Environmental Sustainability For Sustainable Schools

May 2023 - Our last day in Lithuania was quite emotional. We met at the school to attend a workshop on the cycle of Carbon, which included a presentation from the school’s teachers and an observation of the traffic around the school.

After lunch, we all took part in a very interesting mind battle in groups. Each group could choose 7 questions regarding sustainability and had one minutes to answer each one of them. After this exciting activity, we all went home to get ready for the farewell party.

At 6 o’clock in the evening, we all met again at the school. The party was amazing, many students and teachers from the school took part singing, dancing and preparing games and activities such us making dresses with recycled paper. Families brought wonderful food from home, and we had an opportunity to try lots of different Lithuanian dishes.

We all got our Erasmus certificates and at the end we learned traditional Lithuanian dances. A wonderful evening we will never forget.

May 2023 - We met at school a little later today after a very long day yesterday. We have spent the day in the Rumsiskes Open-air Folk Museum, which is one of the largest in Europe. The Museum presents the mode of life, works, and traditions of peasants and townspeople of all Lithuanian ethnographic area around the 19th century. We could visit the inside of farms, and old buildings and vegetable gardens, as well as working mills and forges. We could also wander around the forests, meadows and hills. Furthermore, we discovered the place, taking part in a scavenger hunt full of interesting puzzles to solve exploring the different parts of the site.

For lunch, we had a wonderful barbecue there at the museum. The weather was perfect, so we couldn’t image a more perfect place to spend time with our new Lithuanian and Italian friends, as we spent the afternoon playing games in the wonderful outdoors.

May 2023 - Today we had to get up a little earlier because we had a lot to do. We met at school to prepare for the presentations. At 9 o’clock all students (Lithuanians, Italians and us) presented their work on air pollution. We all showed our diagnosis on transport and mobility in our towns and how these effect air pollution, and then we presented our proposals on how this issue could be tackled in the future with concrete solutions. We all did very well and a real exchange of ideas took place.

After the presentations, we all got bicycles. Lithuanian students brought theirs, but we could all borrow not only the bicycles, but also helmets and safety vests. At 10 o’clock, we left on a bike ride through the countryside to Kacergine. The views were beautiful as we were cycling along the river. We had lunch in a beautiful spot near the water. After eating, we returned to Kaunas very tired but satisfied for having completed such a long ride.

Presentations:

May 2023 - On our second day in Lithuania, we traveled from Kaunas to Vilnius to visit the Transport museum and the capital of the country.

We met at the school and on the school bus we made our way to the train station in Kaunas. From there we traveled to Vilnius on the train. Once in Vilnius, we visited the Railway Museum. We worked in groups on an activity to find out interesting facts about the Museum’s treasures.

After lunch, we visited Vilnius using an app to complete a virtual scavenger hunt that, at times, it proved to be quite challenging. At the end of the game, we met at the cathedral, and we made our way to the train station in order to return to Kaunas by train.

May 2023 - We started our day with a wonderful welcome ceremony with music and dances and the official welcome speeches. After that, we had an ice breaking activity so that the three groups (Lithuanians, Italians and us) could get to know each other. We had a great time playing together.

After lunch, we visited the Lithuanian Museum of Aviation, where we saw different types of aircraft. Most of it was outdoors and it was fascinating. We loved riding on the flying simulation!

After the museum, we enjoyed a really fun exploration game of Kaunas town center in groups and using an app. We loved taking pictures of the city.

We returned to the school, and we then spent time with our host families.

April 2023 - The last day hosting the mobility here in Manresa has been very intense. We have started building sustainable solutions to have a more sustainable city using a World of Minecraft Education. After that, a group of Bat Pro students have joined us to work on Counter advertising, to think critically about the way we consume and how brands manipulate consumers.

After a short break, we have done a workshop on Upcycling. We have turned discarded objects that we would find in the rubbish into new objects with a new function. This is a very important concept to consider in a more sustainable society. To give objects a longer life and learn to consume less.

In the evening, families and students met in the school’s canteen and we enjoyed a fantastic party. We said goodbye and we gave the Lithuanian and Italian students their certificates, but we also enjoyed ourselves and we celebrated Earth Day with a Quiz and lots of music!

April 2023 - Today we have had a fantastic day in Barcelona. We arrived after 9 and we organised ourselves in groups to start the exploration activity.

We had to go to some of the most important landmarks in Barcelona’s old district, learn about the place and take a photo following the instructions given. We had to take a photo with a police officer in Plaça Sant Jaume, or visit the Mammoth in Parc de la Ciutadella among others. We have walked quite a lot, but it has been worth it!