On Monday at 8 o´clock, our mobility started. At the beginning, the headmistress Mrs. Melicherová welcomed the students and teachers from the partners schools and wished them a time full of unforgettable experiences, new knowledge and lifelong friendships. Then we had a quick school tour, organized by the Slovak team, during which we visited different rooms, e.g. the physics room or the gym, biology and chemistry laboratory, computer rooms. After that, we had our school presentations about the problems of climate change in our region and the actions we carry out in our small school communities to at least partially mitigate the impacts of climate change. The French students prepared a short summary of activities from the last mobility in France and a Kahoot! quiz to learn unknown facts about their country.
Then our scientific input started with a lecture by Mr. Dr. Robert Kanka, Ph.D., who is Head of Department of Ecological Analyses, Institute of Landscape Ecology SAS. In his presentation with the topic “Alpine vegetation as a unique tool for monitoring climate change”, he introduced us “Gloria”, which is GLobal Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments.
Through photos from the research areas, we learned many interesting facts about the work of researchers in the field, which is often dangerous and very unstable, as well as information necessary for the subtopic of our project, which is biodiversity in the conditions of climate change in mountainous areas. After this hearty lecture, we had the pleasure to taste typical Slovak food „Koložvárska kapusta“ in the school canteen. It was an interesting mixture of minced meat, rice, sauerkraut and sour cream. We were early finished with the lunch, so we had free time in school, and it was cool. Afterwards it was time for our active participation. We started the project work with a Solar System game, where we had to take the Sun for a walk around the Galaxy and visit its eight Planets. It was a bit difficult, since the Sun was hanging on long strings and our task was not to let the Sun fall under any circumstances. Because with the collapse of the Sun life on Earth ceases. As a team, we had to solve the puzzle and learn the meaning of the word “responsibility” in the global context. The next part of the teamwork was aimed at different activities, which gradually led us to the main task of the project, e.g. the carbon footprint calculations – the creation of a global action plan for schools. After a long day full of hard work and gaining new knowledge, we went back to our host families.