From November 17th toNovember 23rd the first FOCUS project meeting took place. It was a great experience to get to know other people and their opinions about topics like climate change, traffic and waste and to exchange ideas on how to help our planet and the environment. Read this report by one of the German hosts.
On Sunday our exchange students arrived either by train or by plane. On Monday the project started. After the Polish, French and Spanish students visited two lessons at the German school, we got to know the others by playing funny interactive games. Our next activity was a rally through Bad Nenndorf during which we had a lot of fun.
It was prepared by some German students of the FOCUS club. On Tuesday we visited Hanover to learn something about what everyone can do to save the environment and how Hanover has changed since the Second World War. We got divided into two groups and started with different topics. The first group visited the town’s museum and was given a tour through the exposition which displayed the changes in Hanover since 1945 in diverse areas, such as politics, culture and sports. It also showed the changes in every-day-life and of course traffic, waste and the consequences for the environment. Meanwhile the second group went on a tour through the city with JANUN and learned a lot about the greenhouse effect and how our daily meals affect climate change. Then we changed workshops and after both groups had finished we had a lunchbreak. After meeting atthea train station we went to the Urban Gardening project of Transition Town Hanover and we were taught about how to plant 100% organic food in the city. As one of our topics was traffic we visited the “Autostadt” in Wolfsburg the next day to learn something about E-Mobility and the future of cars. While the German students learnt about the future of E-Mobility, the exchange students used the time for a little rally through the exposition called “Level Green” about the different aspects of a climate friendly development. As soon as we finished these workshops we had a lunchbreak to try the original VW-Sausage with curry sauce and chips or eat Italian food. After that we were divided in two groups (again) to learn about the development of streets. Then we got some free time to walk about the whole area and look for what we´re interested in. After a very interesting and funny day we took the train back to Hanover and Bad Nenndorf. On Thursday our workshops started. Our teachers made four groups, each group made presentations about problems and possible solutions of different topics which we should present on Friday. In the afternoon we took a train to Hanover (again) to do a sightseeing tour which was also prepared by the German students. As soon as we finished, everyone took the opportunity to use the free time for shopping or something like this. On Friday we first worked in our groups and then we listened to the different presentations about insects, traffic, waste and land consumption. In the afternoon most of us met to go bowling together. On Saturday the exchange students went home and we all agreed that this week was actually too short. Now we´re looking forward to the next meeting in Poland in March.