BLOG DIARY - SLOVENIA

Final event in Wien, 3rd - 5th June, 2010 final_eventwwfjune_2010.ppt
( Powerpoint, 25,76 MB)

final_report_template_esfalp_ii_4bfa7a6a6ad99.doc
( Word-Document, 6,19 MB)Students who have been involved in the project have certainly gained some very positive experiences. They are more sensitive to the changes in the nature.

They can also transfer their knowledge to other students in the school. They can help to build stronger awareness  about the importance of river Gradaščica for future life of all living systems.

Nevertheless knowledge about ecological problems can be quicker transfered also to their parents and grandparents.  

Prepared by L. Žigon

Special ecological days in Slovenia were from 18th May to 21st May. They were dedicated to ecology and environment protection - with a special vision of cleaner, quitier and healthier country. For these purposes some conferences and exhibitions were prepared by Ministry of ecology, different industrial organizations and research institutes. The well known exhibition was in Celje.

Students of our school decided to visit Waste Management Centre in Vrhnika, which is app. 20 km from Ljubljana. Students of classes 9thA and 9thB traveled by bus to Vrhnika - on Tuesday, 18th May.

People from the Waste Management Centre told us a lot of interesting information about wastes: e.g. management, collection, separation, transport, recycling, … . We were introduced also with a problem of wastes in the future (especially with the importance of their recycling – e.g. paper, glass, plastic and metal).  
Some photos from our visit to the Waste Management Centre can be seen further down.

Earth Day was created to foster awareness and appreciation for our planet Earth 40 years ago. We have the only one planet Earth and we have to respect it.

Prepared by students:
Katja Brezovar, Nejc Dovjak, Matic Leben, Karmen Marčeta, Tjaša Pucelj, Maša Tičar

There are many ways how to build awareness about the clean nature and sustainable development. One important step is environmental education. This is not simply a tool for environmental problem-solving or management. It is also an essential dimension of basic education focused on a sphere of interaction that lies at the root of personal and social development.

One of the motto of Education for Sustainable Development is: »Many small things done by many small people at many small places will change the world«.

We have to look after new values, which will be beneficial to teachers, students and to whole society. These values shold be based on our emotions connected to the nature.
We agreed that awareness of sustainable development starts at a very young age. We – students - are an important part in communication among school, parents and community. Why? Because in the school we can get important information and later transmit them wider. Schools should develop good communication and cooperative skills between us – students - of different ages and programmes.
Although Slovenia is a small country it has an important role toward clean and green Earth.  

How did we celebrate the Earth day?
Students of the class 9th b and our teacher mag. L. Žigon decided to visit the main Science Research Centre in Ljubljana – Inštitut Jožef Stefan. The researcher mag. T. Ogrin kindly wellcomed us. He prepared some nice and interesting experiments just for us - to show that science could be fun, interesting, …. and that with its help we can better understand and protect the nature.

Thursday, 22nd April, was an interesting day for us – students - who enjoyed experiments with gases. They are an important part of the air – like nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide. We tried to discover their properties and their usage.
On the other hand a visit to the glass workshop connected us to the importance of hand work skills. Glass is an interesting material and is very useful in research laboratories for different experiments.

At the end of the visit to »Institute Jožef Stefan« we were very satisfied with the practical science learning lessons. And that was the best Earth Day celebration. You can see some photos from our visit to Science Institute.  

According to the UN and UNESCO statement - Clean water is important for the healthy world.

Prepared by students:
Maša Tičar, Karmen Marčeta, Adriana Ožegovič, Manca Oblak, Špela Vidmar, Miha Klančar, Žan Hrovat, Matic Ivanjko, Matic Leben, Leon Malič

Water is fundamental to life on Earth.



                                       
                                        For human populations and ecosystems to thrive, that water must be clean, it must stay clean and, most importantly, it must be accessible to all.
Some facts:
a) More than 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation.
b) An estimated 884 million people, the majority of them in
Africa, do not have access to safe drinking water.
c) Some 1.5 million children under five die each year from sickness caused by water-borne diseases.
č) The degradation of water quality in rivers, streams, lakes, and groundwater systems has a direct impact on ecosystems and human health.


At the beginning of our activities we prepared the poster where we presented our river Gradaščica  - from its spring to its flow into Ljubljanica.

We talked also about ecological problems, because people can have a direct effect on their drinking water through pesticide and fertilizer use, emissions and acid rain, landfills, and water treatment plants. Ana and Miha presented some photos of the river and its dam.
In the school lab we tried to do some experiments: like measurement of water density and simply water purification through charcoal.

How to protect our waters and to promote biodiversity in the water areas?

Prepared by students :
Pucelj Tjaša, Stepančič Teja, Mitrovič Slapar Matevž, Dovjak Nejc, Suhadolnik Žane



The UN-declared the year 2010 as an International Year of Biodiversity. This means that we should respect all lifes in the nature – from largest living systems to the most microscopic ones.
Biological diversity reigns supreme in the Amazon reinforest, considered the world's greatest reserve for biodiversity. It is estimated that there are more than 10 million living species , around a third of the plant's total. The interaction between living species in the nature is very important for our survival and development. We have to avoid damages to nature biodiversity. Human beings have very strong impacts on the biodiversity especially in a case to feed ourselves, to survive… .
International organization UNESCO focuses on addressing the educational, scientific, cultural and communication aspects of biodiversity in an »integrated way«.
Biodiversity requires that different disciplines act together to develop urgent solutions to protect biodiversity.

Biodiversity plays a vital role in human well-being and in maintaining the life support system on Earth.



Slovenia as a small country has a great number of interesting examples of biodiversity connected to diversities of landscapes and climate. Some areas – like natural parks are protected because of  great public awareness of environmental responsibility. Our National park Triglav is a good example of this.  
We are proud of beauties of our country and we want to promote the importance of biodiversity among other people – especially young students as we are. We think that education and learning processes about biodiversity are essential.

Our investigation:
Because of the reasons mentioned above, we decided to prepare an experiment – to investigate how water pollution can damage balance in the nature and biodiversity itself.  
A good example are small insects - water striders. We know them (and admire them) because they can walk on the water.  They live on the surface of ponds, slow streams, marshes, and other quiet waters. They can move very quickly, up to 1.5 m/s. They paddle forward with the middle pair of their legs, using fore - and hind legs as a rudder. When the water is clean, its surface tension help water striders to move without problems. On the other hand, when the water (river, stream) is polluted (for example with washing-up liquids), the water surface tension will reduce.  The result is that water striders are endangered. They can not walk on water any more.

Our conclusions: the pollution has to be stoped. When we are using different washing agents - which are flowing into the natural rivers – we can harm water animals. Although small species – like water striders are – they are important part in our world of biodiversity.

In the school we prepared a simple experiment with paper clips (which resemble water striders) to investigate when they can flow on the water and when not. We proved that small addition of washing-up liquid “destroys” the water surface tension and the paper clip will sink. The same thing will happen to water insects.

A report about the activities around the river Gradaščica and its dam - in the past

Prepared by students : Katja Brezovar, Zibelnik Ana, Vrtačnik Rok, Jenko Kristina, Velkovrh Petra


Activities around the river and the dam were quite different in the past. Not only because of different interests that people had, but also because of the environment which was much cleaner. Currently, we can see that both - the river and the dam – are not frequently visited or used for free time activities by inhabitants. Water polllution is certainly  one of the reason for this.
In the past, many people swam in the dam. And this was not so long time ago – around 15 years ago. The water cleanness was much better in the past than today.  
These information and many others we have got through a survey and interviews that we made with inhabitants of Vrhovci. People that were interviewed said that the dam and the river were less polluted in the past and that inhabitants often visited the area around the river.




In the survey we asked inhabitants of Vrhovci some questions.
At the beginning of the survey they were asked for their gender and age. Most people  were around ages from 30-70.

1st:   The first question was whether they or their children swam in the river Gradaščica or in its dam - in the past. They answered that they and their children did visit the dam from time to time and also swam there, because the water was not dirty.
2nd:   Following question was about the river's flood. We have got the answer that the river did flood from time to time, but that there were never any serious consequences. Even a few months ago, when there was a lot of rain, the river flooded a little.
3th:   About the activities like fishing or even older activities like doing the laundry in the river, we did not get many answers. Even the older people - that we asked - said that they do not really remember widespread fishing activities in the dam or the river.  Regardless,  if there was any fishing in the past, we can say that there is a few of it today. We can not find a lot of different fish in the river today.
4th: Most of people that we asked also stated that they did spend some time by the river and its dam.
5th: The question about the water pollution gave us the answer, that the river is more polluted today as some years ago. The problem is also trashes around the river and its dam.  
6th: On the last question -  if inhabitants of Vrhovci wish to make the area around the water cleaner and nicer, we have got the answer  that this would be nice and certainly more frequent visits to the river's embankement and dam will appear.



From the survey we can resume that time has changed the river and its dam. We -inhabitants - are the most responsible for the pollution.  Certainly this does not mean that we can not change our habits.  We have to be more sensitive to all negative impacts into the nature. All that we need is a positive interest of people who live around the river. We are looking forward for the time when the river and its dam will be nice places for relaxation and walks. Certainly next ages will change our habits and conscious about the importance of clean water and nature itself.



A QUESTIONNAIRE  about the river Gradaščica and its dam - in the past

Spol (obkrožite):          Ž                  M

Starost (obkrožite):
manj kot 20        20-30    30-40    0-50    50-60    70-80    več kot 80

1. Ali ste se v preteklosti vi ali vaši otroci kdaj kopali v reki Gradaščici ali na jezu?
                              DA               NE            VČASIH


2. Ali je reka kdaj poplavljala?
                              DA               NE


3. Je tam kdaj potekalo ribištvo?
                              DA              NE             VČASIH


4. Ali ste tam preživljali veliko časa?
                              DA              NE             SREDNJE


5. Ali sta bili reka in jez zelo onesnažena?
                              DA              NE              SREDNJE

6. Ali želite da bi se prostor okoli jeza počistil in uredil? Kaj si želite glede reke in jeza v prihodnje?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

The power point presentation has been done by students, who were involved in the research. Conclusion: we are looking forward for the time when river and its dam will be nice places for relaxation and walks. Certainly next ages will change our habits and conscious about the importance of clean water and nature itself. gradascica_and_its_dam.ppt
( Powerpoint, 7,03 MB)

Some students have wished to express their feelings toward nature through different drawings.

Presentation of the article about European project coordinated by WWF and Erste Foundation. Article was published in the Slovenian journal (Didakta, No. 133, February, 2010) for teachers.

At the beginning we have decided to build awareness about the river (its beauty in all seasons, its importance for the living systems,...). Students have researched the river flow. A short walk and talk near the river - in a cold winter day - has given more impressions of the river.  

We have also found some waste close to the river.

Our group has chosen ″river Gradaščica″ for the project work. One of the reasons for such decision is that the river is close to our school »OŠ Vrhovci«; the another reason is that we want to build awareness of all our pupils about the river's importance for the future life of all living systems which are strongly connected to water.
Nevertheless Gradaščica is a small Slovenian river which is a part of the Danubian drainage basin countries. It is known as an unpolluted river and for this reason is one of an important starting points of the Danube's watershed.  

Sequence of water flows:  
Gradaščica   →   Ljubljanica    →   Sava   →    Danube  →  Black Sea


Gradaščica - originates from two main streams Mala voda and Božna when they are merged in the nearest village Polhov Gradec. The watershed of Gradaščica comprises the border area between Dinara karst and Alpine region.

For our Gradaščica we often say ″A small river – a nice river″. The life around the river and also in the water is very intensive and reach with different animal, plant species.

The students from the primary school Vrhovci (classes 9tha  and 9thb) have decided to take part in the project »European Schools for a living planet«. The most involved in the project will be: Katja Brezovar, Nejc Dovjak, Žan Hrovat, Matic Ivanjko, Miha Klančar, Matic Leben, Karmen Marčeta, Tjaša Pucelj, Matevž Slapar, Manca Oblak, Adriana Ožegovič, Maša Tičar, Špela Vidmar, Ana Zibelnik,  Tjaša Stepančič, Žane Suhadolnik, …
Our teacher Ms Lenka Žigon suggested us to do some research on the river Gradaščica, which flow through our village. We think that this is a good idea – because our small river has a big influence on the life of Ljubljana's inhabitants. Although this school year 2009/2010 is our last year in the primary school we will try to do the best.

At the beginning we would like to write some words about our village and school.  

Our school is in Vrhovci. This is a village or more correctly a suburb of Ljubljana on its West part. The name Vrhovci means »a top« which is certainly connected to a geographical position of the village.  A part of our village lies on a hill. Inhabitants of Vrhovci have a nice view on Ljubljana especially when the weather is favourable.
In the past our village was known because of the brickworks. This factory does not work any more because of the clay deficiency. Nevertheless some signs of the factory and works around it can be still observed. The inhabitants of Vrhovci are mostly employed in Ljubljana. This means that mornings and evenings migrations are very frequent.
A primary school has been started to build in the year 1958 - especially because of the growing population; the last part - the gymnasium – was build in 1977. In the year 2000 the school was rebuild according to new concepts of contemporary teaching and learning methods.
Our school is a modern school today. The number of pupils is around 450; they are from 6 to 15 years old. The school is good equiped with different ICT resources which enable us to be a part of different projects; one of them is a programmme of Eko schools. We have a nice school library, two gymnasiums and a big school yard for different outdoor activities. A school kitchen provides tasteful meals for pupils and school staff in a big dining room. We are proud to be students of the Primary school Vrhovci.