ESA Projects

The eTwinning Children are Climate Heroes project has demonstrated its pedagogical value, by innovating didactic practices, encouraging group work, using new information and communication technologies (ICT) to support the didactic process, stimulating student participation in teaching-learning-evaluation activities, the diversity of learning activities by capitalizing on projects in the formal curriculum.

The project was built through close collaboration between all participants, in order to establish common skills and contents, thus respecting the degree of curricular integration at the level of the participating countries. It was integrated curricular horizontally (different curricular areas), thus facilitating the connection between learning experiences, also capitalizing on students' previous experiences and realities of everyday life.

The aim of the eTwinning project Children are Climate Heroes is to raise people with an ecological consciousness, people with a sensitivity towards the whole environment, to create a diversity of experiences and to develop basic environmental issues. At the same time, a set of ecological values ​​and a sense of concern for the environment, motivation and position to actively participate in the creation and protection of the environment, skills for identifying, researching and solving environmental problems are developed. All this can be developed through an integrated approach to environmental education.

The students' involvement in the project led to beneficial changes in their school life, in their personal life, to a continuous expansion of their intellectual horizons.

Participation in such a European project broadens educational horizons, offers the opportunity to relate to European trends in the field of education. Diversity is essential and useful in the teaching-learning-assessment process, where the primary focus is the student.

Research question

How does drought affect plants and animals?

Project summary

Fundulea, the city where we live, is in a lowland area. Among the climatic elements with a major influence on plants and animals in our region, drought and heat occupy an important role. Plants, animals and people suffer. Even though we are students in the preparatory class and in the first grade, we understand that drought affects the ecosystems of our city. Thus, we have carried out some activities, trying to get actively involved in environmental issues.

ü  Activități de cercetare

Vizitele copiilor la INCDA Fundulea au fost foarte constructive. Am desfășurat activități cu denumirea  Întreabă un om de știință!, unde copiii au experimentat diferite aparate de laborator, au primit răspunsuri la întrebările pe care le aveau, la întâlnirile cu cercetători din cadrul INCDA Fundulea:  dna. Director Științific cercetător științific grad I Elena Petcu, dlui cercetător științific grad II Cătălin Lazăr și dnei. cercetător științific grad III Mihaela Popa, care ne-au sprijinit în derularea activităților. Copiii au vizitat Laboratorul de Genetică și Fenotipare, serele institutului, unde are loc testarea principalelor plante de cultură, în condiții controlate de mediu.

Copiii au urmărit datele prezentate de către cercetători, au analizat în clasă informații de la FAO și au observat că în zona noastră frecvența precipitațiilor a scăzut anual (https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/country/index.jsp?lang=en&code=ROU).

Research activities

The children's visits to National Institute for Agricultural Development Research Fundulea were very constructive. We carried out activities called Ask a scientist!, where the children experimented with different laboratory devices, received answers to the questions they had, at the meetings with researchers from INCDA Fundulea: Mrs. Scientific Director scientific researcher grade I Elena Petcu, Mr. scientific researcher grade II Cătălin Lazăr and Mrs. scientific researcher grade III Mihaela Popa, who supported us in carrying out our activities. The children visited the Laboratory of Genetics and Phenotyping, the institute's greenhouses, where the testing of the main crop plants takes place, under controlled environmental conditions. The children followed the data presented by the researchers, analyzed information from FAO in class and noticed that in our area the frequency of precipitation decreased annually (https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/country/index.jsp?lang=en&code=ROU ).

Practical activities

The children also learned the climatographic data, provided by the Fundulea Meteorological Station, which has the following geographical coordinates: 44s30' latitude and 24s10' east longitude. They compared the data obtained by them with those received from the researchers.

The children made feeders for birds and water spaces for birds and insects, using recyclable materials: plastic pet bottles, wooden spoons, pomelo hats, coconut shells. They understood how useful they are for birds, when the temperature is very low, and they hardly find their food. They were very pleased to lurk in the winged as they come to eat.

Some children have crafted cottages for insects, places where they can form colonies. Beetles, bees, ladybugs can help pollinate plants in the area. The diversity of insects that will populate the houses will increase over the months and years, helping to promote local biodiversity and restore the balance of the food chain. The educational value is not negligible: this is a great way to hire children and make them aware of the richness of wildlife. The children realized that these natural shelters could protect the species that help with pollination and drive away pests. Thus, without a great deal of effort, the surrounding crops become organic. Planting flowers, shrubs and trees are activities so loved by children. They carried out these activities at school, but also at home, together with their family. The seedlings from the school were later planted in the greenhouses inside the high school, activities to which we were helped by the students from the high school classes, from the Agriculture and Environmental Protection profile.

At school, the children planted flowers and cereals, conducting experiments and analyzes on different types of soil in our area. They noticed that the plants developed better in the chernozem soil, and in the sandy soil, the plants received a low organic content, developed more slowly.

Other activities carried out by students in preparatory classes A and I:

precipitation observation sheets for different periods: monthly and weekly, analyzing their frequency in different seasons.

·   greening the spaces in the schoolyard and the surroundings.

·  conducting experiments and analyzes on different types of soil in our area, observing the growth of cereals and vegetables in conditions of low humidity, noting the results in the observation sheets.

·   making leaflets that were distributed to citizens, leaflets through which they were informed how they can calculate their ecological footprint of the family.

Main results and conclusions

Analyzing the observation sheets of the frequency of precipitation in different seasons, the children understood that their absence, the appearance of drought, heatstroke are influenced by global climate change. Everyone in the community needs to be aware of this. Drought is the main cause of the loss of agricultural productivity and poses a major threat to food safety. Given that in our city, in our country, there are more and more frequent drought and heat phenomena, it is necessary to optimize irrigation systems in order to make the most efficient use of all the water resources used in the irrigation of crops. The children learned that researchers are working to discover new varieties of cereals and technical plants that are much more resistant to drought. The lack of water has also affected the development of many plants from which bees and other pollinators feed. Bees, along with other pollinating insects, are doing a very important job for our planet. Without the work of bees, much of the food available today would disappear.

Actions to reduce negative effects

To reduce the negative effects of water scarcity, children, along with family members, with the whole community must constantly carry out activities that will slow down the destructive actions of drought. These are: planting of trees and shrubs; reduction of water consumption; avoiding soil pollution, because the residues get into the groundwater, and the drinking water will no longer be clean; reducing gas emissions by using other means of transport or walking. All people need to understand that green MUST be more than a color, IT MUST be a way of  life.

Institutul Național de Cercetare și Dezvoltare Agricolă