Erasmus projects (2022-2024 and 2024-2026) of the lower secondary schools of Ylivieska
Students got to know biodiversity in the mobility in Finland!
Before the mobility students got to know what biodiversity means and at the same time they learned some vocabulary. Students made a presentation about biodiversity in general and in Finland. During the mobility, learned facts were compared, when presentations were presented to other participating countries. In this task students also learned presentation skills. Students also estimated their connection to nature. Let´s see, if their connection have changed at the end of the week...
Biodiversity presentations going on during the first day of the mobility.
The first day of the mobility was all about getting to know the school, other people etc. Students had planned different activies and they also got a group work: which group will build the tallesta snowman. This was a real challenge, because snow wasn´t so mouldable - we had some minus degrees on Monday. The winner group was rewarded with chocolade!
Students building a very tall snowman in groups.
On Tuesday students had the chance to go to a Finnish forest and study the biodiversity of the forest. Measurements were made with different parameters that typically tell about biodiversity. Measurements were made in at two different forest areas. As a result students learned how to do scientific observations in boreal forest. They also learn which things increase biodiversity in boreal forest and what makes a forest worth protecting. The results of the measurements were used in another task during the mobility.
Observing the parameters of biodiversity in boreal forest.
On Tuesday evening we also had a Culture night, were students presented their own cultural features of their country. Presentations were this time "tongue twisters" and this was a lot of fun! Students also had some music performances and traditional food from each participating country were served during. Parents and families were also welcome to the culture night.
Finnish songs were presented by the Kaisaniemi school band.
Students and their families were invited to Culture Night.
On Wednesday students started their main task for the week: a joint exhibition about biodiversity at the local library. In this activity students studied more closely biodiversity or some phenomenon that is related to it. Students learned for example about extinctions, how climate change and consumption affects biodiversity and how ecological and social wellbeing are linked together. Students didn't learn just facts, but they had to think again about their own connection to nature through different creative tasks like poems and picture collages. Work continued on this task also on Thursday and Friday. On Friday the exhibiotion was set up at the library. City mayor Maria Sorvisto and the head of the education department of Ylivieska Eija Saarela visited at the exhibiotion. Thank you for the visit!
Maria Sorvisto and Eija Saarela visited at the exhibition.
During the week students also had the chance to visit at the Museum ofNatural Sciences in Kokkola and had some fun sledging, skiing and skating or just spending time together. Families took visitors also to different places in Ylivieska and the surroundings. Students also had the chance for ice hole swimming. And of course they went to sauna
The whole week was a success! Student made a wonderful exhibition at the library. This exhibition is on display also at Kaisaniemi and Taanila school after library. It is possible also to put on display at our partner school (Gamca, Bratislava; Ernst-Ludwig-Schule, Bad Nauheim; IES Candas, Candas). Students thought that they learned new things about biodiversity and especially how to measure biodiversity. They also learned about different European cultures and improved their language skills. Students estimated that their connection to nature increased during the mobility week!
Thank you visitors, teachers and everyone who participated! We will miss all our guests and hope to see you soon!
Student mobility to Gamca was great!
Before the trip students prepared for the mobility by studying human rights (today and before) and global and local issues concerning human rights. Students also got to know each other with a common task where they had to present themselves before the trip and prepared a presentation about Finland.
The mobility was a success! On Monday students got tips how to make a good presentation and visited at the representation of the European Commission in Slovakia (Bratislava), where they got information about how EU works and what EU does to promote wellness and equality. The staff of the representation of European Comission gave a presentation and they also answered to questions. In the afternoon students got to know the city of Bratislava.
On Tuesday students got to know each other better and prepared their group works. They started working first with different tasks and the first goal was to get the group work well. After this warming up students started to work with their real projects: their task was to create a game with different options. Topic of the project was of course wellbeing, interaction and equality. On Tuesday afternoon students also presented typical things from their countries in the culture afternoon. Students tasted traditional and delicious food from each country.
On Wednesday there was a folk art workshop at the Centre of Folk Art Production, where students enjoyed with glass painting, braiding, metal work or felting. Students also played and presented a walking theathre about Velvet revolution in Slovakia. This was a very informative and interesting part of Slovakias history.
On thursday students visited the UN Refugee Agency in Bratislava and learned about their work and what it is like to be a refugee. With VR-glasses students had an opportunity to life the life of a refugee for a while. In the afternoon students had sports: dancing, football, etc.
Friday was already the last working day! On Friday students finished their group works and presented them to each others. One work was selected as the best game! After all the work students got their certificates - this was the final thing during the week. But in addition to the daytime program, students also had time in the evenings to be with their host families, to get to know each other and spend time with each other and visit several places in Bratislava. We even managed to visit Christmas market - it was wonderful!
Thank you GAMCA for this great visit!
Club activities in the autumn 2024
Students have dealt these difficult topics through different kinds of group works and creativity. First they made superhero images that described their hopes and feelings concerning the Agenda 2030 goals. Superheros would fight against problems that our students were most concerned.
Superhero images were presented during Erasmus week in October. During the week there were also other activities that made Erasmus+ visible at school.
At the end of November students visited to Bratislava, Slovakia with German and Spanish students. They prepared to the visit by getting to know different kind of organisations that work on the topic wellnes and equality and getting to now what kind of problems there are in Finland or in Ylivieska concerning these same topics.
The last gathering in the autumn was in December and then students prepared slovakian potato pancakes and also finnish ginger bread. The Erasmus Club continues in January and in February we will have visitors from the participating countries in Ylivieska!
New school year - new project starts!
During this project we interact and work with three different schools:
- Ernst-Ludwig-Schule, Bad Nauheim, Germany
- Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria de Candás, Candás, Spain and
- Gamča (Gymnázium), Bratislava, Slovakia
Some students from Erasmus Club will have a chance to travel to Bratislava in November. Students from Bad Nauheim, Candás and Bratislava will visit in Ylivieska in February.
Backround for the project:
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) aim to take equal account of the environment, the economy and the human person. The UN Sustainable Development Goals apply to all UN member states. The goal is to create a circle of positive action, commitment and collaboration that allows for a big leap towards sustainable development. One of the challenges for Agenda 2030 is to make distant goals a reality for citizens so that they find incentives and meaningful ways to participate in their daily lives. The goals of sustainable development emphasize three areas: the economy, well-being and the environment. THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org)
Goals of the Agenda 2030 are challenged by the megatrends of this era. Megatrends describe the change - often on a global level - and are expected to continue to be the same. Suggested megatrends of the year 2023 are 1) Nature’s carrying capacity is eroding, 2) Well-being challenges are growing, 3) The battle for democracy intensifies, 4) Competition for digital power gears up and 5) The economic foundations are cracking. Megatrends 2023 - Sitra
Students need support in developing knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that can guide them towards ethical and responsible actions in the umpredictible future. They also need to develop their creativity to help guide humanity towards a bright future. This project “Influencers of the 2050” supports young people to
1) challenge assumptions about the future,
2) to plan a desirable future and
3) to act and influence the future.
The project Influencers of the 2050 is based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and megatrends of the year 2030. The project is also connected to the fourth goal of the UN Sustainable Development: Good education. The project will focus in particular on the following UN Sustainable Development Goals that are connected to the megatrends of 2023: Goals 3, 5 , 8-11, 13-17
Last gathering before summer holiday 14.5.2024
Bratislava, Slovakia 14.-20.4.2024 Responsible Consumption - clothing, clothing waste, consumption, shopping, recycling
In April 2024, eight students were in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, with two teachers. Their target was to join German, Spain and Slovak students and learn about responsible consumption. Students stayed at their host families all the week and studied in their school. The first day students made their presentation of sustainable consumption and food waste and fast fashion. The other days they had many preworks and workshops about the same subjects at the school. They made for example homemade candles, soaps, beeswax and bux hotels. They also had a fashion show using recycled clothes different ways.
In the evening students played frisbee, laser tag, shopping and just hanged around together. The last day we were walking at the beautiful old city and after that we had escape room play in the old city. On the tour around the city students got to know some history of the old Bratislava.
A visit to the Vestia waste treatment plant (20.2.2024)
Thank you Vestia!
Measuring food waste and celebrating friendships (16.2.2024)
This week we also had a litte Valentine´s day (in Finland it is "friendship´s day") gathering, where we thought good things about our Erasmus friends with some juice and good cake!
Erasmus starts to plan new mobility (16.1.2024)
The topic of the mobility is sustainable consumpition and production. Our Erasmus students will prepare three different presentations, which will be presented in Bratislava. Presentations will deal with 1. Basic things about sustainable consumption, supply and demand, fair trade etc. including a presentation of a local waste treatment plant, 2. A campaign to minimize food waste at school AND an interview/questionnaire about food waste, recycling clothes and cutting down textile waste, and 3. National costumes (different variations, production, development, use then and now) and sami costumes in Finland.
Before all this we finished a beautiful Erasmus sign at Taanila school. Kaisaniemi school will have it´s own sign later.
Last gathering before christmas (11.12.2023)
Happy holidays!
Having a good time and remembering Germany! (13.11.2023)
Bad Nauheim, Germany - how to live a healthy and sustainable life (14.10.2023)
Week started with some warming up activities in the gym. Students also had the chance to get to know the school and the city of Bad Nauheim.
Making images about Erasmus! Here you can see Erasmus+.
On the tour around the city students got to know some history of the old spa city Bad Nauheim and some current points of sustainable development.
The trip was very versatile and interesting. Students practiced processing and interpreting emotions in a poetry workshop and got to know how Frankfurt airport aims to be carbon free. Leisure time was not forgotten either: students spent time at the city (Bad Nauheim and Frankfurt), went to see ice-hockey game or had fun in trampoline park or climbing park!
Climbing park was fun but little scary!
We also had fun in the traditional Culture night where there were served food from different countries and performed some dances or presentations.
Flags of the participating countries - Finland, Germany and Slovakia - made from fruits and vegetables.
During the week in Bad Nauheim students learned several new things and had the chance to practice their language skills. All in all, the trip gave a lot of new experiences and new friends!
Erasmus Club prepares different assignments for the learning week in Germany (2.10.2023)
This semester some of the members of the Erasmus Club will travel to Germany, Bad Nauheim and Slovakia, Bratislava. First trip is to Germany and we started to get to know the country and the school and prepared different works for the trip. Some students made a video about Kaisaniemi school, some prepared a presentation about addictions in Finland and in Ylivieska and some made a Kahoot!-game about Finland. A questionnary about substances and substance use was made for Kaisaniemi and Taanila secundary school students and the answers were used in the presentation.
Questionnary template about substance use in Ylivieska secundary schools (in Finnish)
Presentation about substances and substance use
Wow - this autumn has been full of work!
Erasmus is back!
End of the school year is near (10.5.2023)
Our projects for this year were:
- presentations about our schools (presented by the teachers in Bratislava teacher´s meeting in October 2022)
- posters/presentations about our partner schools (to screens and to walls)
- presenting ourselves in a slide show (appearance, hobbies, family etc.) for our partner students
- Ylivieska News: pre-work for the Erasmus week in Finland
- for the news students interviewed professor Markku Ollikainen, made a questionnary about sustainable living for the whole school and got to know how climate change effects to Finland
- Erasmus week in Finland 6.-10.2.2023
- Meeting with the researher: docent Harri Mattila tols about his work and Finnish waters.
- Water in Finland: pre-work for the Erasmus week in Spain
- for the presentation students got to know the characteristics of Finnish natural waters and drinking water and found out how our waters are protected
- Erasmus week in Spain 17.-21.4.2023
We have also had good time with our friends: we baked some Christmas cookies before Christmas and after Erasmus week in Spain we made some spanish style food: vegetable and tuna empanadas, cucumber gazpacho soup and churros! Delicious!
Europe Day 9.5.2023
Badajoz, Spain - the importance of water (17.-21.4.2023)
We learnt how climate change is making the lack of the water worse, how allochthonous species, like camelette, has filled the river Guidana and how difficult and expensive it is to get rid off it. We also did some water research and learnt about Spanish culture, made new friends and spent an unforgettable and hot week in Spain.
Our next issue is water! (1.3.2023)
On wednesday 29.3 students will have an online meeting with scientist Harri Mattila from HAMK. He will tell us more about waters and water research.
All the information gathered will be presented in Badajoz, Spain, where our next Erasmus meeting will be in April. Eight students and two teachers will travel to Badajoz to learn more about water situation in Spain. The topic water is connected to sustainable development goal number 6: Clean water and sanitation. Also the goal 3: Good health and well being will be connected to the week.
First student meeting in Ylivieska (6-10.2.2023)
The first student mobility of this project was held in Ylivieska, Finland on 6th-10th February 2023. Eight students from Bratislava, Slovakia travelled to Finland with their teachers. Because either Spanish or Portuguese students were not able to come to Finland, students from Bad Nauheim (Ernst-Ludwig-Schule), Germany had the chance to join the project.
Students had prepared to the mobility in abvance and they performed presentations on the topic climate change after some warming up activies at Kaisaniemi school. During the week students acted - as active citizens do - against climate change, but also had the chance to relax with each other and to ease their (possible) climate anxiety.
Students planned and implemented a peaceful demonstration against climate change in Ylivieska. Demonstration was held by snowmen.
One of the demonstrating snowmen.
Students also had the chance to participate in citizen science research Talviseuranta (Winter follow-up), which gathers information about snow situation and different animal around Finland. After this activity students also studied how nordic animals survive during winter and how climate change will affect to them.
Making measurements to Talviseuranta civil science research.
Students also participated in a Climate Action Summit Simulation. This was a roleplay where students had to adapt to their roles as important decision makers in the world and to make decisions to mitigate climate change. Real data was used in the simulation model En-ROADS. As a result the increase of the temperature was limited to 1.8 degrees celsius compared to pre-industrial levels!
In addition students also enjoyed Finnish nature; skating, skiing, sledging and frying sausages by camp fire was part of mobility´s cultural experince in Finland. These activies also helped students to get to know each other and Finnish culture, but they also showed how you can relax in the nature with little effort.
The whole group: students and teachers from Finland, Germany and Slovakia.
Working and waiting for the Erasmus week in Finland (24.1.2023)
One group made first a questionnaire about sustainability and climate change for the students of Kaisaniemi and Taanila schools. They gathered all the answers and presented the results in the "news".
Other group interviewed professor Markku Ollikainen, who is also the chairman of the Finnish Climate Change panel. Interview was recorded and some parts were also added to the students own news broadcast.
The finished Ylivieska news will be presented as a pre-work during the Erasmus week in Finland in February.
There are over 30 members in Erasmus Club in Ylivieska (20.12.2022)
Erasmus Club is open for all students at age 13-15 in Ylivieska. From the beginning of the autumn semester over 30 students have been regularly at the club. The main point is of course to meet new friends from Europe, but at the same time students want to practice their skills and knowledge.
Our Erasmus Club has been very active - on the project Active Citizen! - and they have made presentations about their schools (Kaisaniemi and Taanila), they have got to know the project partners (countries and school) and presented theirselves. They have also learned about eco-anxiety and their own feelings towards huge environmental issues. But students have also had fun: the last club before christmas we baked Finnish ginger breads!
Now Erasmus Club members are planning and working for the student meeting in Ylivieska. They are waiting for their guest impatiently!