Science Reporter’s Activities

Together for Opoczno – searching for unpolluted air

CHALLENGE NO 1

The first task has just  been done. As a matter of  European Project : „Science in the City: Building Parcticipatory Urban Learning Community Hubs through Research and Activation”, learners of Stefan Żeromski Secondary School No 1 in Opoczno realised the challenge which was envisioned for the first term of school year 2020/2021. They carried out a range of initiatives such as:

• getting familiar with a land development plan of Opoczno ( both with the text as well as the map)
• preparing a plenty of commercials that promote activities on balanced development in Opoczno,
• organising a school competition  titled „Together for Opoczno – in searching for unpolluted air”, which willing students participated in,
• leading online art workshops on designing clothes connected with clear natural habitat
• making a film prodromic the climax of the project event.

However, the most essential point was the video-conference entitled  „Together for Opoczno – in searching for unpolluted air” that engaged both the school and local community. This event took place on December 8, 2020. Honourable patronage on project „PULCHRA” realisation took  Łódź Chief Education Officer, District Starosty in Opoczno and Warszaw Institute of Technology.

From participators’ point of view,  the online meeting was held at a very high level with  two anchors  Natalia Ksyta and Julia Dąbrowska (class II Fg), who, at the same time, are leaders of the European project „PULCHRA” at our school.  Also Miłosz Polak deserves special attention. He is a very gifted student, who was resposible for a video editing. Together with his schoolmates Maryla Ambroszczyk and Aleksandra Bińczyk ran a movie about researching the environmental components in Opoczno as well as   in its surrounding.

The video-conference began with an extract from a well-known Polish song. The lyrics sound like that: „ The city is  waking up all at once with our dreams, its noise of the streets is calling me. The city is  waking up, we are not alone. It gives us a great day. ” This turned out that the fragment of the song totally meets the demands of  the project „Science in the City: Building Parcticipatory Urban Learning Community Hubs through Research and Activation”.

Inauguration of  the video-conference was started by Stefan Żeromski Secondary School No 1 in Opoczno headmistress Mrs Monika Kluska whereas  Mr Zbigniew Sobczyk – vice-chairperson of the  City Council took the floor on the behalf of local authorities. The central point of the event was a curious lecture on „The functional and spatial meaning of parks and garden squares in contemporary cities” declaimed by Mr Piotr Kulesza – Assistant Professor Departament of Environmental Protection and Landscape Preservation Institute of Mathematics, Informatics and Landscape Architecture Faculty of Science and Health  at  John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.

In what follows, there was a sophisticated fashion show under the banner of a clear habitat, made by students such as:  Wiktoria Jóźwik,  Patrycja Palus, Wiktoria Gutowska and Maria Jarzabek. The fashion parade involved an online collection of paintings with inspirational titles:

„In harmony with nature, may future generations have an opportunity to say.” (the painting includes a message that insists people on leading susatinable, eco-friendly lifestyles)

„The natural world needed, particulary on cold days”.

„ The flowered dress like a puff.”

„The palm- fringed  paradise.”

„To understand how essential is the Earth by wearing an exclusive dress”

„For help to wildlife.”

„The autumn whiff.”

„A bit of rainforest.”

„The summer breath of wind”

In accordance with the schedule, the next item was presenting a number of works which had been sent to take part in the school competition „Together for Opoczno – in searching for unpolluted air”.

As far as the main aim of the initiative was concerned, organisers demanded a greenery development project of the public space in Opoczno. Participants sent 25 artworks. All of them created curious, full of details plans, highlighting, at the same time, advantages of the public space and camouflaging unaestetic elements of the landscape. During assessing, jury, particularly, took into cosideration following criteria: conformity between the topic and the reality ( having regard to surface features, climatic and edaphic requirements of plants), imaginativeness, artistic merit and, of course, self-reliance. Judges decided to give awards in two categories: ensemble and individual. The main sponsor of the prizes for the winners was the local enterprise WIS Group. The victors became:

in the individual category: Bartłomiej Kwapisz (class  IC);

in the ensemble category: Wiktoria Gutowka,  Aleksandra Stepień, Martyna Chrobak,  Wiktoria Jóźwik, Patrycja Palus  (class II Cg).

Furthermore, in reference to the video-conference, there was another initiative as well. It means a social campaign on Facebook „Plant it yourself”. This action encouraged people to plant and seed as many plants as it is possible in the nearest surrounding of their houses. I was also an opportunity to make a  school outdoor space greener and greener in a virtual way by clicking „like” button.

At the end, Mr Piotr  Kulesza  took the floor one more time. He was struck by the great student’s involvement, emphasising their aptitude for landscape designing. Whereas the hosts of the conference – Natalia Ksyta and Julia Dąbrowska summed up the event saying that the action like this, will surly make a contribution to better future for next generation living in Opoczno.

Challenge envisioned for the first term of school year 2020/2021 was completed by the popular science lecture „From sustainable water to sustainable fashion. About chemistry of well-balanced development”  The online event took place on December 13,2020 and the speaker was habilitated doctor, Katarzyna Hęc-Wydro,  professor at Jagiellonian University.

Soon, successive efforts will be taken up to continue our adventure with PULCHRA

ZDJĘCIA Z PRZYGOTOWAŃ DO WIDEOKONFERENCJI

PREZENTACJA – KONKURS I MODA

DOKUMENTACJA SADZENIA ROŚLIN

PRZYKŁAD REKLAMY WYKONANEJ PRZEZ UCZNIÓW

Project Outcomes

BUSY TERM WITH PULCHRA PROJECT

The second term of the school year 2020/2021 has passed us extremely busy. The European Project “Science in the City:  Building  Parcticipatory Urban Learning  Community  Hubs  through  Research and Activation” provides us with a lot of satisfaction and gives us a sense of creating a local community, taking important and expected actions. The performance of the tasks foreseen for this period required us to involve many people and professional institutions. A special PULCHRA tab was created on the school’s website to inform about the project activities (http://lozeromski.opoczno.pl/pulchra/).

27^th January 2021 roku school supervisors of European Project „Science in the City: Building Parcticipatory Urban Learning Community Hubs through Research and Activation” were invited to  the global  workshop “Educational methods in support of science and science education for Cities as Urban Ecosystems”, organised for coordinators, attendants as well as  stakeholders.

In order to make proper use of the funds obtained as part of the project, the Warsaw School of Economics conducted a webinar “Business plan and budget of the social enterprise” for our school Science Teams on February 23, 2021. Speaker Dr. Albert Tomaszewski from Open Education Center of the Warsaw School of Economics introduced the participants of the meeting in an interesting way to the content relating to strategic analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses of action as well as opportunities and threats. He drew attention to socially achieving entrepreneurship and conducted workshops on creating a business plan to check the cost-effectiveness of the initiative. As part of this webinar, students practiced executive summaries, performance characterization skills, strategic analysis, marketing plan, technology plan, organization and management.

The key action was the initiative by our stakeholders from the Warsaw University of Technology and the Warsaw School of Rural Farm, of 18 – hour-long workshops. They were attended by 76 students – members of the School Science Teams. Within each meeting, the youth worked in three groups divided into seven sub-assemblies. The classes were conducted using Microsoft  Teams  and  Murral, a Digital workspace for visual collaboration where everyone could work. Before the official start of the workshop, introductory meetings were held for everyone involved in the project: for carers on January 26, 2021, and for students on February 9, 2021.  They were carried out  by an extremely creative, substantive and concrete Dr. Katarzyna Rędzińska from the Faculty of  Geodesy and Cartography of the Department of Spatial Management and Natural Sciences of the Warsaw University of Technology. The aim of the training was to implement the  Murral application to work. In addition, the workshop was preceded by the preparation specifically for our city by the UNEP -GRID  Center in Warsaw geosurvey, in which we invited the inhabitants of our city to consult the location of green areas. Thanks to this,  we got extremely interesting answers, we learned the expectations of the main users of urban space in Opoczno. Our stakeholders from the Warsaw University of Technology and the Warsaw School of Rural Farm also developed a survey, which was made available to the inhabitants of the city. Links to these surveys can be found below:

• https://zieloneopoczno.gridw.pl/,
• https://forms.gle/PMh4kDrDVcL7rVa4A

Thanks to these forms of work, with the indication of our stakeholders, we have applied advanced social participation Co – creation.

Workshop I “GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE – ELEMENTS AND FUNCTIONS” was conducted between 9 – 10^th February 2021 by a successful team from the Department of Landscape Architecture of the Faculty of Construction and Environmental Engineering of the Warsaw School of Economics, headed by Dr. Agata Cieszewska. In addition, the instructor team included: Dr. Renata  Giedych, Dr. Joanna Adamczyk – Jabłońska, Dr. Gabriela Maksymiuk, Dr. Piotr  Wałdykowski. For group 1, classes took place on 9^th February, group 2 and 3 completed them on 10^th February. The workshops were fantastic. In the first part, the pupils, led by the lecturers, learned about the environmental problems of Opoczno resulting from air pollution, especially dust emissions. Attention was drawn to the presence of extreme occurances e.g. areas at risk of flooding, the effects of local storms. The presenters prepared a collage of articles about Opoczno dealing with these situations. Climate change has been discussed on the basis of specific analyses of weather  components. The strategy documents presenting environmental problems have been consulted. It was very interesting to weight up the different temperature values of different pavements and urban areas and to moderate the debate on how to switch to low emissions of dust and gases. Students learned a lot of interesting solutions. Then the presenters explained why green infrastructure is a good solution for highlighting its functions. After that, the students analysed the elements of green infrastructure on a city-wide scale and on a place-wide scale. Attention has been drawn to Nature Base Solutions. Students also learned about forms of vegetation that improved the climate, including trees, vines and hedges. Attention was paid to water management in the city, the need to increase local retention. A correlation between climate improvement and the right surface was captured. Good practices have provided valuable information. In a summary prepared in the form of a comparative visualization, our students received an answer to the question: What should be Opoczno? Speakers also gave an overview of initiatives taken by local authorities. In conclusion, we heard “Nice to  have  –  must  have”. Work in the components began with a survey in which students were tasked with identifying the known elements of green infrastructure and identifying among them those that are not yet in Opoczno. They then answered the question “What functions do selected elements of green infrastructure serve in Opoczno. Each subassembly worked with the GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FUNCTION ASSESSMENT support table, topographic map and satellite imagery, which facilitated the location of the GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE and the identification of the functions performed..

Workshop II was also conducted within two days: group 1 took part on February 15, 2021, and group 2 and 3 on February 16, 2021, but at different times. They were led by an excellent team composed of: Dr. Ind. arch. country. Katarzyna Rędzińska, Ms. Monika Piotrkowska, Ms. Marianna  Ulanicka  – Raczyńska, Alicja  Wiertel,Inz. Małgorzata Mazur.  The theme of workshop II “Needs versus opportunities for shaping green areas in the city” referred to specific activities. During the workshop, young people:

• analysed the need to shape greenery in the city,
• searched for and identified areas requiring green intervention
• on the basis of geosurvey, students learned about the preferences of the inhabitants and compared them
• when presenting the areas selected for green infrastructure development, it was used google street view photos
• identified the desired green functions by suggesting the given criteria
• proposed guidelines for the sites indicated.

Among the theoretical issues, that young people referred to in practical classes, were:

• Air pollution – greenery as a pollutant absorber,
• Protection against noise, pollution – working with road network map and acoustic map,
• Flood protection + adaptation to climate change – flood-prone areas, sealed land – indication of the area necessary for tree planting to reduce the sealed area,
• Identification of areas with high temperatures, in particular the radiation surface of the Earth, facilitate the identification of areas to be planted with trees,
• Population density analysis – the greater the population, the greater the predisposition of an area to be planted with trees,
• The identification of biodiversity (density of ecological corridors, density and diversity of natural habitats), which is closely linked to the designation of planting areas, as their presence will increase natural connectivity, improve the quality of these habitats and consistency with the surrounding landscape.

A lot of emotions were brought by the analysis of social preferences for tree planting made on the basis of geosurvey.

During workshop III, conducted on February 19th in the  Murral app also by the team of Dr. Ind. arch. country. Katarzyna Rędzińska, sub-assemblies created mind maps and designed the distribution of green areas.

On the basis of the workshops, Pro Bono report of a popularizing nature was created, which can be an introduction to expert analysis.

Thanks to our great stakeholders, it was an extraordinary lesson in caring for the local climate and the cooperation of the Opoczno community. It is worth noting that cooperation with the Warsaw University of Technology is the result of the prize obtained two years ago by our school – thanks to the victory in the Warsaw University of Technology Competition “Plan your space” we won urban workshops, which we decided to use during the implementation of the PULCHRA project.

On March 9, 2021, the attendants and leaders of our project took part in a training course to which we were invited by the UNEP – GRID Warsaw Center on “Teaching by In-House. Good practices for using the IBSE method.”

In order to spread our activities, the leaders of the School Science Teams performed at the XXXII session of the Opoczno District Council of the 6th term, on April 28, 2021 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0hwfathpk  from 8:17 minutes of deliberations) and XXXII Sessions of the City Council in Opoczno on April 29, 2021 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiPSjf1tvLM  from 19:43 minutes). The speeches were very warmly received. At the request of the President of the City Council, the report, which is the aftermath of the series of workshops “Green light for Opoczno – in search of clean air”, will be forwarded to the city authorities. In addition, information about the PULCHRA project appeared on the website of the municipality of Opoczno, as well as the inhabitants of the town were invited to another public consultation through the project’s diagnostic tools. We have obtained a lot of interesting answers, which will certainly set the direction of our actions.

In agreement with the Regional Museum and the Municipal House of Culture in Opoczno, we are planning to organize an art competition “Green Opoczno” aimed at all residents of the town.

Currently, we are in the stage of preparing hydrangea gardens – hydrangeas are shrubs  recommended in phytoremediation, so they can be used in the process of airpurification, they can act as a”green liver” and serve as an identifier for contamination of air, and consequently soil (e.g. in acid rain). Observing the colour of hydrangea flowers and leaves, you can assess  the pH  of the soil. During the planning stage of the deployment of hydrangeas in the garden, we took the advice of specialists. In the following years,  hydrangea gardens will be used to conduct school experiments based on the core curriculum of biology, geography and chemistry on the effect of various factors on the colour of anthocyanins in flowers. We will also study the effect of water type,  soil pH, selected elements e.g. copper,  aluminum on the color of  flowers. An additional element introduced in the gardens is the preparation of two shields with the PULCHRA project logo and the school logo as part of the sponsorship. We also plan to raise our own funds for the purchase of benches for the garden that significantly enhances the aesthetic value in this part of the school yard. The total amount of the planned investment is estimated at PLN  4633.5.

On June 23rd,2021,  Microsoft Teams will hold a meeting  summarizing the activities of all five Polish schools involved in the project. You can say after Henryk Sienkiewicz “We feel that these little deeds are needed”.

Congratulations to the whole team!!!

Prezentacja PULCHRA 23 CZERWCA

http://lozeromski.opoczno.pl/pulchra/

http://www.facebook.com/lozeromskiopoczno/

http://zdjecia.interia.pl/galeria,gcsi,9FD5CFC57CADA4D357AFB80DA85684489ABFDFB8#/

http://zieloneopoczno.gridw.pl/

http://www.opoczno.pl/aktualnosci/n,205362,razem-dla-opoczna-w-poszukiwaniu-czystego-powietrza.html

http://forms.gle/PMh4kDrDVcL7rVa4A

http://zdjecia.interia.pl/galeria,gcsi,5462C74FCB182B74E9D018483413E90D99934312#/

http://zdjecia.interia.pl/galeria,gcsi,9D3E030EB58F2161570DC15C5A0BD6EB86605EA1#/

http://zdjecia.interia.pl/galeria,gcsi,1B5DFFBC405A70983905BF36F6F29C6C949AEC13#/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0hwfathpk