The Bilateral activity “Norway Educlima Study Tour” is once again enjoying a huge interest
The Programme Operator of the SK-Climate Programme in cooperation with the Donor programme partners organized the bilateral activity titled as "Norway Educlima Study Tour", on the 22-24 May 2023 in the Capital City of Norway OSLO. The aim of the activity was to support sustainable bilateral partnerships between Slovak primary and secondary schools and nominated schools from Norway in the field of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The target group of the event were Project Promoters within the Call ClimaEdu (ACC03) of the SK-Climate Programme.
As a part of the second term of the study trip, teachers, pupils and students of the following Slovak schools took part:
- Elementary school, Dolinský potok 1114/28, Kysucké Nové Mesto
- Gymnázium, Mládežnícka 22, Šahy
- Gymnasium Ul. November 17, 1180, Topoľčany
- Gymnasium, Ul. May 1, 905, Púchov
- Elementary school, Nábrežná 845/17, Kysucké Nové Mesto
- Partizánske High School.
The expedition of Slovak schools had up to 24 participants for the second term of the trip. Three employees of the Programme Operator accompanied the delegation, and three representatives of the donor programme partners, who in addition to the proven interactive programs from the first term, prepared for the students an e.g. also interesting research directly in the field to measure water flow.
On the first day of the study trip after arriving in the city of Oslo, a visit to the islands and the atmosphere of a real Norwegian fjord with colorful houses awaited the participants.
On the second day after the participants were welcomed by the donor programme partners, a visit to the SKI Turnhall partner school "hidden" in the forest followed. As we learned from our hosts, their school is also called Gymnázium in Norwegian, and it means a similar form of teaching as provided in our Gymnasiums.
In the school's multifunctional hall, the presentation of the projects implemented within the SK-Climate programme followed. Once again, we could be very proud of the soft activities as well as the hard measures, which are implemented under the auspices of the SK-Climate Programme, within the Call titled as ClimaEdu, but we were especially proud of the manner and level of student presentations. The performances of our students were streamed live again, through the FB page of the SK-Climate programme.
Subsequently, we went through the external and internal spaces of the school with our hosts, who presented to us in a very educational way what measures were applied in the framework of environmental and climate protection, especially in the area of food sustainability at their school.
The afternoon followed by a visit to selected museums in Tøyen and the popular again very inspiring interactive Climate House "Klimahuset", where students could test their acquired knowledge in the field of mitigation and adaptation to climate change and join the group of "influencers, activists, team players or experts".
At the end of the second day, the participants still had time to see important sights of the city of Oslo, such as the Royal Palace, the Opera building with the promenade or the house where the Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded.
The third day of the study trip was spent in the spirit of active "teaching". The students were able to see the absorption capacity of the rain gardens "Deichmansgate" in the city of Oslo directly in the field, then in six groups they could perform, compare and evaluate their measurements within their research.
After finishing and recording the measurements, the participants of the bilateral activity moved to the location of the project, to the vegetation roof. Bent Christen Braskerud, from the Norwegian Directorate for Water Resources and Energy and the Municipality of OSLO, illustrated the permeability of areas in the urban environment. The presentation was performed directly on the subject green roof of the project: "Roof garden at Vega Scene - OSLO", where we learned that even with "200 years water", this specially modified roof would be able to immediately absorb up to 90% of precipitation in the place of its action. In the afternoon, there was a farewell to the city and to our hosts, students and pupils returned home inspired and more experienced, and not only in the thematic area of climate change.
We believe that the study trips organized from the bilateral fund to Norway, titled as “Norway Educlima Study Tour” more than met our expectations. We can state that we managed to fulfill our main goal, i.e. to develop and support sustainable bilateral partnerships between Slovak elementary and secondary schools and selected schools from Norway in the field of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.