Sandnes+May+2010

Four teachers from Spain: Marga Herrero, Roberto Lérida, Begoña Pardo and Lina de la Fuente, and 3 from Austria: Wolfgang, Eva and Ursula, travelled to Stavanger (Norway) from 27th May to 2nd June, 2010 for the evaluation of the first year of the Comenius project, titled: RISL4E, carried out among Norway, Austria and Spain. = 1.-The basic topic for the first year was ‘Diversity of Nature’ and our surroundings. = = = = 2.-We travelled on the 27th afternoon with KLM, via Amsterdam and stayed at the ‘Smart hotel’ in Sandnes. = = = = 3.- On Friday the 28th, we were welcome at the Secondary School, Skeiene Undomskole by the Director of the school, we were given some gifts and we did a tour around. We liked the wood workshop room, the Arts and materials room. We also visited some classrooms with pupils. After lunch, we took the ferry for the excursion to the Preikestolen, popular rock known as the ‘pulpit’ from which we could see the whole fyord. Lovely trekking back and then, dinner (12 teachers together). = = = = 4.- On Saturday 29th, we went to visit a a water plant where they produce electricity. It is built inside a mountain co that it doesn’t affect the environment appearance. There, They explained the system of getting all the water needed to produce electricity. Later, with a rented minibús, we went to the mountains (4º C), where the lakes were frozen and we had lunch at the so called ‘balcony’ from where, we could see the whole valley and the end of the fyord that we would see the day after. We spent the night in a mountain house, in a farm with animals, we rode a horse and the farmer showed us the goats and the sheep he had. We enjoyed nature a lot. =

= 5.- On the following morning, we met GUSTAV, a Little baby deer who used to come down every morning to be fed by the farmer. He was very sociable. Then, we went trekking to the mountains to see a water mill which was used to mill wheat in the old times and also a little private electricity plant used just for the farm, producing 1 kW/h. We had lunch in the prairie, at Inge’s house, just where the ferry leaves for the way back along the Lysebotn Fyord to Stavanger. We could see some seals lying under the sun, some goats going up and down the steep mountain, a small electricity plant with the transport system, or the ‘pulpit’, the high rock over the fyord, which seemed smaller from the ferry. It was a guided tour where they explained in English everything that we were watching. It was fantastic. = = = = 6.- On Monday the 31st, teachers meeting at school to evaluate the first year of our comenius project: = = - All the participants have used the e-learning platform //‘itslearning’// with personal passwords. = = - We have carried out a common task: Analysis of the tap water, with reports from teachers and pupils, conclusions and tests about procedures and data obtained. = = - Other voluntary tasks have been based on ‘Our surroundings’ with excursions to Nature parks, to learn about Diversity of Nature. Some tasks were about renewable energies or sequences about general concepts of Biology, Physics, etc… which were designed by pupils in class with their science teachers, always using the e-learning platform. = = - We agreed to visiting Austria from 23-29 September 2010, for the planning of the tasks for the second year. = = - We were watching some of the tasks with the beamer and we were discussing possibilities for the next year. = = In the afternoon, we visited the Science Museum and the village of Sandnes with another excursion to the beach and dinner at the harbour. = = = = 7.- On Tuesday 1st of June, 2010: Meeting again at school. = = - We were discussing about the common task for the following year, taking into account the general topic of Biodiversity and Ecosystems. We agreed to prepare learning sequences with different steps about 5 plants and 5 animals in every country, with some in danger of extinction, some typical of every area and some more general which may be common. Pupils will have to prepare their own and they will guess the other countries’ species, reading all the learning sequences in the platform and they will have to compare, finding similarities and differences among countries. = = - Besides, other voluntary tasks can be carried out like ‘plants at school’ or guided tours around to learn about our ecosystems. = = - The Austrian coordinator reminds us that we are part of an Etwinning Project, and we should log some of the activities there too in order to spread some of our conclusions. Then, we would have to create a public wiki with the final product at the end of the year as it was planned in the application form as a way of spreading our work and our conclusions, as our platform is private and nobody else can se what we are working at. Therefore, he proposes to use wikispaces.com and he shows a little bit how it works. = = = = 8.- Finally, visit to the Petroleum Museum, the city of Stavanger and final Farewell dinner. =

= = = Sailing along the fjord=