Take Care of Your Environment!

 
Broadcast: 15 May 2001, 11.20 - 11.40 am, BBC Radio Ulster, MW
 

 
In these three programmes, we explore some neighbouring European countries, focussing on the environment, culture and landscape.
 

 
This programme is the first in a series of three broadcasts about countries in Europe. Each programme aims to develop the geographical idea of the 'sense of place' by giving information about each of the countries and creating opportunities for development in the classroom. This programme tells us about a successful partnership between 4 schools, St. Aidan's PS, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Scoil Eoin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Maaloev School, Denmark and 6th Primary school of Ioannina, Greece all under the auspices of a Comenius project led by St.Aidan's. The partnership has explored the environment in each of the 4 countries and has looked at how each country manages and conserves the environment.

Darren and Ciarán from St. Aidan's take us on this exciting adventure and our first stop is Greece - the land of the Olympic games, strange alphabet, ancient Greek temples and heroes and of the wonderful legends of Medusa and Cyclops. We don't go the capital Athens, but to the town of Ioannina, in the north west of Greece. Here we link up with Nancy and Lena.

We learn about the flora and fauna of the wild forests of the mountains around Ioannina. Of the bears and wild goats, rare birds of prey and woodpeckers. But there are 3 major environmental problems. Nancy and Lena tell us of the problems and give us good advice on how to overcome them.
 

 
Nancy and Lena gave us good environmental advice just as the Greek language has given many words to the English language.

But no stopping, before we know it Darren and Ciarán tell us how the River Lagan in Belfast has been cleaned up and that salmon have returned to it, good environmnetal news. Just like the news from Scoil Eoin in Dublin. Scoil Eoin is just beside Bull Island on the coast in North Dublin. Bull Island is a National Nature Reserve and is the home of an amazing group of birds. It has a fantastic range of natural habitats and has a wealth of wild flowers. The pupils of Scoil Eoin have studied these communities.
 

 
Our last country that Darren and Ciarán take us to is Denmark in Scandinavia. The land of Hans Christian Andersen and of environmentally friendly people! We hear from 4 boys and girls from Maaloev school in a small town near to the capital, Copenhagen. Danish people are very aware of the fact that we must look after the environment and we get lots of good advice.
 

 
Darren and Ciarán are very impressed by all of the environmental work going on around Europe and challenge all the listeners to think about ways that they can look after their environment.
 

 
Olympic Games; legends; 'sense of place'; hydro-electric; solar cells; Hans Christian Anderson.
 

• Find Greece/Denmark/Republic of Ireland in an atlas. Use the index or contents. What continent is it in? Where is it in relation to Northern Ireland? Use the 8 points of the compass to describe its location.
• Brainstorm what the pupils know about Greece/Denmark/Republic of Ireland. Record this, and then add to it after the programme.
• Has anybody ever visited Greece/Denmark? If so what was it like? Where did they go to? What type of food did they eat? What was the weather like?
• What does it mean to be 'environmentally friendly'?

 
These activities may be carried out when listening to the programme for the second time:

• Make a list of all the places mentioned in the programme.

• Mark all the places mentioned in the programme on an outline map of Europe.
• Pretend that you have gone on holidays to Greece. Write a postcard to someone at home describing what sights you have visited, what you have seen and what the weather has been like. Remember to draw a picture on the front of the postcard.
• Pretend that you have gone on holidays to Denmark. Write a postcard to someone at home describing what sights you have visited, what you have seen and what the weather has been like. Remember to draw a picture on the front of the postcard.
• Split the class into groups and give each group a topic related to the study of Greece/Denmark e.g. Greek legends, Olympic games, Hans Christian Andersen, capital cities etc. Each group researches the topic, selects what information they want to use and then decides how to present it. It is the task of each group to produce one A3 page only on their topic. These pages can then be part of a wall display or made into a 'Big Book'.
• Find out all about the Olympic Games, where and how they originated and where and when the next games will be. Make "An Amazing Olympic Fact File". Children can collect all sorts of facts about the Olympics - the Guinness book of records is good for this. Present it as a 'did you know' book or poster. This is a good research homework activity.
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in Greece/Denmark and Northern Ireland? Complete the worksheet giving both points of view.
• Create a database of Country Facts based on this series of Today & Yesterday. First of all, fill in each of the fields for Northern Ireland and then do the same for Denmark, for example. This can be added to whenever a new country is studied. This also makes a great wall display. Make a large grid, the size of a classroom notice board, with each of the fact boxes being at least A4 size. Each group can then supply the information on an A4 sheet that can be easily pinned into place.
• IT activity: Using the Internet, find out about the weather in Greece/Denmark. Write the script for a weather forecast, just as you would hear on radio. Now be a weather presenter and make a tape recording of the forecast.
• IT activity: Using the Internet, find out about the weather in Greece/Denmark. Now using word processing skills, write a weather forecast, just as you might read in a newspaper. If possible add a weather map using cut and paste skills.
• Draw graphs of weather information such as average monthly rainfall or temperature. This could be done using a software package or hand drawn.
• There are many famous Greek legends. Read one of these to the class.
• What is hydro electricity? Make a simple model that can be powered by water power. Find out about the hydro-electric dam at Ballyshannon, Ireland.
• How many Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales can you list - there are 168 of them! Who was he and when did he live?
• Retell one of Hans Christian Andersen's tales in your own words or dramatise it.
• Study the habitat of your school grounds. Observe a small area within a frame, such as a small PE hoop, and record all the plants and animals that you see in it. Identify them using guide books. By doing this you will build up a picture of the habitat of your school grounds. From this information you will also be able to work out if there things you could do to encourage wildlife into the school grounds eg. a logpile for insects, planting trees.
• How green is your school? Survey your school, recording your results on the 'schoolmeter'.
• Are there environmental improvements that could be made to your school? If so, carry one out.
• Visit a nature reserve or parkland and carry out the same framing and identification exercise. How do the two habitats compare?
• Choose a creature from each of the habitats and make a large drawing of it. Make a large wall display of the habitat with all the drawings.
• Find as many different grasses as you can and make grass rubbings of them on the same piece of paper. Try overlapping the rubbings to give the effect of a meadow.
• People in Denmark save water when they can. Carry out an investigation: How much water do we need to clean our teeth/wash our hands? Test with running water and without and then measure the amounts used.
• In Greece there is a problem with litter. Carry out a litter survey of your school grounds. Use a map of the grounds and different groups survey different areas for litter before and after break and lunch times. Are there particular areas and times for litter? How could this be solved?
• Car sharing is one way of reducing pollution. Find out about how many cars are owned by the families in your class. Also, where do their parents travel to work each day and do they share cars?
• Carry out an eco-survey of what food items are in pupils' lunchboxes and how they are wrapped e.g. tinfoil, plastic bag, cling film etc. Talk through the different packaging for each item. How can it be re-used or recycled? Can packaging be more environmentally friendly? Pupils use the worksheet to draw items and their packaging for the most environmentally friendly lunchbox ever. They should label each item with a sentence showing why it is 'green'.

 
WORKSHEETS

 
Click on the arrows below to download worksheets for this programme.