Hamrun Junior Lyceum presents project work in Spain

Dun Guûepp Zammit (Brighella) Boys' Junior Lyceum, Hamrun, is in the second year of a Comenius project, "Science at School; Experimenting, thinking and communicating", with schools from Finland, Spain, Belgium, Italy and France. In this project students had the opportunity to learn more about renewable sources of energy, water and recyling.

Students accompanied their teachers for the last and concluding meeting of this project. Choosing four of many hardworking students was not easy for the three teachers directly involved in the project - Ms Emma Borg (project co-ordinator), Mr Mario Muscat and Mr Noel Harmsworth. So they decided to conduct an interview to all participating students. Mr Alfred Bugeja (assistant head) and Mrs Mariella Said (English teacher) kindly offered to sit on the interviewing board. Finally, the students Daniel Zammit, Michael Grima, Christian Leone and Christopher Buttigieg accepted to represent their school in Alicante, Spain.

All participating countries were present for this final meeting. On the first day teachers discussed the aims of this visit. Later all participants visited the museum of water, in the outskirts of Alicante. In this museum one could see the history of water production which was quite interesting, since research about the history of Maltese water production was studied earlier on in the scholastic year. In the afternoon, the Italians and French made a presentation of their work.

The next day presentations of Malta and Belgium were demonstrated. The teachers gave a short description of the school and the educational system in Malta. This was followed by several power point presentations by students, which showed the work they had done during the year.

The following are the titles of the presentations they made during this meeting: Marine fieldwork, Water tests, Study on water consumption - results and analysis of questionnaire, Saving water tips, Experiments to compare the density of tap water and seawater, Comenius Camp, Comenius project products, Recycling, Solar energy, Models working with solar panels (solar power car, solar windmill and solar helicopter), Biodegradable objects - a scientific study, Bin-watch survey, Educational visits.

At the end of the presentation they also gave a copy of a board game which they had produced. This board game promotes saving water and energy, recycling and alternative sources of energy. (Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of this game may phone 2123-6227 or e-mail emma@orbit.net.mt).

The next day the Spanish and Finnish schools presented their work. In the afternoon students were asked to make a presentation about their country. Maltese students illustrated their talk with posters, brochures and map of Malta, which had been obtained from the MTA. They gave details about history, culture and gastronomy together with some information about their hometown. Both teachers and students had the opportunity to join some physics, biology and technology classes.

The Spanish students organised a closing ceremony for this event in Spanish, English and French. The school choir sang traditional Spanish songs and there was also a Spanish student who danced the flamenco. This ceremony ended with a moving speech from the head of the Spanish school praising all the hard work and effort put in by all those involved, without which, she added, this project would not have been so fruitful.

Special thanks go to EUPU as well as other sponsors (school council, Sliema council and Farsons) who made this visit to Spain possible.