Virtual conference on Waste Management (May 2021) (C4 activity, Part 1)

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    FIRST MEETING DAY, 4. 5. 2021, 4-7pm (ETC)

     

    Meeting starts at 16:05 CET by welcome from Anja (Slovenia) and Julia (Spain). 

    Introduction to the project timetable is made by Anja and Julia. 

    Julia introduces the Padlet link with expectations, so everyone joins to write their expectation in the Padlet board. 

    16:20 

    Spanish team is leading the ice-breaking activity by using Classroom Roulette, where four countries are presented (Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgari and Sweden) to spin it and to get to know which countries team will answer to a question Macu (Spain) will be asking. 

    16:23 

    Spanish team moves to presentation about the school and the topic about waste management 

    16:45 

    Anja creates Breakout rooms for national teams to come up with the problems that other teams will need to solve offline until the next online meeting (18.05)

    17:03 

    Sweden presents its problem. By random choice Bulgaria will be solving Sweden's problem. 

    17:12 

    Bulgaria presents its problem. By random choice Slovenia will be solving Bulgaria's problem.

    17:18 

    Slovenia presents its problem. By random choice Sweden will be solving Slovenia's problem.

    17:21 

    Latvia presents its problem. By random choice Spain will be solving Latvia's problem.

    17:28

    Spain presents its problem. By random choice Latvia will be solving Spain's problem.

    Here are the problems all of the countries have selected. 

    17:31 - 17:40 coffee break 

    17:45 

    Sweden presents their waste management aspects in their school, activities that have been done in the school. Johanna explained why regulations have not allowed the compost in the school and that food waste is better to be used to create biogas. 

    Johanna (Sweden) explains the benefits of biogas versus compost. 

    Johanna presents the lesson that has been done in the school to help the environment. The lesson has been integrated in the English class. 

    After the presentation there is a discussion about the biogas in Sweden, how the process works, Anja (Slovenia) explains the Slovenian traditions about gardening, the food waste processing systems, explains the existence of school gardens in Slovenia and use of food waste. 

    18:10 

    Bulgarian team starts with a waste management practice presentation. Team introduced the Rubbish family as waste collection practice. Introducing the action “Let's give the paper a second life”. 

    Bulgarian team introduces the activities that have been implemented with children about the waste management topic. 

    Waste separation and collection is a new skill to children as in Bulgaria it is not common practice. 

    Discussion about the toys made from waste materials and how to integrate waste materials into learning. It is important to combine them with other materials and use it in a way that it brings artistic value. 

     

    18:25 

    Spanish team is introducing us to reflection and feedback for the meeting, using Socrative.

    Reflection activity will be done in a total of 4 teams, made randomly. 

    The reflection was made by questions with 4 answers to select from about the topics and information that has been provided in the meeting. 

     

    SECOND MEETING DAY, 18. 5. 2021, 4-7pm (ETC)

    Meeting started at 16:00 CET. While participants were joining in we played virtual pictionary using Zoom whiteboard. Anja and Julia did a short welcome speech and Julia also presented today’s timeline.

    16:10 Spanish team started the programme by showing us a video with quiz questions about their hometown Alcoy using Edpuzzle interactive video lesson tool. They use the tool for teaching a lot.

    Link to a video: https://edpuzzle.com/media/609a845dd7b1d441895872b4

    16:25 Spanish team presented their school system, which is changing a lot as it is majorly influenced by the government (changing of ministers etc.). Some aspects such as staff management and curriculum development are in juridstriction of autonomous regions. 

    They talked about all stages of compulsory and after compulsory education and answered some questions asked by participants. 

    16:40 We watched aerial view presentation of Colegi Sant Roc school

    16:45 We watched a video of Colegi Sant Roc school made by the teachers. They showed us different playgrounds, dining room, classrooms (English lesson), gym, area for teachers, library. 

    Students also prepared a video in which they presented the activities they do related to the project. 

    17:00 Video about preschool education in Colegi Sant Roc made by a preschool teacher. 

    17:05 We watched a short presentation of waste management activities also in video form.

    17:07 Slovenian team did a team building activity: participants were divided into 5 breakout rooms. Each team was given one of the countries that are participating in the project. They needed to draw 4 things that are distinct to that country. After 8 minutes we gathered in the main room again. Teams were guessing the countries based on the drawings.

    17:35 - 17:45 Coffee break

    17:45 After the break we did another team building activity. Participants were divided into four mixt national groups using breakout rooms. By talking to each other they needed to find 4 things that they have in common: a dish and movie they like, country they all been to and a  hobby.

    18:00 Slovenian team did their waste management theme presentation using Prezi app. Anja talked about waste management related practices they do in Kindergarten Vrhnika, activities they did with the children and problematic areas in which a lot of waste is produced. She also presented lesson plan for waste management activities for preschool and lower elementary classes. 

    18:20 We did a second part of a One problem one solution workshop using Jam board. Teams reported the solutions for a country that were given. You can check the results in Jam Board:

    https://jamboard.google.com/d/1Hqj765owDr-um2AELD957f-57zEAg5jfCMqYSE00C1A/viewer?f=0

    18:45 Bulgarian team did a team building activity with associations. Participants were required to write 3 associations to pictures of horse, seagull, forest, abyss and coffee. Ekaterina explained the meaning of these associations. 

    18:55 

    We finished the conference with a plan for the next conference day and some words of reflection from participants. 

     

    THIRD MEETING DAY, 25. 5. 2021, 4-7pm (ETC)

    Meeting starts: 16:06 by Anja and the Spanish team. 

     

    16:08 Latvia has a teambuilding activity by using Nearpod. https://share.nearpod.com/OShuMhE3xgb

    Who knows the most of the useless facts? Random trivia. Anja was the winner.

     

    16:22 Continue of the Latvian team building activity: reflect and draw something about the trivia quiz we just had. What was the most/interesting/boring/etc question we had? Try to draw it in the room we got in nearpod. https://share.nearpod.com/OShuMhE3xgb

    Who wants to say something about their picture? Barbara and Anja shared their pictures and thoughts. 

     

    Aija recommends Nearpod for using at lessons. It is free if you register as a teacher if you use a limited space. 

    16:31 Aija presents the Latvian team’s waste management report. Changes in school: waste separation, food waste (take home leftover food free of charge if there is any left, bring back the container) and material they use (aware of what they have instead of what they need). How to use the boxes the robots were delivered in. Children got the boxes and other material to use and independent work (no teachers told them what to do) of children: you have boxes, what can you do with them? Build something, be creative. Ideas! Lesson 2: make a kitchen out of boxes. The last thing the boxes were used for was as permaculture tools.  

    Questions and answers about the Latvian report. 

    16:46 Spanish team presents their waste management report. Students are usually responsible for gardens but because of covid they are not allowed to mix students, they eep their bubbles so it is not this covid year. Students manage their plastic and paper containers, report the waste and give suggestions of how to reduce the waste. Reduce plastic like using reusable food containers, reusable water bottles. Reusable materials for art and presentations. 

    Presents a recycle lesson for 10-11 year old students, english subject. What should we do to protect the environment? Film where students present ideas with photos, they talk English. Film with presentation by students in English: endangered animal species.

    A film related to the project: Wall-E, students guess the content and name of the project. Waste meaning and tips of waste. Students do activities about waste in a book. Another film for students about waste. Thinking routine about pictures of waste, they read tips of waste and do another activity. In the end they become recycling heroes and help younger classes in their school yard.

    “What can you do to reduce water/waste/electricity/etc?” Pictures (like comparison of traffic jam and a bus). 

    Learn a song about reduce, reuse, recycle but in Spanish. 

    “How can we reuse?” debate, meaning of reuse, what can you do to reuse?

    Recycle: homework to write about how they do at home. Did an activity about recycling. Watched a video about this. Recycle in the classroom and playground. Made a compost in the garden. They made recycled paper. A normal year parents would come to school and they let the students explain the importance of and how to recycle. 

    At the end of the year the students become recycling heroes and take care of the process. 

    Question and answers for the Spanish and Latvian teams in smaller groups. Talk about activities we did in our different schools, what we can use in our schools, etc. 

    17:32 break until 17:45

    17:45 Workshop about sustainable toys and taching/art material: Bulgaria will be responsible for the theme. 

    Hopefully we will be able to travel again so we can travel and meet in person. 

    Anja shared a jamboard for a workshop about sustainable toys and teaching/art material. 

    3 activities. Goal: to substitute some of the materials we use for more eco-friendly or reusable material. 

    1. Creating toys/teaching materials from waste/natural materials.

    2. One idea for sustainable substitution for toys, play and art materials (such as glitter, plastic toys, paper, playdough…) in each school.

    3. Toy exchange day.

    Breakout rooms to talk about ideas. 10 minutes. Ideas. Someone reports it and Anja does jamboard. https://jamboard.google.com/d/13_jb1nDeePKMylRgeZMTMbJhynGZXNnvwJPqBPAPWSo/viewer?f=0

     

    All teams should do the 3 main goals and it is welcome to do as many other activities as possible. 

     

    Next project timeline is: Sept - Nov

    18:19 Covid-19 workshop. How did covid-19 affect the waste management project? Exchange for 10 minutes in breakout rooms. How did it affect you in your school, etc.  

    More waste material from using masks and more detergents. 

    18:38 Sweden team building: 3 different menti as an evaluation of the conference.

    1. A scale of what we think of the success of the virtual conference:

    2. Put in order what you liked most, 2nd etc.

    1. Word cloud, words that define the conference. 

    Next was Spain making an evaluation in google forms

     

    Last of all Anja closed the meeting and the work for this school year and hoped for traveling to start soon so we can meet in person next school year.