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)