Creating Sustainable Schools Marina Michaelidou (MA) Dr. Pavlos Rigas Marina Michaelidou (MA) A Comenius Programme (Multilateral Partnership) coordinated by Cyprus, with partners from Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Finland and France

Basic principle of sustainable development Aim To create schools where the future citizens will be educated in order to preserve the environment, not only for their own sake, but also for the sake of future generations. Basic principle of sustainable development

Main issues consumerism and reducing waste (completed), restructuring of the surroundings of the school (completed), travel, traffic and climate change (in process), nutrition (next semester)

Travel, traffic and climate change (period: 10/2009 – 1/2010) (i) Conduct a survey about the way people in our neighbourhood travel in order to get to their work (investigate how many cars pass by a certain place on the road near the school and count how many people are inside the car – this activity can be repeated at another time of the day in order to identify the time of the day which creates the most pollution). (ii) CO2 footprint (idea taken from the site www.teachers4energy.eu) – is it possible to have joint results? (iii) Students make their own cars out of waste (they propose ways in which the cars should move in order to be environmentally friendly).

Travel, traffic and climate change (period: 10/2009 – 1/2010) (iv) Compare the travel habits of people today with people from 50 or even 100 years ago. (v) Organize photograph exhibitions which show the impact of global warming to our world. (vi) Conduct studies about endangered species which are threatened to become extinct because of global warming (e.g. polar bears). (vii) Create small greenhouses in order to investigate the impact of the greenhouse effect on our planet (students can investigate how a plant grows inside and outside a greenhouse and make projections of what could happen if the temperature inside the greenhouse rises).

Nutrition (period: 2/2010 – 6/2010) (i) Promote traditional products – it is up to each partner on how to do that (e.g. try to sell products during a fair at your school or bring traditional food to the closing ceremony in Cyprus). (ii) Have competitions about promoting healthy food (e.g. which class has the most frequent fruit eaters – do it for 2 or 3 weeks and decide who is the winner). (iii) Prepare recipes with traditional products – cookbook with Easter recipes.

Nutrition (period: 2/2010 – 6/2010) (iv) Arrange cooking nights where the school will promote traditional products and at the same time products from the partner’s countries (if this is possible). (v) Link healthy nutrition with frequent exercise. Ask the PE teacher to work with you. (vi) Organize a healthy breakfast day with different activities relating to the breakfast.

End products - What have we already done? (a) Fairy tale: Each country has its own topic (non-sustainable monsters in action) - completed (b) Dictionary: This will help our students become familiar with the 8 different languages – completed (c) Sustainable Pursuit: Knowledge Game - in process (d) Sustainable schools suitcase - in process (e) Cookbook with traditional Easter recipes – next semester

Deadlines!!! (a) Sustainable Pursuit: the cards will be produced each term for each theme – final version May 2010. The questions for the third theme must be submitted by December 2009 and for the fourth theme by the beginning of April 2010! (b) Sustainable schools suitcase: activities should be uploaded when they are ready (e-twinning cooperation) – final version May 2010. This activity is actually turning into a webpage with other resources too. (c) Cookbook with traditional Easter recipes – March 2010! – When you have it ready send it to us.

Some things to remember!!! Board and rules of the game – our partner from Finland has to send them to us as soon as possible!!! Correspondence – in order to succeed we have to promote the activity to our students. Please have the letters ready on time and send them as soon as you have collected them (or bring them with you to the next meeting if this means the letters will reach their destinations earlier). Also make sure that the students that have received a letter, have written a letter back to the sender, in order to avoid any disappointment. (c) Lesson plan for each activity!!!

Celebration in Cyprus (May 2010) The celebration’s theme is a surprise! You will be informed before you arrive in Cyprus. One thing is for sure: you are going to participate in it in an active way!!! This is the case for you and for the children you are bringing with you too. For more details we will inform you in the future…

General remarks Try to keep in touch at least 2-3 times per month! It is nice to know what you are doing. Try to meet the deadlines! It is important for everything to be ready on time! Do not forget about communication between classes and students (e-mail, ordinary mail). Try to inform the hosting country on time about your participation!!! Keep in mind that we are always willing to solve any problems or answer any questions you may have!