Comenius projects on climate change, ICT

Kan. P. Pullicino girls' secondary school in Rabat, which forms part of St Nicholas College, is nearing the end of a two-year Comenius project entitled 'Taking Action Over Climate Change' that it entered into with two other schools in Portugal and Germany.

The project's overarching message has been that energy conservation is the way forward for our planet and everyone can do their bit to save energy, which which in turn reduces global warming and health hazards by reducing air pollution.

During the project's first year, research and activities were aimed at increasing students' awareness about the local environment and about how waste could be reduced, reused and recycled. The focus of this year was about how reducing the consumption and avoiding the overuse of energy and the use of alternative sources of energy such as solar energy at home and at work can significantly help in controlling climate change.

Among the highlights of a project meeting hosted by the Rabat school last February was a presentation by three of its Form IV Physics students about how heat loss can be minimised and maximised in winter and summer respectively in Maltese homes. A visit to the reverse osmosis plant in Pembroke also helped the students realise how much energy is involved in desalinating seawater and about the need to reduce water wastage.

At another project meeting held last month in Germany, the Maltese, German, and Portuguese students were involved in experiments related to energy saving. One such experiment showed that it is more efficient to directly heat water using a kettle than using indirect heating methods suxh as a hotplate or a microwave.

The students visited the main tower in Frankfurt, where most businesses use solar energy, as well as Staudinger power plant in Frankfurt, which filters out more than 90 per cent of the dust, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide produced during the burning process.

Meanwhile, best ICT practices in schools were recently presented during a meeting of the Comenius project 'Open Windows' hosted by Madonna Tal-Mensija primary school 'A' in San Ġwann, which forms part of St Clare College.

Ten representatives from three other schools from Italy, Germany and Northern Ireland attended the meeting. The San Ġwann school presented two experiences where it used ICT as a medium to teach English to Year 3 classes and held a lesson with Kirkop Primary 'C' via a video conference.

The project is currently in its second year and the next project meeting will take place in Italy in June.

The European Commission is financially supporting both these projects under the Socrates Comenius programme, and the Maltese European Union Programmes Unit is providing funding for the local participants to attend the overseas project meetings.