Erasmus+: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in Sweden June 2015

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    The theme was water - and walking

    and Stockholm can offer a great experience in that sence

    We visited the Käppala water cleaning station to inform of the uniqe clean water in Stockholm followed up on pedagogical role plays. We visited Skansen and  and had booked guides with the aproach of our project - joy of learning.  We had our own workshops see below. These were arranged within the Department of Art at our school with head of the department Christina Turner and external artists to support the work for 46 people visitig us, Lena and Sara Wiegurd.

    We have had poetry lessons on the theme and we have shared lessons plans on how to celerate diversity which are open sources on the projects blog. We clearly stated in the plan that we will focus on internationalism since we are an international school. The diversity at our school is a strength.

    A visit to another country can involve not only the environmenta engagement but also having fun with new friends and relaxing in a new position.

    All paticipants stayed at a hostel opposite the Royal castle.

    SKANSEN

    is the world's first open-air museum, founded in 1891. Here you can stroll through five centuries of Swedish history, from north to south, with a real sense of the past all around in the histori­cal buildings and dwellings, peop­led by characters in costumes of the period.

    Both teachers and students visited Skansen and were informed of traditional craftsmanship. For example they participated in a demonstration about creating traditional wooden fences. They visited a native Sapmi teepee where they took part in traditional storytelling and the history of our native groups in Sweden.

    It was important for us while planning this visit, to live as we learn and teach. Therefore all participants got a SL-card (public transportation) which we used throughout the project. We took the Djurgårdsferry, we took a boat who only used green fuel. We never used any other transportation then these public transportations. We also gave all participants a pedometer and organised a competition on how many steps we all could produce.

     

    Slide show of photos

     

     

    Expressing our thoughts through music and theatre

    A song written by the Polish students. The T-shirt is celebrating the common logo and was a gift from Sweden to all members of this project.

     

     

    Recycling materials and Cultural expression (Author: Lena Wiegurd)

    The teachers arranged a workshop with the students from the countries included in the Erasmus+ project. Amongst the products the students made were, a collaborative “Midsummer pole” out of recycling materials. We also introduced and performed traditional dances and games around the pole together. This created a lot of joy and laughter leading to stronger bonds and interpersonal relationships between the participants from each country.

     

    Students then created their own models of  “midsummer poles” as a personalised memento of their time in Sweden. They were encouraged to include both personal and cultural influences. This was completed with found materials such as paper, plastic, textiles and iron.

     

    The teachers and students discussed concerns and conflicts in our world. The students decided to create a symbol of peace together. All students created individual peace symbols out of various recycled materials to bring back to their home countries. They created these beautifully and they were proud of their work. Students were encouraged to retell the stories of their trip to Sweden using the oral traditions explored.

     
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    From Recycling glass towards Aesthetic value (Author: Christina Turner)
     

    The Visual arts Secondary teacher arranged a workshop for the visiting students involving recycled glass bottles and recycled “Bullseye” art glass. The teacher introduced the glass artmaking method “slumping” and “fusing” to the students, and discussed the importance of reusing materials in art projects.

     

    In the first glass project-SLUMPING GLASS

    the students worked in groups collaborating when creating their own artwork. They added organic materials and recycled coloured Screen Shot 2017-05-22 at 13.42.20.pngglass into the bottles. The bottles were then slumped in the glass kiln.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    In the second project- FUSING GLASS, the students created glass artwork from

    recycled art glass which was then fused in the glass kiln. The glass sculptures were

    later delivered to the students as a memory from the workshop and a reminder about

    the nature of glass as a recycling material, to be used and reused.

     

     

     

     

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    When working with the artmaking projects the students had to collaborate and work creatively together, choosing what materials and glass to combine and solve problems as to how to compose and arrange glass, patterns and materials.

    The students developed communication and collaboration skills creating an aesthetic product which in itself reinforced the objectives of the Erasmus+ project, reusing recycled materials.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The students were interested and excited about working with new skills and techniques together in groups in the Art studio. They were intrigued by the melting process of glass and the fact that glass has always been a material known to be reused in different shapes and for various purposes. At Stockholm International school, glass and plastic bottles are disposed of in separate bins for further recycling.

     

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    We arranged a poetry slam and did som theatreimpovisation on the last day with the group.
     
    Here you can read the evaluation that was collected the last day.