ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY THE INSTITUTIONS INVOLVED IN THE COMENIUS ACTIVITY (2nd year)
PROJECT TITLE : POLLUTION
INSTITUTIONS : Currently, that is during the scholastic year 2004 -2005 schools from England, Malta, Sweden and Denmark are involved.
1. The Maltese school is San Amdrea Senior School and is the coordinating institution.
2. The following information deals with the objectives set by, and agreed to by the participating institutions. Details of the methodolgies involved are also included.
3. The Comenius Pollution activity at San Andrea has been held in conjunction with the annual Stephen Hawking Science and Technology project.
4. The annual Science and Technology Week at San Andrea Senior School strongly stresses the need of pollution awareness, steps to identify pollutants, and corrective measures where possible.
5. The students are being constantly reminded about the problem of polluting agents and remedies. Discussion at school is continuous and teachers hoppe that the process will eventually moves also to the home environment.
6. As explained in detail later on, the San Andrea activity includes an effort to investigate pollution in aspects such as sound, culture and economy.
7. Although all efforts will be done, it may not be possible to cover all aspects by each school.
PLEASE NOTE THAT : The projects on the web-site are part of the informatioon exchange with the other Comenius participating institutions, and are mostly as presented by the students themeselves during seminars.
1 Knowledge of the basic aspects of pollution locally and globally
2 Knowledge of how pollution problems can be solved locally and globally
3 Knowledge of different views concerning the pollution issues
4 Understand that the scale of pollution differs in the countries involved in the project and develop some reasoning to explain such differences.
5 Students in different countries will have the opportunity to investigate the different pollution realities characteristic to their environment and share them with their participating counterparts.
As a minimum of activity at each school, we take three sets of readings for water monitoring and three sets of readings for the air monitoring.
We aim that the measurements are taken in a similar manner in all the countries involved in the project.
Consequently we have agreed on what is to be measured and on the techniques used in taking those measurements
Water
1. The Virtue racks will be used in rivers (upstream and downstream) as well as in a harbour / marina and, if at all possible, one rack in the sea. Staff and students will discuss the best places for the racks and how to ensure that they are well-secured.
2. Contacts with University of Malta Laboratories to analyse and evaluate the deposits on racks and eventually to relate to pollution levels
3. Test for organic material using the methylene blue method. The students will learn how to do this test.
4. Tests for phosphors and nitrates and salinity. For these tests we will preferably use the Merck “Compact laboratory for water testing”. The students will be shown the techniques and will be supervised while taking measurements.
5. Tests on water draining from fields to investigate the levels of nitrates contained.
Air
1. Measurements of acidity of rain water. Any technique involving collection and then measurements with well-defined pH paper / sticks. The students will research the different methods and decide which is most appropriate.
2. Lichenography. We will use a commonly designed OHT sheet to sample across a tree trunk. This measurement should be taken at a certain height to ensure consistency and comparability. If no trees are available old houses can be used. The students will research the different types of lichen.
3. Ozone measurement. This is done by use of a rubber band system, whereby the bands are stretched to different tensions. The ozone attacks the cross links n the polymers and causes the bands to “petrify” rapidly. The bands need to be examined over the course of a week or so.
4. Ozone measurement is to be done using special Ozone sticks that indicate Ozone levels. An attempt will be made to use both rubber and sticks methods.
Using maps every school will describe the local area where the tests are taking place, and describe the pupils’ activities using text and images. The students will draw these maps, together with visual displays of the experiments. The test results will also be described using text and images, and through diagrams and charts.
An important part of the project is having the students communicating with each other between the participating schools through the internet. That is why it is our intention to create a shared webpage where descriptions, results, explanations, images and so forth, from every school should be presented. The web-page should be the place where the pupils at the schools describe the local solutions to the pollution problems, but it should also be the place where views are presented and discussed across national borders.
The testing methods, results and utility of such should be evaluated by pupils and teachers at all the schools before a new planning meeting, likewise the description of the results and communication through the internet should be evaluated before the next planning meeting.
At the planning meetings the evaluation is concluded and planning adjusted accordingly.
The project will develop through:
1 The involvement of a new year group of pupils from year to year, so that more students will be involved.
2 New tests developed to examine aspects of pollution.
3 Discussion of new pollution subjects through the internet where possible.
4 New pollution topics being discussed through the webpage.
5 A greater quantity of measurements.
6 Video-conferencing between the schools.
7 A report will be drawn at the end of the project with ionformation shared btween the participating schools in the different countries.
The students will be involved in all the aspects of the development of the project.
Waste Separation Project
As a part of the Comenius Pollution Project San Adrea Senior School vsisted waste separation and treatment plants in Denmark. Waste separation activities were launched at the school during the current year. This involves the creation of a special unit of students called Eco-officers, that manage the activity with the help of two teachers.
Seminars were also held by experienced personnel about the methodology to be followed.
The following part refers to the added programme of San Andrea Senior School, Malta .
As the environmental, technological and cultural characteristics of Malta as an island in the central Mediterranean Sea and at the southernmost tip of Europe are a reality somewhat differing from those pertaining to other participating schools in other countries, San Andrea Senior School proposes as well to extend their own investigation of Pollution in areas, such as sound, language, economy and the social environment.
The following are details of investigations included in their programme for 2004-2005.
1. The economic effects of Pollution on the Maltese economy in the past, present and future.
2. Pollution as regards Social Environment.
3. The Maltese language is an ancient tongue that is semitic in origin and that has survived for centuries in the spoken and written forms. What aspects of man’s intrusive actions are polluting the language?
4. Sound pollution.
5. Waste Separation programme. Following ideas and information acquired during the visit to the Danish Participating Institution Staejerskolen in Aahrus in November 2004 as part of the Comeius-2 programme, at San Andrea Senior School we are to introduce a programme on waste management that will include waste separation. We shall be in contact with local Waste Management and Waste Separation Services to be in line with official European regulations and methods.
This will incorporate activities by the departments of Science and Technology and the Humanities, in an effort not only to make students aware of waste management as a means to limit pollution, but also to transmit their ideas to the home environment. This is also to be in line with the reality in Malta at the moment when the waste management problem is being addressed at all levels of society.
The following part refers to the added programme of Norwich High School for Girls, England .
The pupils will take pollution readings and look for patterns and research the impact of the pollutants on the area. Racks from the Virtue project will be placed in local rivers, sea and estuaries. pH readings and temperature readings of water at the different levels of the discs will be taken and the biological specimens on the discs will be analysed at regular intervals. It might be helpful to involve the local universities in this.
It is intended that the project will produce some statistical analysis of the organisms present on the discs in the countries. There will be similarities and differences that can be analysed.
Evaluation will be based on the interest shown by the pupils. They will have to have some commitment to recover the racks and replace them at regular intervals and to work on them to get meaningful results. There will be a formal written evaluation by the pupils.
Dissemination of results will be done by electronic mail with the possibility of using real time chat rooms to discuss the results with their co-workers in other countries. The experience will then be the subject of reports and feedback from the pupils to the rest of the school.
The following refers to the added programme of Satilaskolen of Sweden
Polluted air and water can be analyzed using a spectrometer, performing simple tasks on the latter. Taking a picture of a setting sun over a city and over the sea could in itself show signs of pollution. Using a simple spectrograph gives a qualitative comparison with the sea measurement, comparing and contrasting the pollution levels in our different countries.