow). - sports competitions, -participation in the international meetings, lessons and workshops. Additional lessons: Mathematics lessons -introducing the calculations joined with the results of project evaluation into, making them more interesting by analyzing their own participation in the project work Art workshop-making and drawing posters connected with the healthy lifestyle, Biology lesson about healthy lifestyle-“What can we do as individuals to make changes to our lifestyles and help natural world to be healthy for us?”,, English lesson- vocabulary connected with healthy lifestyle -cooking lessons: preparing a healthy dish for dinner.
	Gymnasium Unter Den Eichen  Uetze	1.Alcohol abuse. 2.Too little physical exercises.	-   „Tom & Lisa“ : an alcohol prevention project with students (8th grade) -    Cooperation with Police: alcohol prevention with students (10th grade) -    Topics in lessons (Biology/ English): abuse and effects on body and soul by drugs -    Offering more sports working groups in the afternoon and introducing sports days in collaboration with the open all-day school -    Participation in „Youth training for Olympia“ in 2016 (Handball- grades 5-7) Introducing a new profile for 5th grade (in 2017): PE-Class
	Bedriye ve Kadir Uysal Ortaokulu  in Uşak	Obesity   Diabetics   Smoking and Drugs	Observing obesity face-to-face in our classrooms and increasing number of obesity. Giving these "super-sized" students advice about balanced diet and avoiding fast food or unhealthy food. Explaining them in the science lessons and organizing seminars given by dieticians. Encouraging the students to take part in a sport activity and doing exercises daily. Cooperation with PE teachers to keep healthy these obese and overweight students. Showing students presentations and giving tasks that give information about the Sugar free food and drinks and harmful effects of sweets at school canteens. Providing to be sold healthy food and drinks at school canteens by talking school management and canteen keeper. Organizing seminars about smoking and drugs given by officers from our local police department.
	dr.Nassau College Penta in Assen	Overweight Smoking, drugs	Water taps in schools Healthy canteen                           Healthy school yard                       Pupils have breaks outside compulsory                                             Do It program (Biology lessons)                                           Smoking banned from school                                                         P.E. classes and sports tournaments                                         Use of dancing plates in P.E. lessons