The Comenius Project in Barcelona two years (2009-2011) of interactive work

An interview about the environment

This is an interview with one of our teachers, here at our school in Bochum. His name is Mr Stratmann-Mertens. He was one of the founders of the party Die Grünen, a party which is mainly interested in the environment and its protection. In the 1980s he was a member of federal parliament.

What do you think of spontaneously when you hear the phrase environmental protection ? What are the most important aspects for you ?

First of all, I think that every single person has a responsibility for our environment. Of course, also the government, but I think everybody should start with him- or herself. There are many different possibilities to do it. For example: Is it really necessary to own a car ? And if so, do you really need to use it so often ? Maybe you should instead use the bicycle or the public transportation. Also we shouldn’t use a plane for the holidays. You can also visit foreign countries without flying.

However I think that many people only concentrate on incidentals like for example light consumption. I think the more important things just ”hurt” when you think of losing it.

Why are these aspects so important ?

The resources become more rarely with every year. Then there is the greenhouse effect and the huge CO₂ emission. I think you should really deal with these main problems.

When did you start to deal with this topic ?

Well, in 1979-1980 I founded Die Grünen with some of my environmentally interested colleagues. I also learned many things during my time in this party.

Let’s talk about nuclear power. Do you see any advantages in the use of nuclear power stations ?

No, not really. Many people do say that nuclear power stations don’t produce so much CO₂ and because of that they don’t contribute to the greenhouse effect. But this relative advantage are facing the major disadvantages of nuclear power.

What are the decisive disadvantages you see in it, when you represent your opinion, that the nuclear power stations should be turned off immediately ?

For me the most important argument is that at every time a so-called maximum credible accident could happen. The second reason for my opinion is that there is no final disposal for the nuclear waste. And here I think about the question: Why was such a project ever started, although there hadn’t been a solution to this problem.

What is the reason that many other European nations still hold on to the nuclear power ?

As I said before, they think that the environment isn’t harmed by them. They also say that it’s more cheap, but here is my criticism:

they don’t think of the costs for the waste and the costs of an possible maximum credible accident.

France and Great Britain use the radioactive material for their nuclear bombs.

Is the switch to regenerative energy at all financially possible, or has the government in your opinion already done too much ?

Actually Germany is a rich country, but where to get the money

from ? I suggest an ecological tax. That means, for example, if you raise the prices for a flight on a plane, people wouldn’t use a plane this often anymore and the environment would be spared and there would be more money for the switch.

Why do you think has only Fukushima led to a change in the nuclear politics ? Why not already Tschernobyl ?

The people’s thinking is very sluggish, so they thought Fukushima would be save. I think, for example, Angela Merkel thought so too. In the mass the people can only learn from tragedies. And after the accident from Fukushima there were again many demonstrations against nuclear power. These two aspects probably led to the change.

Third, it was the devastating electoral defeat of the ruling party CDU in Baden-Wurttemberg and the marvelous elctoral win of the anti-nuclear party Die Grünen – 14 days after Fukushima.

Do you think that it might be difficult for our country to switch over to regenerative energy ? Apart from the money.

The danger is that with the time the shock subsides and the fear disappears. Maybe we won’t have problems with nuclear power for 5-10 years and so the people are satisfied with nuclear power again. So it’s necessary to exit the nuclear power as soon as possible - and it would be possible until 2013.

With food, clothes or cosmetics ecological products are already very popular. Why is it so difficult to use ”environmentally friendly” cars ?

First of all there aren’t any environmentally friendly cars at all. Every car harms the environment. Secondly for many people they are to expensive; the people care about the prices, not about the environment. And mostly these cars are very small. Many people want at least a middle class car.

Does it really look so bad for the climate or is there a kind of climate hysteria ?

Definitely no! I think it’s very bad. There are damages amounting to billions because of the increasing number of tornadoes here in Germany. The people ”closed their eyes” for a long time now. They didn’t do anything of importance. They nearly understated the problems.

Thank you for your time !

Tabea Rauth und Svenja Kächele

Design Contest: Waste Paper Bins (Neues Gymnasium Bochum)

At the beginning of this term, the RRR Comenius group initiated a design contest for waste paper collection in the classrooms. The students were asked to use old cardboard boxes and to design them. In these boxes, waste paper can easily be collected in the classrooms. Naturally, the boxes can be reused as long as they are treated well ... And at the end of the term, they can be put into waste paper bins, too. So the three key words concerning the dealing with waste are found in the designed box: “reduce”, “reuse” and “recycle”.

The classes 6d and 6a won the competition because they convinced the student jury from the Comenius project even though it was a very difficult decision.

This contest was to bring also the younger students closer to important topics like the protection of our environment, which can be started easily with little things like recycling. The big participation of the classes shows that environment does matter to the students of the NGB. And there was another incentive: the winners got prizes from our school’s newly founded environment and recycling shop (you can buy reusable lunchboxes and bottles as well as eco-friendly exercise books there and we collect for example old printer cartridges and mobile phones).

Kathi

Our trip to Barcelona

On Wednesday, the 30^th March 2011, a small group of our Comenius – Project (three teachers : Mrs Kapella, Mr Schönberg and Mr Dienstbier ; four students : Anna Kropp, Lena Wegener, Svenja Kächele and Tabea Rauth) went by plane to Barcelona, Spain. The last international Comenius – meeting took place there.

When we arrived in Barcelona airport, we went by cab to the hotel, where our teachers stayed. There we met our host families and went to their homes.

The next day we had to get up very early, because we had to go to school ( Collegi Pare Manyanet ). There the English students and we had to present the work we did during the last months.

The English students had recorded a video about rubbish consumption and the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle). After that we had to present. Although we were as nervous as anyone can be, our presentation went well.

The Spanish students presented something too of course.

When we were finished, we did a tour through the school. We realized that it is very different from our school and that also the teachers aren't as strict as in Germany.

One of the biggest differences is that the school also includes a kindergarten and a primary school. So there are kids aged from 3 years up to 18 years.

After our stay at school, we went with all the host students and the English students on a trip through the city.

We went to Sagrada Familia and from there down to the harbor. We saw a lot of things and a lot of people. It was interesting.

On Friday, the 1^st April, we first went to school again and from there by bus to Eco Parc. We also have written a text about the visit.

After that we, the students, had lunch at a big shopping center. Then we traveled through Barcelona again and went shopping.

Sadly we had to leave the next day. We had to get up even earlier then before, because we had to catch our plane. So when we were back in Bochum, we all were very exhausted.

But anyway, the trip was a great experience and it was such fun.

Unfortunately our project will soon be over. Every student that worked on the project was lucky, that he or she got the chance to learn interesting facts about our environment and to meet people from different countries.

Tabea & Svenja

Comenius Project Barcelona: Col·legi Pare Manyanet (Reuse, Reduce and Recycle)

Our work on the Comenius - Project

In this text we want to tell you something about the work in our Comenius – Project.

Maybe we should first tell you why we decided to join this project:

We are interested in topics like climate change, environment and waste reduction. We want to make our school a bit more environmentally conscious and we want everybody to know and think about the problems that are mainly caused by the climate change.

When we started on the project, we were nearly 40 students from classes 7-11. First we had to build groups on different topics we wanted to work on, for example Waste reduction, Raising awareness and Cooperation.

Regularly, the members of Comenius meet and gather their results.

The Comenius – Project from our school also works together with a school in Wath, England and Barcelona, Spain. In connection to that, there were already some exchanges between the students from the different countries.

When the students from England and Spain visited Germany the last time, we went on a trip to a waste incineration plant in Essen. We already wrote a text about that visit. You can read it when you go on the link “Waste reduction” on the left.

Tabea & Svenja

Our trip to the waste incineration plant

On 25^th November 2010 some students from Bochum and the guest students from Wath and Barcelona went on a trip to the waste incineration plant in Essen Carnap, together with six teachers (Mrs Bunuel and Mr Garriga from Barcelona, Mrs Chisholm and Mr Minshull from Wath and Mrs Biehl and Mr Schönberg from our school).

The plant is a very special one, that produces energy (heat and electricity) from waste!

When we arrived, we entered a conference room, where Mr Schliesser, an important person of the RWE concern, welcomed our group.

While we had some drinks and heated up ourselves with hot coffee, Mr Schliesser showed us a presentation about the plant and its work.

First he gave us some general information, for example that the waste management scheme serves 1.2 million people in the Ruhr-area (Gladbeck, Bottrop, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Mühlheim). That means, that the plant produces 1 kW of electricity per person per day 8.2 million people all in all 82 000 MW of electricity for everyone per day!!

We also learned something about the structure and the machines of the plant:

The highest part of the incineration plant is, obviously, the chimney. It is 200m high! There is also an electricity grind which is in charge for the northern part of Essen. The plant has also got a flue gas cleaning and an evaporating plant.

Overall, you would think that it is very loud for the people who live next to the plant. But the noise (135 dB) is insulated so strongly that the local residents hear almost anything.

Then it got a bit more difficult to follow the presentation, because we now talked about the more physical aspects of the incineration plant.

Here is some data:

- the plant has got a waste sorting concept: glass, glass recycling, paper, paper recycling, bio waste, composting, light packing, plastic recycling, gray bin, burned in plant.

- some values about the work area of the plant:

	inhabitants	area (km²)	waste input (MHKW)
Essen	572 624	210.36	275 780
Ruhr - area	1 196 270	452.99	606 527

- bottom waste bunker records 10 000 tonnes of rubbish.

- remainders and its disposal:

bottom ash (162 147t) sorting and screening

fly ash (15 426t) utilization

gypsum (1 660t) further processing possible

sludge (1 495t) hazardous waste

- gases that are released during the burning process:

component	unit	Limit value (17.BlmschV)	Ø 2009 (behind EmMa)
dust	mg/m³n	10	0.15
SO2	''	50	0.48
NOx	''	200	97.71
CO	''	50	8.74
C (org.)	''	10	0.57
HCI	''	10	0.14
NH3	mg/m³	5	0.02
Hg	mg/m³n	0.05	<0.005
CD,TI	''	0.05	<0.05
Σ other HM	''	0.5	<0.2
PCDD/F	mg/n³n	0.1	<0.05

These were the most important details about the incineration plant. We also inspected some of the machines and the operations there. We can just say, that the trip was very interesting and impressive. We were lucky that we had the chance to see this incineration plant.

But still: Even if waste is processed in a useful way here, it does not mean that we should produce more waste...

By Tabea and Svenja

Comenius in America....

We are (Col.legi Pare Manyanet) presently visiting our American partner School in Massachusetts and recently had a lecture on the school's Sustainability project. We thought it would be a wonderful idea to share our experiences and ideas and help this world to be more environmentally sound, no matter the distance. Attached to our Comenius blog, you will find a link to Pingree's project and their own environmental blog. Very interesting.

Bochum - Germany (Comenius) Trip: Shannon Clayton

Wednesday 24th November

It Started on the Wednesday I got up at 7:00 am like any other school day only to realize today was the day I left for Germany and I still hadn't finished packing! In only 1 hr and 10 minutes we would be at the train station awaiting our train to Manchester airport. I said my goodbyes and me and mum set of to Swinton train station only to find we couldn't see anyone there yet so whilst we waited we wondered what my host would be like. It wasn't too long until Mr Minshull had arrived followed by Anna and her parents, I said by to my mum so she could go back home and went to join the others. Me and Anna decided to chat about our cases as even though I had been panicking all week mine seemed to be tiny and really light compared to hers. That's when I started to panic maybe I hadn't packed enough. Suzy took long enough to arrive but once she did it was time to get to our platform. They said bye to their parents and Anna's mum even gave me a huge hug, not that Anna noticed.

Once we boarded the train I asked Anna if her mum always did that she just said her mother was a weirdo and that she would tell her off once we got back from our trip. On the train me, Suzy and Anna finished our PowerPoint’s which we would be showing to the Germans and Spanish pupils evolved in the Comenius project. Once we had finished me and Anna decided to nosy through sir's itunes and found plenty of 80's music and girls aloud, we tried taking photos as we saw a camera on the screen of the laptop however we didn't find how to take pictures. There were 2 trains to catch to Manchester one to Meadowhall then the next straight to the airport.

The journey to the airport wasn't too bad but as time ticked on we started to get hungry. We got to the airport around inner time so once we were through check in we decided to eat. We went for a shop where Suzy bought a toy giraffe and I bought magazines. We had a lot of fun at the airport talking about our beloved Derek and creating inside jokes. There wasn't many shops to look at but we found a tech shop and started playing on the ipad it was very entertaining. It was soon time to board the plane and it was near enough empty, we loved it we was hoping that the plane back would be the same. I had never read the Harry Potter books although I have seen the films, so taking my friends advice I decided to read them although after a while I had to come back to reality so I listened to Paramore whist reading my Kerrang! mag. It was only about 1 hour on the plane so then we was at Düsseldolf - Germany. To get to the train station however we had to catch the sky train which was so fun as we don't have them in England.

We then stood waiting for ages waiting for our train to come because we had missed the last one that we all decided to freshen up on a bit off German.

We talked to local to ask if we were saying things right and it turned out they could understand us. The train came and I was startled at how many cyclists there was onboard. We were all nervous about meeting our hosts, probably me most of all because I had barely talked to Julia yet the others had been constantly messaging. It was only 5 minutes at Bochum train station when Mrs Chisholm pulled a fella, personally I found it hysterical.

We saw the German teacher who showed us to each of our hosts. Once we saw them I seemed over the moon they spoke English however I turned and saw Julia's parents just stood staring but also smiling at first I thought they just didn't know what to say to me but it turned out they couldn't speak any English! When we got to Julia's home I thought they would let me just rest and unpack, but they didn't instead relatives came over to see what Julia had got for her birthday. When I did eventually get to go to bed it was the hardest bed I'd ever slept on. It was worse than sleeping on the floor, but I'd get used to it.

Thursday 25th November

It was an early morning today, what with having to catch the bus to school at 7:45 am. For breakfast it was either toast or bread with Nutella, jam or cottage cheese with chocolate milk. At the school in Germany it was non-uniform which we thought was much better than our school. I though our school was big but this was huge compared to ours in Wath. I felt so lost but it was okay because Suzy arrived only two minutes later. Luckily our class was together and it was Spanish so we knew what they was talking about due to us learning it ourselves. Halfway through the lesson Eliza (Suzy's host) and Julia excused us as we had to go and join our teachers to wait for our coach. We was going to go to a incineration plant. Mr Minshull was ecstatic, however seeing where our rubbish goes wasn't really my cup of tea. Anna and Laura joined us and when everybody was at the meeting point we went to get on the coach outside.

What I found surprising was they didn't race to get the back seats. On the way there me, Suzy and Anna caught up with each other to see what their last evening was like, but then we didn't really know what to talk about so I put my music on full blast. The trip wasn't long, when we got there we was greeted and directed to a room filled with refreshments, coca-cola "THANK THE LORD!" I was sick of drinking grape juice. We sat through a discussion which was all in English, and found it fascinating how the other students knew what he was talking about. After the conference we got to wear blue builder hats and fluorescent jackets for our tour and we looked like bob the builder.

We followed our tour guide and he led us to where the rubbish was tipped it stunk vile luckily we had our scarf to cover our noses, although it made us look like terrorists. As we moved on we got to see rubbish being lifted by huge cranes and then rubbish being burnt and even the control room. On the way back down to the room we lost our teachers who were very keen on how the plant worked. But we went back to collect them then set off back to the room where we had earlier had our information talk, we said goodbye then set off back to Albert Einstein school.

When we got to the school we had dinner and we think we had the vegetarian option not that we was aware why but it still tasted nice. Julia's friends met up with us. There was; Pia, Carlotta, Hannah, Nessie, Leonie, Philli and Shawn. They was very nice but it was like they didn't want to say something and say it wrong but it would have been nice to hear them try speaking our language as well as us trying out their's.

After lunch break we went to do a Comenius activity where we was all split up and out into different groups, we got to know each other a little and designed a video. When school finished I was told that we would all meet up later on in the evening to go and see the Christmas market. Instead of getting the bus back Shawn's mum gave us a lift, she didn't mind at all. She spoke some English to me but then focused on her driving. They talked about music a lot about Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa and The Wanted.

We was dropped of at Shawn's house and we walked the rest of the way back. We didn't have anything to eat as we was going to get something at the market we got washed and recharged then went back out. We met Leonie at the tram stop and then caught the tram to town where we met Eliza and Suzy. Although Laura, Anna and Philli turned out to already be in the market. So we met them outside of star bucks instead of the station.

We walked around but every time we wanted to go somewhere the others wandered off. It seemed a bit like Laura and Philli was trying to fit in with the others but when it came to where to eat Julia, Eliza and Leonie wanted to have McDonalds, where as we wanted to try German food. We split into two groups and one went to McDonalds the other had German food. We ate this dough which was pizza like which had a topping of some cream sort sauce, bacon and onion. It was very delicious, I even wished we had them in England. We finished our food and went for a wander where I saw a slipper which was for both of your feet I was going to buy one but we had no time as the stores were closing. So instead we were re-assured we would come back I would by one another day. We met back up with the other girls but then Leonie needed to go home, it was getting later and then soon enough everybody else needed to go so we set of back but again we got a lift from Eliza 's mum this time, who thought I was called Sarah! :S

We got back and I changed for bed but before going to sleep me and Julia watched 'another Cinderella story' in English.

Friday 26th November

Today I actually had chance to have a lay in as there was no school lesson due to their teacher being off ill. On the other hand we still had to go into school to do the Comenius activity. We continued on yesterday's project and showed our PowerPoint’s. When we had finished we set off but the bus was ages away so we decided to walk to the trams but one was closed because of mechanics working on the rails. If we had waited our tram would be ages so instead we walked to the nearest bus stop and waited but on the bus we missed our stop because Julia was too busy talking to one of her friends. So we got of in town and Julia rung her mum to see if she'd pick us up. She agreed and came within 20 minutes. I was so excited about tonight we were going to a concert. We got back, changed and then left.

Before we set off to the ISS dome we picked up Maria (one of Julia's friends outside school). We got to the arena and they took professional photos, gave out five badges and free chocolate bars. Stood outside for several hours we near enough froze to death but when we got inside it was lovely and warm. Unlike many of the concerts I've been to this one was live, had a variety of different acts and we was stood at the front of the stage! It was all good there was English and German acts such as Monrose, The little black pony, Paul Potts, Mike Posner, mad con, far east movements etc. it was near enough interval but I was boiling. My head was spinning and I needed to sit down I felt really faint. I told Julia and when she explained to her mum she dragged me and forced me to sit down, she offered me something to eat but I wasn't hungry I was just gagging. They bought some drinks and I felt a lot better. The second half wasn't as long as the first half so it wasn't too long till it was over. When it finished it was really late so we was all so tired I nearly fell asleep in the car on the way back All I was bothered about now was going to sleep

Saturday 27th November

Today we was going to Munchen for the Christmas markets, I was hoping to find something to take back home with me but nothing caught my eye, then again we also had less time as me and Julia had to get the earlier train so we wasn't late for Julia's birthday party. Not that I was completely bothered, all I had on my mid was going home tomorrow. Throughout the beginning of the party I felt so lonely hardly anyone made conversation with me as if I was some sort of alien but I tried to be attentive. Julia did get some funny birthday presents for example baby food and many packets of chewing gum.

Suzy and her host arrived and then I had someone to talk to although we looked like very miserable as everyone else was dancing - well swaying. Eventually they came over to us and got us up dancing although the music being played was just being replayed over and over. I thought it was funny how their kind of birthday they have at the age of 13 is what we'd have at the age of 9. They had a screaming contest and I became very agitated so I screamed and it soon shut them up. I was so hoping the night would soon end so that I could go to bed and go home finally tomorrow.

Sunday 28 November

Home day finally! Ire-packed which didn't take long, watched a film then went to the train station where I met my teachers. We didn't really do much except talk about going home, we said goodbye and boarded our train. On the train we just talked about how glad we were to be going back. At the airport me and Anna made our own remake of the Barbara Streisand song by duck sauce. We found Billy boy and Patrick tic tac but then it was time to board our plane. Unlike our plane to Germany it was a lot more full on the way back. When we got back to Manchester me and Anna got excited at the site of the escalators as we remembered the past Friday at Meadowhall. We thought it would be fun to play on our ipods so we had a game of truth or dare. After a while we were pranking people with Anna 's free credit but then it wasn't too long till we was at Swinton where we all set off back home.