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National Highschool of Arts “Queen Marie”Constanta , Romania

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School description

Our school , the National High school “Queen Mary” in Constanta, Romania is a vocational educational unit. We have 1200 pupils, stating with kindergarten up to the 12th form and 180 teachers, all actual professionals.Our pupils study choreography, instruments and canto, plus visual arts (fine arts).Besides the usual curricula of any pupil, our pupils are working many extra hours to study an instrument, to work their voice or to study painting, sculpture, design or architecture. On top of it, they find time for ecological, social or educational projects, such as this one.

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National Highschool of Arts “Queen Mary” CONSTANTA , ROMANIA

Project title:

Project’s authors: Adriana Timofte

Doinita PindicCornelia Bujin

Ioana Rica

Attending teachers: Georgiana Crangasu

Loretta BalutaVeronica Mitescu

Angela Doicescu-CiureaVictoria Dorobantiu

Marcela VoicuNicoleta Heroiu

Victor Radulescu

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Our teamAfter we saw what’s about in the CO2nnect project we built a small but motivated group with actual interests for the environment education. Students from the 8th form A,B, the 7th B, 6th B and 5th B constituted a core and spread the importance of the project in our school.We made badges and after a while the group of environmental volunteers from Constanta sponsored us with proper badges!Monica, from the 6th B, designed the poster of our project .Because we had some problems at our informatics laboratory we’ve made copies of the questionnaires and went to almost all forms in our school and helped pupils to fill them in.We’ve planned our activities together .

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Activities

QuestionnairesFlyers for Earth HourEarth Hour’s posterFlyers for the driversPlanting treesOur inventionMedia and making videosInterviewsAuthoritiesCitizensTripsPartnersEco – ExpoContestsIT skills

Project’s poster

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Earth Hour 23rd - 28th March, a week full of events

As global citizens, students need skills helping them to understand the responsibilities and the role of people in our society. Our first activity led them to initiate discussions and debates with people in our town, about actual problems that affect our lives.It had been a useful exercise to spread flyers in our school and then, in town.Our poster, with the Earth Hour logo, was displayed on the windows of several stores, with their permission.Students informed people about this event and gather signatures.

In a mutual effort, we started to convince our parents, teachers, friends, colleagues and explained them that a small gesture could mean a lot to our environment.One of those days, after the classes, we made a video and post it on www.youtube.com. A lot of people saw the film and liked it.On the site www.orapamantului.ro we were mentioned as supporters of this event nearby The National Philharmonic ,The National Romanian Opera and other institutions.The local newspaper wrote about our activities .

In a mutual effort, we started to convince our parents, teachers, friends, colleagues and explained them that a small gesture could mean a lot to our environment.One of those days, after the classes, we made a video and post it on www.youtube.com. A lot of people saw the film and liked it.On the site www.orapamantului.ro we were mentioned as supporters of this event nearby The National Philharmonic ,The National Romanian Opera and other institutions.The local newspaper wrote about our activities .

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Earth Hour’s flyer

National Highschool of Arts "Queen Mary" invites you to take action. Earth Hour movement began in 2007 with the participation of two million Australians and continues at worldwide level aiming, in 2009 to involve more than one billion people. In Romania, the first signs of commitment appeared already last year and we hope that this year the impact of Earth Hour will be much higher. Because we also care! Every year, last Saturday of March, for one hour, people are urged to turn off the light. Why? To show that they care about NATURE. At this time energy consumption decreses and so is the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. It is an attempt to make more people aware of the problems caused by pollution and to make them act more carefully in order to preserve, protect and create green energy. This year we expect you to get involved too on March 28th , from 20.30hrs to 21.30hrs. Now, you know what Earth Hour is, so you have no excuse to ignore! Turn off the lights, close the TV, the computer and go for a walk in the parc.

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More trees … less CO2

Planting trees was one of our priorities. We managed to make some wonderful activities on this issue.On May the 3rd we have planted some trees in a future park and at the kindergarten “Delfinul” in Eforie Nord. The Community Police and the Mayor from Eforie Nord helped us to do it.At the “Real” supermarket in Constanta we gave to the customers some baby trees to plant. This time we were accompanied by the team of Environmental Volunteers in Constanta. They have organized a nice show and brought the baby trees for us to plant . It was on April the 11th .We have made a video with the title “More trees… less CO2

(carbon dioxide)!” and send it at the International Contest for Children “ECOFEST JUNIOR” organized in Simeria, Romania.

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We and the Authorities 3rd May isn’t important only for planting trees but also for interviewing the deputy mayor in Eforie Nord. Andrei was the student who did this.

Everybody received the badge of our compaign, as a gift; they were very proud to wear it!

Journalist Liliana Moldoveanu made a reportage on this topic.

The reportage was broadcasted at the morning news, the next day.

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“Green Planet” broadcast ( interview )On March 23rd we announce our

participation at the CO2nnect campaign in a live interview given by our teacher Adriana Timofte.

On April 7th we first attended the “Green Planet” broadcast at Constanta Radio. This was a very positive meeting. We talked about our activities in this campaign, about the volume of traffic, road safety, special lanes for bicycles, lack of parking spaces, bus transportation.. Journalist Liliana Moldoveanu asked us about our future projects. At the end of the show we recommended to our fellow citizens, students and pupils to bike , walk or use buses to get their destinations.

On May 4th another media moment was marked. The same journalist made a reportage with our activity in Eforie Nord which was “on air” at the morning news.

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Flyers to the DriversFlyers were made by children

and parents… no help from teachers ! We spread around 200 flyers in 4 locations :In Eforie Nord, May the 3rd , with the Community Police,In Valea Seaca , May the 10th , with our partners from Valu lui Traian school,We stopped the cars near our school and discussed with the drivers,In June we spread flyers to the taxi drivers in our town. Some drivers and the local police helped us to do it.

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This was our flyer for the drivers

• • ECO INSTRUCTIONS •

Did you know that in 2010, drivers would be charged extra for emissions? Representatives of the Ministry of Environment are calculating the value that they will obtain in the next year for each gram of carbon dioxide emitted over the maximum admitted level , which now is between 150 and 176 grams. We want to offer you some solutions (which you possibly know already) to be prepared for the changes to take place in the driving domain. National High School of Arts „Queen Mary” in Constanta, involved in the world campaign CO2nnect, is advancing some basic recomandations: • Do not race the engine more than necessary • Do not keep the engine on when waiting for someone or in traffic jam • Use good fuel and catalyzer Euro 4 • Make the technical review of the car, change the oil and the filters • Do not overload the engine at the traffic lights ... be calm when driving (consumption and emissions of a vehicle depends not only on its energy efficiency but also on driver’s behaviour). • Do not overcome the legal speed • For short distances, go on foot • Use air conditioning in the car, only if necessary We thank you you help us to live in a friendly environment !

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Young inventorsErsun and Flavius made

an eco – car from two usedbicycles. All the pupils ofour school knew about it !

Our team went to thegarage and saw it .

They are biking with it a lot! Even six friendscould ride it at the sametime !

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Partners from Valu lui Traian villageWe have had two meetings with our partners, from Scoala Generala nr.1, in Valu lui Traian village.The first meeting was a short walking trip to Valea Seaca (2.5 km from Valu lui Traian). We shared flyers for the drivers.We took a trip in the woods near Valu lui Traian village. We decided to meet there because it’s the best way to learn in a familiar or natural context. Expressions like “green lover”, “eco-friendly”, “save the nature”, have been used on an eco banner we made, with no money and no CO2 emissions! This time we showed to our friends from Valu lui Traian village how to fill in the CO2nnect questionnaire.

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eTwinning partnersThe Green Patrols of Europe is an eTwinning project.

Five countries are involved: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal

and Romania. Here are some details of our project:

“ e-Visiting the sights of towns and the respective regions.

Exchange of information about the natural parks, protected plant and animal species. Analysis of pollution and pollutants of the air, the water and the soil in the respective regions and measures to protect the nature. “

We’ve made a logo, we exchanged photos with our activities on twinspace. SOU “Panayot Volov”, Shumen,Bulgaria is also in the CO2nnect project.

The distance from Constanta to Shumen is of

about 250 km. We want to visit our

friends this autumn and plan together some

activities.

Friends from Bulgaria

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Eco - Expo

Our school is avocational one. We havedesign classes.

At the end of theschool year an interesting

exhibition wasorganized, containing

pupils’ posters.Some of the titles of

those posters were: Save the Earth, Protect the Nature, Take action!

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Going to the mountains by the train or… by our parents’ car ?

During our summer holiday we have made a trip to the North of Romania, into the mountains. We went there by train, so we have polluted less then going by our parents’ car!Some of our trips were by foot.We had bicycles at hand in our camp and we used them a lot.For longer distances we have taken the bus. It was very pleasant for us and less polluting for the environment.We admired our forests and we understood that everybody must preserve and help NATURE to survive.It was a special and unique experience for us!

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Diplomas and awards

Lots of schools in Romania have ecological interests. We‘ve attended the contests organized on this issue and obtained some prizes: 3rd price at the National Contest “Virtual Childhood” (Slobozia, Romania) with the video “Ora Pamantului” ( Earth Hour ) 1st price at the national contest “Earth’s health, ours health” (Buzau, Romania) 1st price with the story “The Earth” ,2nd price with the story “The Earth is.. alive”,2nd price for the poster of our campaign at the National Contest “Keep the Earth in good health” organized as part of the Comenius program “Let’s do something for our planet”. The video Earth Hour was presented at the symposium organized with the same occasion. At the International Contest “ECOFEST JUNIOR”, Simeria, Romania we have presented the video “More trees…less CO2!”( the 2nd price ), our poster ( special mention ). The video “Ora Pamantului” ( Earth Hour ) obtained the1st price with medal. Participation at the ECO CONFERENCE from Simeria, Romania with the study “The Earth suffers… let it breath!”

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Honorary Award Certificate “Green Educational Network has awarded

a Certificate of Honor to the National Highschool of Arts Queen Mary in Constanta, Romania for its several completed environmental projects. The projects are part of a month’s- long international campaign in which the school is involved . Bellow we share the videos documenting their efforts because it made do your heart good- like it did ours – to hear the voices of students speaking a non-English language we do not understand , while speaking another language we do understand : Learning and acting together- via acts great and small , no matter our age and means or skills or nation or birth- we can save planet Earth’s climate , resources and life .Today there is a tree there in Constanta, Romania that will grow , and years hence a child will stand beneath its canopy of leaves.” Gregory Hilbert, Chairman and CEO

Forrest Stone , Publisher http://www.greeneducationnetwork.com/article/gen-

honors-romanian-national-highschool-of-arts-queen-marie

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Self evaluation

Our team had about 20 pupils who attended the campaign. About 280 pupils attended at least two activities.About 150 pupils attended only one activity.Half of the students ( 576 ) from our school filled in the CO2nnect questionnaire. We connected our curricula subjects to the environment problems, during our classes of physical education , geography , biology, math , IT, literature , design, physics and mathematics .

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Our work: We uploaded 570 questionnaires, hundreds of photos , 21

short videos , made 16 activities, spread 200 flyers to the drivers, spread 800 flyers to the citizens about Earth Hour, collected 738 signatures for the participation to the same event, we displayed 30 posters in our school and town , we performed 3 interviews at the Radio, we appeared in the local newspaper , we obtained 24 diplomas and awards at national and international contests, we planted 12 trees , we took an interview to the deputy mayor in Eforie Nord , we built an eco – car from two old bicycles, we conceived a blog with our activities, we travelled to the North of Romania to see our mountains and forests.

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Feed-back from our studentsCO2nnect project was a wonderful experience. It’s so beautiful to see children and teachers doing some things to save our dear Earth. Keep our planet safe! (Ingrid)Spreading flyers was an unforgettable experience. I would like to do it again because I like very much to inform people. (Andrei)I was surprised that some drivers are not interested in the global problem of the climate change. (Catalina)Saving our planet is saving our life. That’s what we’ve learned from the CO2nnect project. (Veronica)Talking to the citizens, when you are so young, is something very important because so the adults begin to think to change their habits for a better and cleaner world. (Monica)Making posters is one of my best ways to show people my thoughts about environment. I like very much our poster made by Monica. Next time I’ll make the poster of the campaign! (Erdal)I’ve learned to make photos and I was surprised that one of my photos was published in our local newspaper with the column about “Earth Hour”. (Andreea)Our “Earth Hour” video was commented on www.YouTube.com and visualized by more than 800 people. We are very proud that we’ve made it with the help of our teacher, Adriana Timofte. (Francesca)I am very happy that I knew the pupils from Valu lui Traian village. Now they are my friends. We’ve made a nice eco banner and our trip in the woods inspired us a lot. I like trees and I am a tree lover! (Evelin)Planting trees is like giving a new life to the Earth! (Oana)

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Conclusions

Pupils learned a lot of new things about environment and came up with practical solutions for different problems.We understood how important our involvement is and propose improvements (solutions) for the ways we choose to travel to and from school.We focused on indentifying local issues and coming up with some simple ideas for solving them.The contact with local authorities, Radio broadcast, local newspaper showed us that the school has an important place in our community.All materials on the www.CO2nnect.org were actually useful and helped us to organize our activities better and faster.Seeing the other countries’ results on the site made us eager to do more interesting and original activities. It was a real challenge.The meeting in Cluj-Napoca ( June 5th – 6th ) encouraged our team to upload our project report.IT skills were developed by using computers in our school or at home by every student attending the campaign.

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Our thanks to:

…the partners and members of the EU Comenius Lifelong Learning project “SUPPORT: partnership and participation for a sustainable tomorrow” for this environmental educational platform.…the Healthy Environment Regional Organization ( Cluj-Napoca ) and Eco-Focus Center ( Targu-Mures ) for support .…the teachers and pupils who attended CO2nnect activities.…the Police Community and City Hall in Eforie Nord which helped us to plant trees.…the Radio Constanta broadcast for being beside us in some of the most important activities.…the Environmental Volunteers in Constanta for making our badges.…the citizens in our town for listening to us during the whole campaign.