Report of the learning activity c1 sdg - affordable and clean energy in the czech republic

Erasmus+ KA229 - School Exchange Partnerships

Project Nr: 2019-1-CZ01-KA229-061106 _1     It´sour world - take care of it

Event host organization: Střední odbornéučiliště elektrotechnické, Plzeň, the Czech Republic

Report of the learning activity C1
SDG - Affordable and Clean Energy
in the Czech Republic

The programwas prepared to fulfil the main goals of Learning Activity (LA) Clean Energy:to understand the ways of producing energy; to realise the importance of usingaffordable alternative sources of energy and to learn how to save the energy.

1stday October 13, 2019

All groups (Poland, Spain, Italy)arrived. Spanish students were accommodated in Czech families and the others atthe school hostel. Students from Italy could not come, they will take part inother learning activities.

2ndday October 14, 2019

The groups were officially welcomedand greeted by the headmaster of the school Mr. Jaroslav Černý at SOUE. Weintroduced SDG goals and the main goal of this LA.
For the beginning we prepared ice-break activity for students to get to knoweach other better and to improve future communication among all participants.After that Czech students presented a short presentation about the school SOUE.SOUE (high and vocational school of electrical engineering) is a technicalschool for students between 15 – 19 years old – about 700 daily students andabout 200 distance ones – adults. Branches of study except electricalengineering are also telecommunication and information technology. Studentshave theoretical lessons at school and practical lessons at school special labsor companies. The school operates the hostel and the canteen.

The main part of the morning programwas an interactive lecturer of the representative of the company CEZ. CEZ Groupis an established, integrated electricity conglomerate with operations ina number of countries in Central and South-eastern Europe and Turkey, headquarteredin the Czech Republic. During thelecture participants were informed about: sources of energy used not only inthe CR but in the whole Europe; alternative sources of energy – how they work,their advantages and disadvantages; ways of saving energy. During the lecturestudents asked many questions and got lots of new information. 

The second part of the morning activity were thepresentations done by students and teachers from all countries about sources ofenergy used in each country and region; alternative sources of energy in eachcountry and region; nuclear energy.

The lunch was served in the school dining hall. Afterlunch we divided students into six language mixed groups (they worked in thesame group during the whole week). The first task for the groups was to preparea dictionary of a special terminology from the topic energy in severallanguages – Czech, Polish, Spanish, Italian and English. The main aim of thisworkshop was introducing team work, improving English and ICT skills. Teacherstook part the role as the mentors of each group and tried to encourage studentsduring their work and helped where it was needed. Sometimes we learnt newknowledge from each other.

After the afternoon workshop allgroups went to the city Pilsen where the students participated in internationalteam activity (town quiz rally) – using the map of historical centre - to befamiliarised with Pilsen, its sights and history. Their task was to answerseveral questions which included visiting historical buildings, drawing andwriting important facts about them, making interview with foreign tourists,drawing old houses or sculptures and also taking pictures of themselves oninteresting spots. During the town quiz rally students used not only theirknowledge of history and geography but also cooperation, teamwork and languageskills.

Pilsen – historical city, wasfounded in 13th century on the confluence of 4 rivers with many sights – gothiccathedral, renaissance city hall, Jewish synagogue. Nowadays it is a moderncity with strong industry. Plzeň, which is also called Pilsen in English andGerman, is a city in western Bohemia in the CzechRepublic about 90 kilometres west of Prague, it is the fourth most populous city in the CzechRepublic with 170 000 inhabitants. The city is known worldwide for Pilsner beer. There are many schools – primary, secondary andWest Bohemia University.

This day was finished with a projectmeeting of all teachers where there were discussed the important projectissues, outputs, project timetable and the next LA in Poland.

3rdday October 15, 2019

After breakfast we went for a daytrip to Prague.

Prague is the capital and  largest city of the CzechRepublic. It is the 14th largest city in the EuropeanUnion. It is also the historical capitalof Bohemia. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava River, the city is home to about 1.4 million people.Founded during the RomaHYPERLINK"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesque_architecture"nesque and flourishing by the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque eras, Prague was the capital of thekingdom of Bohemia and themain residence of several HolyHYPERLINK"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Emperor" RomanEmperors, most notably of Charles IV(r. 1346–1378). It was an important city to the HabsburgMonarchy and its Austro-HungarianEmpire. The city played major roles in theBohemian and ProtestantReformation, the Thirty Years'War, and in 20th-century history as thecapital of Czechoslovakia, duringboth World Wars and the post-war Communist era. Prague is home to a number offamous cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence anddestruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include the Prague Castle, the CharlesBridge, Old Town SquaHYPERLINK"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Town_Square_(Prague)"re with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter etc. Since 1992, the extensive historic centre ofPrague has been included in the UNESCO list of WorldHeritage Sites.

We arrived in Prague at 10 a.m. tostart our sightseeing tour. During the sightseeing we were guided by theprofessional guide who could speak not only English but also Spanish. Sheshowed us the historical parts of the city such as Prague Castle, NerudovaStreet, Kampa, Charles Bridge, Klementinum and Staromestske Square. She talkedabout the history of the city and the CR in a very interesting and friendlyway.

After a short break we came to thebuilding of National Theatre where we were offered to see the solar panelswhich are installed on the top of the roof. We had touse the lift, several stairs and finally climb the ladder to get on the top ofthe roof. It was a bit adventurous.

Those panels are the part of a smallsolar power plant which supplies some energy for National Theatre. The buildingof solar panels was a part of the whole project which saves the theatre a lotof money every year. Installing solar panels, replacing incandescent bulbswith LED lights, using heat from stage hydraulics, and other measures saved theNational Theater over CZK 93 million in ten years. A photovoltaic power plant,which is part of the roof waterproofing and is visible only from above, doesnot interfere with the architecture of the surroundings on the roof of theoperational building and the New Stage. The panels on the operating buildingtogether with the photovoltaic power plant on the roof of the New Stage cover asixth of the minimum theater consumption, which in extreme cases is up to 6 MW.Participants could see original project in the middle of a big city; thisproject belongs definitely to those which we can call clean – green – energy.

After that students and teachers hadsome free time to buy some food or souvenirs.

At 6 p.m. we met again (nobody gotlost luckily), walked to our bus and went back to Pilsen.

4thday October 16, 2019

After breakfast in the school dining hall allparticipants of the project went f by coach or a day trip to the Šumava Mountains.The destination was Čeňkova Pila, where we visited the water power plant Vydrawith a guide from company CEZ.

The small hydropower plant Vydra is situated near the confluenceof the Vydra and Kremelna rivers between the villages Rejstejn and Srni in the Susicedistrict. The power plant construction started in 1937. In 1939 it started tooperate as a run-of-river power plant and the full operation started onlyafter the storage reservoir was finished in January 1942.  Water isconveyed from the historical Vchynicko-Tetov canal near Mechov. During theyears 2005 and 2006, both turbines were modernized.

We saw the exposition of CEZ „ The Šumava Energy “,which contains a landscape model of the area from Modrava to the confluence ofVydra and Křemelná rivers, historical instruments and model of hydro powerplant with an active simulation of technological process. We could see some ofthe thematically related films and very interesting was the visiting of thenearby small hydro power plant Čeňkova Pila from 1912. Participants could seethe second alternative source of energy – one of the most historically used –water power plant. Now they can understand the importance and possibilities ofclean energy.

Then we went to Sušice, which iscalled the gateway to the Šumava mountains. We had some free time to have lunchand to buy some souvenirs. We could see the historical square with the TownHall in the middle.

Our next stop was Velhartice Castle,which belongs to Unesco heritage. A verycharacteristic feature of Velhartice Castle is the stone bridge connecting therepresentative palace section with the defensive tower in the north-easternpart of the castle. The guided tour of the castle was very interesting for allof us and we enjoyed the amazing view of the surrounding area.

Then we went backto Pilsen, where we had dinner in the school dining hall.

Some of us enjoyedthe evening bowling.

5thday October 17, 2019

After breakfast we all met atschool. Students were working in their groups on their presentations. The topicwas “What you have experienced during theweek in the CR”  All teams could usetheir notebooks, posters, markers, phones..... and also the help of allteachers. Students got again the opportunity to improve their English, ICTskills, creativity and cooperation.

Then we went to the city centre andhad some free time there.

At 13:00 there was an officialmeeting at Region Council with local representatives.  During this meeting we introduced programErasmus+, our project and pointed out that the project is financed by theEuropean Union. We also saw the film and presentation in English about theregion and the Czech educational system.

In the afternoon we walked to thetechnical museum called Techmania centre. Techmania is based on explanations ofparticular physical or mathematical principles by means of game-likeactivities. The interactivity involves visitors making the exhibits move, sothe natural principle will be demonstrated by the particular process. In thesecases, learning is based on personal experience. All students and also theteachers enjoyed the time in Techmania. In the end we visited Planetarium wherewe watched 3D movie about history of flying.

At 6 p.m. we had dinner in yourschool dining hall. After that there was a farewell party at school forteachers, students, parents and our guests – representatives from the SchoolDepartment of Pilsen Region and a representative of the company CEZ.

At the beginning all groups had achance to show their presentations which were really interesting, imaginativeand also amusing. Then our guests were welcomed. Ms. Jaroslava Havlíčková andMr. Ladislav Harvanek - representatives from Region Council - talked about theimportance of international projects and thanked us for our project week. Therepresentative of the company CEZ admired the whole project and the topic cleanenergy. The party continued with music and dancing.

During the meeting we introduced –disseminated – the project and Erasmus program to the wide public.

6thday October 18, 2019

After breakfast students met atschool and they were divided into their teams for the following workshop. Theyworked on different tasks connected with the topic of Affordable and Clean Energy.The last part of their workshop was to draw a dream island involving thequestions of getting food, living, transport and producing and saving energy.All teams then presented their posters. All works and presentations wereinteresting. We could see how students incorporated new knowledge from this LA.During the workshop we also talked about saving energy in our everyday lives athome, at school, at work etc. It was also interesting to see the teamwork andcooperation of students. We could really see how the participants wereintegrated in one cooperating international group.

After a short break we evaluated thewhole learning activity. We prepared the evaluation questionnaire and allparticipants filled it. Then we used the results for evaluation of thislearning activity.

Before lunch there was a short touraround our school. The teachers discussed the plans for the next learningactivities, local activities and project dissemination.

Our project week was officiallyconcluded. We could say that this LA fulfilled the main project aims.

7thday October 19, 2019

We said goodbye to each other andall groups returned to their home countries.