Next week in France

From 6th to 10th of March we are going to held the fourth meeting of our Comenius project. It will be in Le Grand Quevilly, an small city situated near Rouen the capital of the region of High Normandy. We are going to travel two teachers, Vilma, our Comenius assistant and five students about 13 years old (Andrea, Inés, Erea, Alberto and Cristovo. We are going to visit the College Claude Bernard. I think we are going to spend great time with our Comenius friends, the same as in other meetings.

What students drink?

We did a survey among a group of students to see what they drink. The results are:

Playing the table game

As usually our Comenius pupils meet on Wednesday mornings to work and to prepare the activities for the meeting in France. This time the pupils were preparing questions' cards and playing one of the table games which we will bring to France to play all together.

Results of water questionnaire

Results of water questionnaire from pepefouz

Measuring the water collected in the rain gauge

This morning a group of  Comenius team students learning to measure the water collected in the rain gauge and collecting data from the weather station.

One table game ready: THE GAME OF WATER

This tablegame was made by Inés Bouza Morgade (12 years old)

It is a board game for 2 or more players based on the classic “The game of the Goose”. It is about the importance of water in our planet, showing its cycle, its process to be used by human, its protection, stating what we must not do it. Why don’t you try to play? I am sure you enjoy it!

Game´s Rules

1. Each player chooses a “Drop of Water” (piece) and puts on the “Starting point”.
2. The players throw the dices by turns (from youngest to oldest). The first one who gets one “six”, starts the game. The other players continue on the starting point, throwing the dices until they get a “six”.
3. During the game, the players follow the order they have got with the above mentioned rules. 
4. The players advance over the spaces, following the result of the dices until the last space (nº 49) 
5. The first player who arrives to the last space (nº 49) is the winner, turned into the “Friend of the Water” . But, to reach the winning post, the result of the dices should be exact, if it exceeds the number of spaces to the end, the player has to move back.

The water experience

My name is Jorge, I am 22 and I am doing the Environmental Chemistry course in the I.E.S. Concepción Arenal in Ferrol. Last week was unusual for the life in the high school, it was the Water Awareness Week and I was in charge of the explanation of some experiments that took place in the high school`s hall. It was such a good experience because we could get closer to the responsible of life in our planet, which is water. This little molecule is too unknown in common life and it has many properties that you can`t believe. This past week was really good to learn about this resource which is not as abundant as we can think; only the 3% of the total water in the planet is fresh water. I had to explain some properties such superficial tension of water and the Arquimedes principle, helped by funny and interesting experiments. I was very glad helping teachers this week.

Ten ways to save water

Another activity for our water awareness week was to aware the students about the necessity of saving  water in their daily life. We summarized it in ten ways to save water: 

1. Use shower instead of bath.

2. Close the tap to avoid unnecessary leaks.

3.  Repair the taps if they are leaking.

4. Use cisterns with a device which allows to select a big or small water flow.

5.  Don’t throw solids to WC in order avoid to use the cistern unnecessary.

6.  When you brush your teeth, take a shower or wash your dishes don’t waste the water.

7. Use the electrical appliance in whole charge

8.   Water the gardens with programmed watering and in early mornings or at dawn.

9.    Don’t wash the cars every week and do it in an automatic car wash.

10. If the car is washed by hand, don’t do it with a hose, use only a sponge and a bucket.

After that, we asked the students to show them in a poster. Most of them were made in Arts classes in ESO.  Above you can see a selection of them.

The importance of water in the origin of life.

Last Monday  the last of the conferences programmed in our water awareness week was held. The tittle was: The importance of water in the origin of life. It was imparted by José Miñones Trillo, emeritus professor of the University of Santiago de Compostela. The professor talked about the chemical and physical properties  of water. He also explained that due to these properties life can exist in frozen seas or how plants are fed by capillarity.

Water awareness week

During water awareness week, the hall of our school was full of chemical and physical devices. The teachers and students were showing various experiments related to water. In my opinion, it was a success because during the breaks the hall was full of students trying to understand physical and chemical properties of the water. Also they were trying themselves to do some experiments.

Works about wetlands and rivers of Galicia

Ferrolterra rivers, presentation made by Carlota, María, Andrea, Ruth and Jorge (4º ESO)

Ramsar zone, presentation made by Eva Rodríguez Vilariño and other students ESO 3

Science fair about water

Several stands in the hall showed the students the physical and chemical properties of the water.

The chemical and biological state of the estuary of Ferrol.

This conference was a part of our water awareness week and was held last Tuesday afternoon. It was imparted by Joam Ferreira Caramés - the president of the Galician Society of Natural History in Ferrol and the biologist of the fishermen´s guild of Barallobre.

It was very interesting because this man has been working with fishermen for a lot of years. So, he has firsthand information about the damages that the spills of waste water have been causing in our Ria for a lot of years .

Waste water spills in the Ría of Ferrol

During Christmas the students of Environmental Chemistry were taken pictures of many leak points we have in our Ría. It is due to the waste water treatment plant has been building for ten years or more and every day more than 100.000 inhabitans are spilling our waste water into the Ria. In the picture you can see a litlle part of our Ría and the spills. 

During the water awareness week this work was shown to the rest of the students of our school. In the pictures over and above you can see some of the spills.

Two ways of look water

On tuesday, José Pardo, a newspaper photographer of La Voz de Galicia,   and Rubén Pérez "Fris", another  photographer amateur showed us their water-related photos. Amazing photos!

The following photos were made by Esperanza Vázquez Dopico.

At the conference of  Jose Pardo and Ruben Perez