Hradec Králové, march 2015


Workshop The Czech Republic 23. 3. – 27.3. 2015


The second meeting of Seek and Find Nature was held in Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic.

On Monday morning 16 foreign students and 12 foreign teachers met with their Czech partners. During the morning students presented their homework about national parks in their countries. All groups prepared power-point presentation or short films, Hungarian students performed a shadow theatre play.
In the afternoon we went for an excursion to Information centre of renewable sources and hydroelectric power plant Hučák. Students watched a short film about hydroelectric power stations on Elbe and how these changed landscape of the area. After that we walked round the power station and watched how it works. Finally we visited interactive part of the exposition, where we learnt about the principles and possibilities of using sources of energy based on the utilisation of renewable sources, such as water, wind, sun and biomass.
Later that afternoon we went to Jirasek´s Gardens and practised frottage - rubbing a pencil over an uneven surface and creating images in this way. These pictures were used on Friday morning for creating collages at school.

On Tuesday we went on a full-day trip to the Krkonoše Mountains National Park. Since it was March there was still a lot of snow so we couldn´t do much walking. We took funicular to Sněžka – the highest mountain in the Czech Republic. The weather was beautiful so we had a great view of the park and its forests. We learnt about its ecosystem and how people changed the landscape but cutting and planting different kinds of trees.

We spent the whole Wednesday in Hradec Králové. In the morning we went to planetarium to see the digital-sky show “Passport to Space” and we made the greatest journey from our home planet through the Milky Way to the furthest points of the observable universe.
From planetarium we walked to the protected area Na Plachtě in the south-eastern edge of the town. Students were divided into groups and each group had a research backpack with equipment for observing small species, worksheets with tasks and a GPS navigation. There was a trail that students followed and they performed given tasks. Most of them were connected to ecology but student also created and presented poems about nature.

On Thursday we went to Prague and did a bit of sightseeing. We walked along the Royal way and we saw Prague´s Castle, Lesser Quarter, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with Astronomical Clock, Wenceslas Square. This time biology and ecology was replaced by history. We also made a stop at Lesser Quarter to see where water level reached when there was flood in 2002. We talked about precautions that had to be made to minimize damage in future.

We spent Friday at school. There was a joint teaching lesson in the morning led by Přema (Czech teacher) and Jouni (Finnish teacher). Student worked in laboratory with microscopes and examined plant parts picked in area “Na Plachtě”. In the second part of the lesson they learnt about different plant and animal species in the Czech Republic and in Finland and did a quiz about all things they learnt.
Finally teachers had a meeting to discuss all the activities done during the project week. They made plans and talked about detailed of next project meeting in Hungary. Tasks for homework were set. At the same time students took part in Easter workshop. They painted eggs with traditional Czech techniques and in groups they also created large paper eggs to be exhibited at school. For doing that they used also frottage works they made the first day in Jirasek´s Gardens.
All students said goodbye at the farewell party in the bowling centre in the evening. On Saturday morning everybody travelled back home filled with unforgettable experiences.
 by Marie Brychtova (Czech teacher)